Mad Scientists Day 1

The first day of Mad Science Camp was more fun than should be allowed at school!

This morning we learned about scientists and how they protect themselves when they are conducting experiments.  

We got our PPE on just in time to begin our first experiment with water cubes.  

We took turns pouring warm water in each bowl and began the long process of watching and waiting, otherwise known as patient observation!

Our focus today was physics.  We used these BIG words with the children and they caught on quickly. Our big project of the day was rocket building.

We used empty mini m&m containers and decorated them with tape and stickers. 

After snack, we went outside to launch them.  We poured a little water in the tube, dropped the bath tub fizzy in and snapped the top back on.  Then we ran for it!

The anticipation was more than most of us could handle!  

At first the rockets were not going very high.  We needed to regroup and make a change, just like scientists do.  We decided to try less water, and what do you know, those rockets when at least 3 feet into the air!

After our rocket launch, it was time to document and record our data in our science journals.  

We drew pictures of what happened and some wrote words to match.  W wrote, "My rocket went really high".  

Our story today was The Cat in the Hat.  That guy really knows a lot about balance and nothing about gravity!  We made our own Cat in the Hat inspired snack.  

We prepped our fruit by slicing it, then we stacked it in a pattern to match the Cat's hat.

Speaking of balance... we played a very silly game.  We had 2 dice. One listed body parts, the other objects that the Cat hat balanced in our book.  We rolled both dice and the children to balance the specified object on the specified body part.  Here E has a hat in left hand, a saucer under her chin, and her right foot on a ball.

This crew had to put a ship in their left hand, a saucer under their chins, and a ball AND a fish on their heads.  They did some serious balancing.

Our last activity of the day had us creating a group art project,SPLAT!  We tried dropping paint soaked pompoms from a variety of heights.  It was neat to see how the size of the splat changed with the height of the dropper.