How Stuff Works - Science for Kids

[Elmo T]

OK - I've been volunteered to teach the Science Explorers' club at my daughter's school. The focus is science and "How Things Work". The kids are 1st-3rd grades. With this age, we'll be doing demonstrations and hands-on stuff - I will not allow any "death by Powerpoint" type presentations.

Any thoughts for some of the classes? I have one Dad explaining the water cycle and another doing rocks/minerals. I have to cover the remaining classes. A few suggestions I've received so far include: How CD's work, where the water goes when it goes down the drain, how fire trucks work (I easily have that one covered!). Any other ideas?

[Spicoli]

I can come show them how people go to jail. :D

[Joelski]

Get a partner and take an ambulance to class. Kids love learning that stuff; you can teach them to strap people to backboards, put kids on the heart monitor and teach them that shots are intended to fix illness, not to primarily cause pain. Same goes for the fire truck; we give out escape planning kits and smoke detectors as well as Jr firefighter hats and call 9-1-1 stickers for phones. Take a medic and an Engine and you will easily be the class of that class. :)

[Elmo T]

Get a partner and take an ambulance to class.

I'll have around 8 classes to cover, so the Fire/EMS thing will cover two. EMS is not my forte - or as I like to say, the extent of my medical training is that band-aids go on "sticky side" down!

And for Spicoli - In our more PC times, I think we prefer to call it "teaching the inner workings of our system of jurisprudence" ;)

[ChampcarShark]

got o howstuffworks.com, get a paper champcar, from our old friend paper of course, or a model. ant teach the youngsters the wonderful world of champcar racing.

[Joelski]

Teach them how to make the beeramid.

[Mr. Toad]

Diet Coke & Mentos..............and a mop.
http://hacki.te.ua/site/content/tmce/cola/mentos_kola004.jpg

[IlliniRacer]

In college I did a demonstration speech on scuffing baseballs, my friend did his on corking bats.

Last year my son and I did his on Bernoulli's Principle - I took a balsa wood wing and attached the ends to a couple of posts so the wing could swivel up and down, place a fan in front of the wing and it will elevate. - you could probably also use an IRL chassis.:gomer:

He wanted to do a cool presentation on The Big Bang Theory. One problem - he goes to a Lutheran School. :)

[Gnam]

These are the ones I remember from school:

How Sound works: talk about vibrating air molecules, sound waves, human ear drum.
Demonstrations included having kids listen to their recorded voices (sounds the same to everyone else but different to the kid), helium ballons, and explaining why race cars go vrrrrrrrr/oooooom when they fly by.

How Laser range finders work: If you can find one, explain how the sensor can tell how far away something is by timing the beam. Used in construction and exploration.
Demonstrations included guessing how far away certain things were.
(Could also ask the police to bring in a radar gun, and see how fast kids walk/run.)

How microwave ovens work: talk about heating things up with high frequency waves.
Demonstrations included making popcorn and understanding how the popcorn comes from exploding kernals.

How things float: Explain bouyancy and density. Demonstrations included a big tank and things to chuck into it. Kids vote on what floats.

If there are episodes or descriptions of episodes for shows like 3-2-1 Contact or Bill Nye the Science Guy, you might be able to borrow some of their demonstrations.