How you can make a toy boat that really floats

These toy boats really float, and would be perfect for a preschool unit, or high school science experiments in buoyancy.

The other day I wanted a couple of quick, cheap toy boats that would float. We were headed out out to our favorite puddle. Both of my little ones LOVE stomping back and forth through the puddle, and I love that their naps usually happen in a timely manner afterward.  However, our last puddle day had ended with swimming, and it's still a little chilly for that, even here in Alabama. So,to encourage wading in the puddle, I made a quick toy.

When we lived in an apartment and weren't fortunate to own our own puddle, I'd put my children in their bathing suits, and let them play in the bath on rainy days. These boats would work great there too!

Fun simple machine project that anyone can teach

Use every day materials to teach basic engineering concepts with this fun home made toy. 

Today we have an awesome guest post from Christy at Engineer to Stay at Home Mom. If you haven't tried making home made toys before, this would be a great first project, and I love how she connects science objectives to real life.

Do It Yourself Counting Practice for Toddlers

Do you put the egg shells back in the carton or throw them away directly? We always threw them away when I was growing up, so that is what I do. My husband likes to put the back in the carton. I guess there isn't any harm in it. Although, I did write a note on the last few cartons, asking him to keep them clean. I really wanted to work on some counting with our two-year-old, and egg cartons would make the perfect container to use on her toy shelf. 

Bottle Toss: Fun and the Physics of Flight

Today, I have another junk play post to share.  T-Rex invented this game and both he and his sister really enjoyed it. If you have elementary kids, this would be a great activity to pull out for some after school fun.  You'll be sneaking some great physics too!

Materials for "bottle throw"

Conditioner bottle

String (We used our clothesline)

Water (Optional)

The goal of the game is to catch the bottle and then throw it back over the line, in the yard, without your opponent catching the bottle.

This is a nice demonstration of standard projectile motion.  However, you also get the added complexity of a rotating object instead of a point.

The Pony Artist added a variation which includes a second bottle.  The goal is to hit your opponent's bottle and knock it back onto their side of the string.

This is a beautiful momentum and collision demonstration.

Finally, I suggested adding some water to the bottle.  I asked what difference they observed. They noticed that the bottle did not go as high.  Equal force with greater mass results in less acceleration.

I did not spend much time discussing physics with my kids.  In fact, it would have been just as well if I had not discussed any at all.  They were learning just the same.  These experiences of basic play where children experience how the world works first hand are incredibly valuable.  They are building the background knowledge that they will pull from as they study science formally in the years to come.  

 An occupational therapist would have her own list of reasons that this play is useful.  Active, hands on play is extremely valuable.  The best news is, all you need are simple objects, some of which you were going to discard anyway.

For more great ideas on how to use your junk for play, check out the Junk Play Challenge hosted by Best Toys 4 Toddlers.

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Toy Car Physics Unit

How to make your own constellations

We love looking at the night sky.  If your child is interested in space, or you would like them to be, here is a fun project that brings the heavenly bodies a little closer home. It was also a good way to sneak in some fine motor practice.

Materials:

A polystyrene (styrofoam) tray--Ours come with squash.

Tooth picks

Pictures of the constellations in your night sky

To get our constellation pictures, I used the Star Chart app on my phone.  Have you sen this?  You can just point your phone at the sky and it fills in the pictures the constellations represent.  Snap a screen shot, and you have a picture of the exact constellation you are studying.

If you don't have access to Star Chart, you can do a quick image search, and come up with a printable picture. (If you are using this in a group setting check the copy rights.)

Then just print out the photo, and lay it it over the tray.

Use a tooth pick to punch out the designs. 

After doing a few real constellations, my kids decided to "make up" some constellations of their own.

Holding the trays against the window gives the effect of stars shining in the night sky.

This post is part of the 60 Day Junk Play Challenge.  Be sure to check out the other great activities being done with items from the junk pile, and try a few with your own kids!

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New Year Party Challenge and How to Make a Binary Abacus

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones! Here is a New Year's coding challenge in case you would like to use it for your New Year's Eve Party.  You may want to put together an easy binary abacus to have on hand to help your guests solve the riddle.

New Year Coding Challenge

The challenge is simple: Write out the new year in Binary. Computers are going to be processing the new year in a number composed of just one's and zero's. Computers are composed of tiny circuits which are either on or off.  On circuits equal a "1."  Off circuits equal a "0".  Those two digits compose the most basic computer language called "Binary".   

Just like our normal ten digit system, the first number in binary is 1.  However, since binary only uses the digits "1" and "0", the second number is "10" with one in the second place, instead of "2".  

Sound confusing?  Don't worry.  Just put together this easy binary abacus and you will be able to explain how binary works so well that even your elementary student will understand. 

How to make a binary abacus

Materials for making a Binary Abacus:

Card board box (left over from Christmas?)

Sharp object to poke a hole.  I used a skewer.

String

Pony Beads

Marker to write on the box.

Index cards

Tape

To get started, poke holes to thread the string about an inch apart, along the top of the box.

Knot the string on the inside of the box so that it does not pull through to the front of the box.

Place one bead on the first string on the right, and knot the string so that it stays put. (I used green.)  On the second string from the right, place two beads.  Move to the left, placing twice as many beads on each successive string.

Once you have the strings attached with the beads threaded, use your marker to add zeroes under each string.  

At this point you have a binary abacus that would work well for explaining how the binary works. Unless you string more beads than I did, it will not quite calculate the new year, however.

My last string had sixty-four beads. That is about as many as most of us will be able to remember and count.

When I moved around the corner, I took a short cut, and wrote the number of beads the string should have on an index card and taped it to the string.  Now we are ready to calculate the New Year in Binary!

How to Use the Binary Abacus to Calculate the New Year

To figure out what "normal" number is represented by the abacus, count the number of beads showing.  In the picture below, there are three total beads showing, so this is the number "3".  The binary number is represented by ones in each place where a string is hanging down.  So, the binary number in the picture below is "11".

Unused strings should be placed inside the box.  Those place values are represented by "0".  My son was pretty interested in learning how to do a computer language.   It dawned on him that this was also a math exercise though too.  Adding up the number of beads was a good review for him, and the place value practice was a great warm up for math he will cover soon.

Can you figure out what number is represented in this picture?  How would you write it in binary?

That's right!  There are ten beads, so the "normal" number is 10.  By looking at which positions have strings hanging down, we can see that the binary number is 1010. Wherever a string is hanging down, we put a "1".  In the empty places we put a "0".  Just like normal math, you can ignore all the extra zeros on the left.

You can see that my daughter was busy figuring out her age in binary.  The number showing in the picture is seven, written as 111 in binary. Another fun challenge would be counting to twenty.

Which brings us back to our original challenge: write the new year in binary!

There are several ways you can attack this problem.  I recommend starting with the number 1024, and figuring out what combination of other numbers you need to add to it to come out with 2015.  Add 512, then 251.  Keep going until you know which strings are needed.  Nothing but simple addition and trial and error.

You may want to check out this interesting page about math to learn more about binary.

Happy New Year!

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(Chaos Theory for Kids!)

Ocean habitat lesson that your children will love

The other day the Pony Artist found a box of shells I had been saving.  She spent most of an hour just looking, then announced that she had thought of a great activity to share with you! The result was an amazing sensory play set. Here's how you can set up this lesson for your kids as well.

(This post does not include affiliate links as originally written, but I may add them in the future.)

Why Do Boats Float? PLUS, Ten Easy Ways to Make Toy Boats

Boats are fascinating.  There is something surreal about leaving the land behind and traveling across the water.  It is intriguing that all that weight, which would otherwise sink to the bottom of the ocean, floating because of the boat.  I have ten ways for you to make your own boat from pantry items, but first, Could you explain to your preschooler, Why do boats float?

How to Satisfy Screen Time Craving Without a Screen

"Mom!  Can I watch a video?" Screen time is one of the major issues facing conscientious parents .  Our children love to watch videos and play electronic games. So do we.  However, we also know that too much screen time can damage them physically, socially, and mentally.  What should you do about the screen time question?

My husband recently made an off handed comment that changed the way I think about my children's request for screen time.  He said, "You know, it's just relaxing to watch."  

Around the same time I read Dayna's article at Lemon Lime Adventures explaining how some children need more visual stimulation than others.  It dawned on me that my children's requests for screen time might actually be an expression of their need for visual stimulation. I remembered watching rain drops on the window pane as a child.  It was mesmerizing.


It makes sense.  The human brain is wired to take in stimulation from the environment. Naturally, it wants to see things that are complex and beautiful.    I watched as my older two children were captivated by the fluid sensory bottle I put together for my seven month old.  (Get directions to make your own fluid filled sensory bottle from Lemon Lime Adventures). They were both attracted to it for hours. Children are born scientists, and their brains are wired to detect patterns in the environment.

Join your child in enjoying a fluid sensory bottle.

Fluid filled sensory bottles are a great way to study several kinds of science.  You can also use them to demonstrate chaos theory.   Chaos theory is probably most famous for its role in predicting weather patterns and the likelihood of climate change.  It can also be applied to economics, traffic patterns, or sensory bottles.

Start by encouraging your child to move the bottle back and forth in a slow rhythmic pattern, so that the fluid inside moves predictably from side, to side, and back again.  This is an example of harmonic motion.  The fluid moves between the same boundaries, over and over again.

Next, tell him too speed up a little.  The harmonic pattern becomes a bit more scattered, but is still predictable.  In terms of chaos theory, this is called transition.  Depending on the dynamics of your bottle, steady patterns may come and go as your child shakes the bottle faster and faster.

Finally, encourage your child to shake the bottle with all of his energy.  Even when shaking their hardest, most people will tend to shake the bottle at a set speed and to a set height.  Why then do the particles begin to move in a way that appears chaotic?  It is not random.  In reality, the fluids are responding in a mathematically predictable way to the increase in motion. The fascinating thing is that although the short range movement can be predicted mathematically, there is no way to predict where the particles will go over the long term.  This is a small model of Chaos Theory.

Why explain advanced math to your child?

You may wonder why pointing out chaotic phenomena to your child is something to do in the first place.  I find chaos theory hard to grasp.

However, just like children learn to name triangles before they are ready to count the sides and corners, recognizing advanced mathematical patterns, like Chaos, will prepare your children to analyze their world in more complex ways in the future.

Your child's brain is naturally seeking to experience complicated beautiful things.  Chaos is a natural, complicated, beautiful thing.  By providing solutions like a fluid filled sensory bottle and reveling together in the complexity it contains, you help your child fill their visual sensory needs in a healthy, beneficial way.

Today I am excited to be joining Decoding Everyday Kid Behaviors, a project where bloggers are talking about sensory needs in celebration the grand opening of Project Sensory.  All kids have sensory needs, and the desire for screen time is just one manifestation.  Be sure to take a look at what the other teachers and parents have learned, and check out the Project Sensory site as well!

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At Thriving STEM, accuracy is our goal.  If you believe there is a technical error in this, or any post, kindly leave a correction in the comments.

Easy Windsock Project for Kids

Pony Artist loves the beautiful windsocks people put in their yards.  When I offered the chance for her to make her own she was extremely excited.

Materials:  Plastic shopping bag

                 Crayon

                 Rubber bands (from produce)

                 Large twisty tie. (also from produce)

                 Foam 

                 Hot glue gun

                 Heavy paper

First, she used the crayon to color the bag.  

Then she cut up some pink foam to use as a decoration.  Initially, she asked for paper.  It was a great opportunity to talk about what would happen to paper in the rain, and discuss what material best suited our project.

The Pony Artist showed me where she wanted the foam, and I used the hot glue gun to attach it.  We put the newspaper in the middle to keep the sides of the bag from sticking together.

On one side she chose a random design.

On the other side she decided to glue a piece of foam on each letter.   We talked about the sounds as we worked.

When we finished, she cut off the bottom of the bag.  I glued rubber bands on two edges.

Using the twisty tie we attached the bag to a bamboo pole in our garden.

Now, the Pony Artist enjoys going outside to check the wind speed.  This windsock picks up the slightest breeze, a rewarding result!

At our stage, this is a great weather study tool.  For older kids, calibrating the windsock to actual wind speeds would be a fun extension.

Each month we look forward to project Recycle!Create!  where we use a common material to do a project with or for our kids.  It is a great opportunity to build environmental awareness by slowing down to notice how useful the things we throw away can be.  It also can be a great way to talk about the composition(chemistry!) of different materials.

Learn more about Project Recycle !Create!.

Or link up your own shopping bag project.

An InLinkz Link-up