party time... space party
activites!
space snow globe
you will need
- A small jar with lid
- Baby oil
- Water
- Blue food colouring
- Sequins
- Glitter
- Glue
what to do
1. Add water, baby oil and a few drops of blue food colouring to the jar.
2. Add sequins (star shaped ones look really good) and glitter.
3. Glue the lid on the bottle and let the kids shake them up and let them settle.
ufo? unidentified flowing ooze?
you will need
- Borax powder *
- White PVA glue
- Water
- Green and yellow food colouring
- Plastic Ziploc sandwich bags
* Borax is an old fashioned washing ingredient, and can still be obtained from some chemists - definitely worth phoning round first though! Alternatively search and order online.
what to do
1. Stir 2 tablespoons of borax into 500 ml warm water. It's okay if some borax remains undissolved. Allow solution to cool to room temperature. Careful as borax can irritate the skin.2. In a separate container, stir 2 spoonfuls of glue into 3 spoonfuls of water.
3. Stir a couple of drops of green food colouring into the glue mixture.
4. Pour into the plastic bag and add a spoonful of the borax solution. Squish the mixture around in the bag. Hey presto - UFO! Have fun!
Note:
A yellow food colouring could be added for that extra oozy touch.
Don't eat or inhale the ooze. Borax isn't toix, but it isn't good for you either!
Wash your hands after playing with your ooze.
UFO stands for Unidentified Flying Object. This has been the subject of much speculation over the years with people claiming to have seen flying saucers and to have been abducted by aliens. As yet there has been no definitive proof. The Roswell event is the most famous and well-documented UFO event in history. For more information check the BBC site pages.
marshmallow spacemen
you will need
- A small clean 10ml needle-less medicine syringe
- Mini-marshmallows
- A felt-tip pen
what to do
1. On the minimarshmallow draw a small face.
2. Place the marshmallow inside the syringe.
3. Push down the plunger so that it touches, but does not squash, the marshmallow.
4. Place a finger over the end of the syringe and make a good seal.
5. Draw back the plunger as far as you can.
6. Notice how difficult it is to draw back the plunger? What is happening to your marshmallow?
what's happening?
It is difficult to pull back on the syringe because the pressure on the outside of the plunger is greater than on the inside as you pull it out, and so it is being "pushed" back in. This is the resistance you feel.
As the plunger is pulled out the marshmallow expands. Did you see the face grow bigger? This is because marshmallows contain tiny pockets of air. As the plunger is pulled out, the pressure inside the syringe is reduced and therefore the air can occupy a larger space. Boyle’s Law states that the volume of a gas increases as its pressure decreases, if temperature is held constant. This means the molecules of a gas are spread out more when the pressure is reduced as in pulling out the plunger on the syringe. The overall volume of the gas increases.
When the plunger is released the marshmallow shrinks and, in fact, shrinks to a smaller size than it did originally. This is because as the marshmallow expanded, some of the air bubbles got so large they burst through the marshmallow. As the "plunger" returns to its original spot the pressure that the marshmallow experiences increases, causing it to shrink. However, since some of the air bubbles actually burst, there are less air molecules inside it than there were originally, causing there to be a pressure differential, making the marshmallow shrink.
There are virtually no air molecules in space and we refer to this as a vacuum. Neither sound nor heat can travel in a vacuum, so space is completely silent and extremely cold. In the vacuum of space, explosive decompression will destroy an unprotected human body in a few seconds; therefore astronauts must always be completely covered.
For more info on the effects of vacuum on the human body try this site.alien goo
you will need
- Cornflour
- Water
- Green food colouring
- Small cup
- Bowl
what to do
1. Add four small cups of water to a bowl and mix in a few drops of green food colouring.
2. Add seven small cups of cornflour to the bowl.
3. Mix in by hand.
4. Plunge hands right into the mixture and then lift them upwards so that the mixture drips through the fingers.
5. Grab some of the mixture and quickly roll it into a ball using the palms of the hands.
6. Slap and prod the mixture in the bowl.
what’s happening?
Isn’t this mixture the strangest stuff you’ve ever seen? When you let the mixture drip through your fingers, it behaves like a liquid. Yet when you roll the mixture and slap it, it behaves like a solid. But when you stop rolling it, the mixture drips through your fingers like a liquid again!This can mean only one thing. The mixture is both a liquid and a solid. When it is left alone, it flows like a liquid. But when you treat it roughly by slapping it or rolling it, you are forcing the water molecules into the cornflour particles and it behaves like a solid. When you stop applying pressure, the molecules can relax and the material flows like a liquid again.
baking soda rockets
This should be done outside, as it can be messy. There should be an adult present at all time. Take care when launching rockets and NEVER lean over or put your face close to a canister that is about to launch.
you will need
- Small plastic photo film canister (translucent ones are best)
- Bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- Vinegar
- Card
- Sticky tape
- Scissors
what to do
1. Use the card and sticky tape to construct a rocket around the film canister.
2. Make sure the film canister is at the bottom of the rocket with the lid downwards.
3. Make a nosecone for the rocket by cutting out a circle shape then making one cut towards the centre of the circle. Wrap the two cut ends over each other to form a cone shape and stick it to the top of the rocket.
4. Make tail fins to keep the rocket vertical for launch.
Put one teaspoon of baking soda in the canister and add a few drops of vinegar.
5. Quickly snap the lid into place and stand clear.
6. The lid should blow off dramatically after a short time, but be patient!
Never allow anyone to look over the top once the canister is charged. If it fails to go off (as it does sometimes if there's a small leak around the lid) or seems to have failed, open it very carefully keeping your face well away.
what’s happening?
When the vinegar and baking soda react with one another they produce carbon dioxide gas. The pressure builds up inside the film container until the point at which it can force the lid off. The lid then blows off and the pressure is released. As the lid is blown off in one direction the rocket lifts off and is propelled into the air in the opposite direction. This is according to Newton’s Third Law: For each action there is an equal but opposite reaction.two-litre telescopes
you will need
- one 2 litre fizzy drink bottle
- black paper
- sticky tape
- white paper
- drawing pin
what to do
1. Cut off the bottom of a 2-ltr bottle.
2. Wrap a black piece of paper around the bottle and secure with glue or tape.
3. Copy four different constellations on white paper (draw them on the 4 outer edges of the paper).
4. Lay the white copy on top of the black paper. Use the drawing pin to poke through each star (dot) to make a constellation.
5. Look through the pour spout on the bottle holding it with one hand. With the other hand, hold the black paper up to the cut end of the bottle, positioning one of the punched-out "constellations" in the middle of the cut hole. Look up toward a light source.
Why are astronauts successful people ?
Because they always go up in the world !
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