For science I lead a discovery on capillary action. I had a very tall plant with me and I ask the children where plants take in water (the base) and if there is still water way up high at the flower. I explained that the water must travel up there, but how? I had them each take a part of a coffee filter and tape the top to a pencil so that it rests on the top of a plastic cup. The children drew a line about an inch up the coffee filter, which is how much water I put in their cup. The next day we noticed that all the water went up! I explained that this is caused by something called capillary action and occurs when the bond between water and other plant fibers becomes stronger than the bond between two water molecules. These water drops bond to the plant fibers and climb up. After that lesson we made butterflies using the same concept. They took a full coffee filter, drew some designs on it with a washable marker in different colors and used a water eyedropper to drop water on the filter so that all the colors blend in a sort of tie-dye fashion. They separated the filter into two wings with a pipe cleaner and soon butterflies were flying all around the room! I had so much fun leading these lessons today.
No comments:
Post a Comment