Sunday, February 13, 2011

Science Sunday - Balancing

Science Sunday

For Science Sunday, this afternoon, the younger children (ages 4-8), and I followed up on what the older girls learned with their mobile projects, with some simple balancing experiments.

First, I gave them each a jumbo Popsicle stick, to see if they could balance them across a finger.


We talked, briefly, about the center of gravity, and then I gave them some small plastic cubes (pennies, nuts, or washers would work equally well), to balance on top of the sticks.


A job, that was complicated slightly by the fact, that D was in a teasing mood.


Finally, after they had worked on stacking, and balancing the cubes on the sticks, balanced across their fingers...


...and across the back of their chairs...


...we watched a short clip on balancing, and scales, on Brain Pop Jr (the only subscription site, we do subscribe to). Then, we decided, since the day was sunny, and almost warm, we'd take our investigation to the park. Where we discovered...



...it takes all three younger children to balance with T...


...and that force can be used to temporarily overcome mass.


We also discovered the reason it's important to warn the person on the other side of the teeter totter you're going to get off, and then switched over entirely to an investigation of static electricity, and bodies in motion.

In other words, we played, and generally had a fun few hours in the sun.

Click over to the Science Sunday link-up at Adventures in Mommydom, for more science projects, and ideas for children.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

10 comments:

Phyllis said...

Sounds like a lot of fun!

Natalie PlanetSmarty said...

Fun! I love your balancing experiments, they are so naturally linked to daily activities. I am considering subscribing to Brain Pop one of these days too.

Jenny said...

That looks like a very fun park you have. How wonderful. And what a fun experiment.

Christy Killoran said...

I have never heard of Brain Pop. I'll have to check it out.

I love all of your experiments, but I especially love the view from the park. Those mountains are just amazing.

April said...

Science in the playground...sounds like fun.

Of course, I have a scar between my eyebrows where I had sat on a broken teeter totter when I was little...

An Almost Unschooling Mom said...

Christy - I wondered if you'd notice the view :)

Debbie said...

What fun learning while playing. Selena now wants to come visit your park!

MaryAnne said...

I had never heard of Brain Pop either, but sounds well worth visiting!

I love the balancing idea, and I'll have to try it out with my kids. Thanks for the idea!

Ticia said...

I love the picture of trying to balance out T. That is awesome!

I remember teaching that lesson when I was student teaching and the school I was at actually had a teeter-totter.

Unknown said...

Playground Science ROCKS!!!