Experiments in a Minute

This page contains something unique to Wonderama, our experiments for you to try. Each experiment contains enough information for a teacher, parent, or student to conduct a basic science activity. These experiments have been tested and used by Wonderama many times. They are education, successful and popular learning tools for students.

The experiments are examples of the types of activities Wonderama uses at hands-on programs and Teacher Workshops. Each experiment contains a complete list of materials, procedures, questions to answers, and a brief scientific explanation. Feel free to copy and pass these experiments on to anyone interested in science, and plese contact us with questions or problems that come up.

We know you will enjoy these as much as we have.

SOUND IN A BAG IDEA: Sound travels through air. This invisible and unseen concept is easily demonstrated through this experiment.
SUPPLIES: One battery powered radio, one plastic garbage bag, a vacuum cleaner with hose, several pillows, wire screen about 12x12 inches, and duct tape.
DIRECTIONS:

Turn on radio and tune into a station with continuous music.
Put the radio in the plastic bag.
Tape the screen into a cylinder shape and attach to the end of the nozzel on the vacuum cleaner hose.
Put the nozzel and screen into the plastic bag and seal the bag so air cannot get into or out of the bag.
If the vacuum is to loud to hear the radio, pile pillows around the vacuum to muffle the sound.

THOUGHTS: Why did the volume of the music decrease as air was pulled from the bag? Speakers in the radio produce sound through vibrations that create waves of pressure in air. the pressure wave travels through the air until it strikes our ear. We hear this pressure wave as sound. The vacuum sucks all the air from the bag and from around the speaker so that when the speaker vibrates, there is no air for it to form into a pressure wave. This proves that sound travels through air, and that it cannot travel through a vacuum.

BALLOON INFLATOR
IDEA: The bubbling, fizzing chemical reaction between vinegar and baking soada is a standard science experiment. This variation allows us to collect the gas, carbon dioxide, prouced in the reaction. It's also an easy way to inflate a balloon.
SUPPLIES: One bottle between 8 and 16 ounces in size, four or six ounces of vinegar, a balloon, 1 teaspoon of baking soda and one funnel.
DIRECTIONS:

Put vinegar into bottle
Pull the open end of the balloon over the bottom of the funnel
Pour the baking soada into the funnel and shake it down into the balloon. If the backing soda gets stuck in the neck of the balloon, use a pencil to push it into the balloon.
Connect the open end of the balloon to the top of the bottle. Keep the balloon hanging down to one side so no baking soada gets into the bottle. You now have a closed system.
Lift the balloon straigut up and shake to mix the two chemicals. What happens inside the bottle? How big does teh balloon get?
When the reaction is done hold the bottle and twist the balloon several times ot seal the base of the balloon.
Pull on the base of the balloon to remove it from the bottle.
Tie the end of the balloon to seal the gas in.
Repeat the experiments with different amounts of baking soda and vinegar. How does this affect the size of the balloon?

THOUGHTS: The gas collected in the balloon is carbon dioxide. Generally the more vinegar and baking soda you use the larger the balloon will be. You can show that carbon dioxide is probably the gas by gently releasing the gas in the balloon into a a jar with a lit candle. If enough carbon dioxide is realeased into the jar, the candle will go out because there is no oxygen left.

SCIENTIFIC METHOD
IDEA: Through science we expolore, investigate, and discover how the world works. Science is a process or method of investigation. Scientists arent the only ones who can us ethe scientific method. We all use it in our daily lives. this experiment has been designed to show students what the scientific method is and how they can use it to make better decisions. The activity is accomplished by counduction a series of experiments each morning to determine what clothes should be worn.
This experiment starts every morning off with students asking themselves "what clothes should I wear today?" From that poin on, they are involved int eh scientific method and need to follow the exerimental procedure below. Scientists and students easily forget experimental observations, so every student should record their observations soon after completing the experiment. After 2 weeks of gathering data, pool all the students' data and form a theory on wearing clothes. Students will have successfully used the scientific method and become scientists.
SUPPLIES: Notebook, pencil, thermometer, and a room full of clothes
DIRECTIONS:
the scientific method is divided into several stages or steps, incuding quesion, research, research, hypothesis, experiment, recording observations, conclusion, and theory. These stages are all used in the experimental procedure below.

Question: Each morning when a student gets up, he or she should ask themselves the following quesion, "what clothes should I wear this morning?"
Research: Consider all the data that might help answer the question. For example, consider the activities scheduled for the day; who you will see; where you will go; what the weather will be like. Are there otehr variables to consider?
Hypothesis: Use this invormation to form a possible answer to the quesion, then select the clothes that best fit your solution.
Experiment: Now test your hypothesis. Put on the clothes you've selected and go through the daily routines as planned.
Recording Data: Record the results of your experiment. Write down a description of the condisions you THOUGHT would and DID happen during the day's experiemnt (the weather, the temperature, people encountered). Write down your feelings and observations as you go through the day in the clothes you chose.
Conclusions: Examine your written data and decide if your hypothesis was correct. Were the clothes you selected the best choice or were there other selections that might have worked better? HOw would you change the selection the niext time? Recourd you answer and test your hyphtesis.
Repeat: Repeat steps 1 through 6 for a number of days and hopefully under a variety of weather conditions
Theory: Now that you have a class of students with written results for a few days, you can develop a theory by connecting several hypothesis together into a simple set of rules, or principles. When students finish, they should be able to develop a whole system for selecting clothes under different conditions.

THOUGHTS: Regular use of the scientific method can save us a lot of trouble. One spring several years ago, I flew back to Michigan after a visit to Washington DC, where the weather had been rather pleasant. I based my hypothesis for clothing on the weather in Washington DC, and had my experiment fail miserably as I walked off the plane into a cold, blowing snowstorm. What a shock! I modified my hypothesis fo avoid this problem. Students should be encouraged to do the same. Science is not hard, but fun and useful.

THE MAGIC BOTTLE
IDEA: This simple yet fun activity examines a common and important physics principle: friction. Friction is a force that can help or hurt us. A rope burn or a fall on the ice both occur because of the presence or absence of friction. Friction is a force between two objects in contact. The amount of friction depends on the material the objects are made from. For example, adjacent moving parts in a gasoline engine will heat up and cause engine damage unless a thin layer of oil separates the matal parts. Metal to metal generates a lot of friciton; metal to oil does not. This experiment involves an old magic trick where a rope "magically" suspends a bottle in the air. The trick invovles friction between bottle, rope, and clay.
SUPPLIES:one opaque 16 to 32 inch bottle with an opening about 3/4 of an inch across (perhaps a rubbing alcohol or peroxide bottle, or even a pop bottle spray painted to make it opaque). One rope about 12 inches long and about 3/8 of an inch wide. clay and a marble that fit in the opeing of the bottle.
DIRECTIONS:

Form clay into round ball slightly smaller than the bottle opening.
Put clay into bottle.
Put one end of the rope several inches into bottle and turn bottle over. The clay will fall into the opening of the bottle.
Pull gently on the rope. This will pull the clay into the opening. Friction will stick the clay and the rope in the opening.
Turn the bottle right side up and suspend it in the air by the rope.
Repeat this experiment using a marble instead of clay.

THOUGHTS: Friction holds the string to the bottle. No glue, no tape, no maagnets, just a little friction. why was it more difficult for the marble to hold the string to the bottle? This experiment can become a magic trick by adding the clay to the bottle after an examination by the audience. When the bottle is inverted and the audience says "abracadabra" or "hocus pocus" or any other magic word, the string "magically" holds up the bottle.

WHEEL RACES
IDEA: Simple machines are the basis for much of our advaced technology. Advances have occurred because new machines are combinations of simple machines, made using modern plastics and metals. Understanding how simple machines function and make work easy is important to understanding our modern world. This experiment shows students the work diferences between the use of NO machines, using a "wheel" and using a "wheel and axle" Students will explore these ideas through a series of races.
SUPPLIES:Twenty round pens, six inch wooden dowels or pencils, two 9 foot lengths of strong string, six to ten old heavy textbooks, a toy truck capable of supporting several books, and eight foot table, rubberbands, and duct tape.
DIRECTIONS:

Using student volunteers, demonstrate to the students how difficult it is to pull a pile of books across a table with a rubberband attached to the bottom book. There is no simple machine to make this easier.
Repeat this experiment using the toy truck to carry the books
Group students into teams of two and create a race schedule between teams. EAch team will race the length of one side of a table.
Set up at one end of the table, ten dowels (wheels) for each team. Place the dowels parallel to each other and about one inch apart on the table. Place an old textbook on the dowels and duct tape one end of the strong to the top of the book. Run the string to the other end of the table. Now place several more books on top of the first book. You are ready to race.
When you say "go", one student pulls the string and book across the table top. The other student moves the dowels (wheels) from the back to the front of the books. The books must NOT fall onto the table. The first student to get the front of the team's book pile over the far edge of the table is winner.

THOUGHTS:Which of the 3 ways of pulling the books was the easiest: With wheels, weels and axels, or with no machines? When pulling books across the table using dowels (wheels), who did the most work? What is the advantage of using this method? Why do we use a wheel and axle nowadays? Try substituting a rubberband for the string when racing and compare the results of all 3 experiments.

SEASONS
IDEA: Every spot on the EArth has seasons. Some places have two, while others experience four. Seasons govern much of our lives, including what we wear or what plants we can grow. This experiment examines the major reason for the seasons: the tilt in the Earth's axis as we travel around the sun.
SUPPLIES: A large round ball or globe. A beach ball at least 36 inches works best. One high intensity light. One protractor.
DIRECTIONS:

Set the ball on a table so its axis is straight up and down.
Place the light a foot or more away from the globe, so it points at what would be the equator. (Note: The distance depends on how bright the light is and how large the globe is, so some experimentation may be necessary.)
Turn the ball around it's axis to demonstrate night and day.
Place a student's hand on the globe under the light and then on the back of the globe. Which side of the globe was hotter?
Place a hand on the equator under the light and slowly slide it towards the north pole. What happens to the light side of the hand's temperature?
Tilt the northern hemisphere of the globe away from the light about 23.5 degrees (use a protractor for help). This represents the earth's actual relationship to the sun.
Put a students hand on both the northern and southern hemispheres on the lighted side of the blove. Which hand is warmer?

THOUGHTS:The sun heats the earth. There are two factors that determine how much the earth will be heated: how many hours of sunlight the earth receives and how direct the light is coming from the sun. when a hemisphere of the earth is tilted TOWARDS the sun, it receives more hours of sunlight more directly, so theat area is substantially warmed. A hemisphere tilted away from the sun has shorter days and recieves light indirectly, so it doesn not get very warm. Areas around the equator are not much affected by the tilt, so they do not have seasons as dramatic as the poles.

BALL BOUNCE
IDEA:One of the best places to use science to learn about the world is through sports. Each sport follows a specific set of rules based on the physical laws of our world. This set of experiments takes measurements from a piece of equipment used in many sprots: a ball. Sports like tennis, baseball, bowling, football, handball, and even jacks incorporate a ball into game play Every ballis unique with specific characteristics and properties designed to meet the needs of a particular sport. Measuring the bounce of the sports ball is used in thes ixperiment to identify one of its properties and gain some insight into the reasoning behind the balls' designs.
SUPPLIES: One yardstick, a team of two students, a variety of balls from different sprots: one superball, a hard tile or wood floor, carpet, loose sand.
DIRECTIONS:Two people must work as teammates in this activity. The first holds the yardstick and drops the selected sports ball, while the other carefully measures how high the ball bounces.

Select a ball and record the type on a sheet of paper.
Have the first team member hold the ruler upright in a vertical position over the hard floor, making sure the bottom of the ruler is touching the floor.
Next, have them hold the ball so the bottom of the ball is at the 36 inch mark.
The second team meber gets close to the floor and carefully watches the ball as it falls and bounces upwards. Measure the distance the bottom of the ball rises above the tile.
Record this measurement and the height the ball was dropped from.
Repeat this procedure 3 times with each type of ball and record all measurements.
Change the bouncing surface to another, like sand. Repeat and record those measurements.

THOUGHTS: The higher the ball bounces, the more the molecules in the ball have been bent and straced by the bounce against the floor before springing back to their orignal shape. A ball's bounce can be recorded as a ratio of its bounce upward over the height it was bounced from. The closer the number is to 1, the more it bounced. Which balls bounced the highest on the tile, and which on the other srfaces? Why would balls need to bounce this way? Does the bounce affect how the sport is played? What is it in the balls' construction that makes it bounce the way it does? What would be the difference between a ball used on beach sand and one used on a basketball court?

SCIENCE & MATH
IDEA:Math is an essential and critical part of science. It allows us to compare, contrast, and describe the systems in our world that science studies. This activity uses math to describe a property, size, or volume, of two different materials. We can study the volume and size relatiohsip of objects by filling a cup of known volume with the materials, then countin the quantity in the cup. The mathematical concepts used in this experiment are sample size, range, average, percent and volume.
SUPPLIES: An approximately 8 oz or 150 mililiter cup for each student, plus paper and pencil to record date. Nine ounces or more of two different materials, large enough to be easily counted (for example: noodles, dried beans, dried peas, cereal, each material should be conpriesed of objects that are close to the same size.)
DIRECTIONS:

Pass out a cup and material 1 to each student.
Have them fill the cup level to the top with material 1. All students should fill the cup to the same level.
Dump out material 1 from each cup and have students count each piece.
Record all student quantities on the blackboard.
Pass out material 2 and refill the cups to the top.
Count material 2 in the cup and record the data in a different area of the blackboard.
Count the total number of student experiments conducted with each of the two materials. This is your sample size.
Subtract the lowest count of material 1 and 2 from the corresponding highest count in each material group. This is your range
Add all the student counts together in each material group, and divide by the corresponding sample size. This is your average number of material objects in a cup.
Subtract the average value of material 1 frm the value of material 2. This is the difference in size between the two materials. Divide this number by the material 1 average value and multiply by 100. This is the percent increase or decrease in size between the two materials.
Divide the volume (ounces or mililiters) of material 1 and 2 by the corresponding average count of each material. This is the average volume of each object in the sample.

THOUGHTS:A few mathmatical calculations can tell us much about an object. The narrower the range (step 8) the more accurate your results are. Does the volume of an object from step 11 represent the true volume of the object, or is air in some way a factor? If you had a balance to weigh the objects, how would you calcuate an average weight? What practical applications could these numbers have?

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