MICROSCOPE – what do we see?
Mr. LabRatz has a box full of "slides" – two small rectangular pieces of glass stuck together. When we look at them with just our eyes, all we see are tiny dots and lines and mysterious objects. "What we need in order to make the objects big enough to see is a microscope," says Mr. LabRatz.
Some of the older kids have used a microscope at school, but for the younger ones – especially the littlest ones – it opens their eyes to unimagined sights and they want to view every single slide in the box.
Mr. LabRatz asks us to draw what we saw through the microscope.
Blood cells, muscle tissue, a turtle . . . A turtle??
With the microscope and slides put away, Mr. LabRatz has one more experiment up his sleeve before time runs out on this day's adventures in Science Camp. With one straw in his mouth and a second straw in a glass of water, he blows air across the open end of the second straw, and . . . nothing happens. He blows some more. Still nothing. He blows harder and . . . .
Another truth about scientific experiments is learned. They don't always work out the way you expect, so you try again.
MAGNETS, STATIC ELECTRICITY – what do we discover?
We discover that magnets have north poles and south poles. We test what magnets can attract and can't attract. We learn that in the winter it is static electricity that makes our hair stand on end when we pull off our hats, that gives us little shocks when we touch a door handle.
We've learned this week that "science" IS all around us and that science IS fun.
THANK YOU again
to our business partners whose donations through the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development Educational Improvements Tax Credit (EITC) program support Science Club opportunities
and most especially
to the dedicated and resourceful LabRatz team members.
Back to CAPE or to Learning Centers
(5/11/09)
