Tag: activities

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Activity: Studying Buoyancy

You will Need:
  • bottles with caps (same size) 
  • large container of water (a bathtub will do)
1 Fill one bottle with water and cap it.  Put the cap on the other bottle. 
    a) Which one weighs more?
     b) What is the second bottle filled with?
 
2 Place both bottles in the water. 
    a) What happens?

3 Let some of the water out of the first bottle.  Put it back in the water.
    a) Now what happens?  Try it with various levels of water.

4 Go through your house and find various objects.  Ask yourself if they will float or sink.  Then see if they do. 
    a) What did you notice about the things that floated? 
    b) Did some things that are heavy float while some things lighter than them sank? 
    c) Did it depend on the shape of the object?

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Activity: Measuring Rainfall

This one is for young children, early elementary age. Let us know how your children enjoyed this activity!

Equipment Needed:
Narrow plastic bottle with flat bottom.
Coffee can, larger than the plastic bottle.
Waterproof pen, or masking tape.
Ruler.
Small rocks or gravel.

Procedure:
1.  Cut the top off of the bottle.  Turn the top upside down and rest it inside the bottom of the bottle.  This will act as a funnel, though it isn’t really necessary. 

2.  Make a scale in centimeters and one in inches on the masking tape using the ruler as a guide. 

3.  Place the rain gauge inside the coffee can.  The coffee can will keep it from getting knocked over. 

4.  Put some rocks in the coffee can around the rain gauge to help weight the can down. 

5.  Place the can outside, away from trees or shrubs.  You want to make sure that only rain can fall into your gauge.

6.  After it rains, take the bottle out of the can and measure how much rain has fallen.

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Free Days at the Denver Botanical Gardens

Any Colorado homeschoolers out there?  Free admission at the Denver Botanical Gardens happens 9 more times this year, with the next one being next Friday, May 7th.  Check out the upcoming dates here and begin planning your summer field trip!  Friday is also the Spring Plant Sale, check out the other upcoming events here.

Nature study activities you might consider:

  • Bring your nature notebooks or field journals and make sketches of what you find in bloom.  Include the common name and scientific name of the plants you sketch, along with the date and the weather conditions.
  • Go on a plant and flower scavenger hunt with pre-prepared lists or a field guide.
  • If you are planning a garden this season, use the high-altitude database to research what to plant and where and how to plant it.
  • Observe the ecosystem:  make note of what wildlife you see (birds, insects, squirrels,…) and identify what they are eating and how they fit into the ecosystem of the gardens.
  • Use the opportunity to learn some vocabulary before you go, especially for the younger set not studying biology or botany just yet.  Deciduous, evergreen, perennial, annual, root, stem, stamen, pistil, leaf, pollen.  Pull out a botany or biology text for the appropriate age level and make vocabulary lists to define in advance and then find when you get there.
  • Prepare a unit study on gardening.  Kick it off with a field trip, then continue to use your own garden as a place of learning throughout the year (or the growing season!)

Do you have any suggestions on how you have used gardening in your home school to study science?  Post them for us!