I checked out a book recently that had a lot of "Maker Projects" in it. I'm not necessarily good with science experiments but I was hoping that we could handle building a few things instead. I'm happy to report that most of the things we worked on the past two weeks did turn out pretty well.
Since we're learning about the different kinds of energy in Science, we used the book to help build a wind turbine out of paper cups. We also built a water turbine out of a two liter but I didn't get a picture of that.
This past week we built "Super Speakers" out of paper towel rolls and paper cups. It really did distribute the sound and made it louder.
Because we were talking about "Heat Transfer" another day, we made "Baked Alaskas". I had never heard of a Baked Alaska before but it sounded interesting because we were suppose to cook ice cream in the oven for three minutes without it melting. (Copying the concept of igloos in winter). The girls really wanted to try this one for two reasons. First, they like ice cream so it would be great to eat our science project and second, they weren't sure it would work and they both wanted to watch me clean the entire oven when the ice cream melted all over it.
Anyway, Marissa made the cakes the day before and let them cool. We also put ice cream into bowls and then let them re-freeze into molds. Then on Friday, the girls made the meringue that goes on top of the ice cream. The cake and meringue would be the "insulator" that would absorb the heat rather than it going to the ice cream.
They cut out their cakes and put the ice cream molds on top of the cake. Then they smothered their meringue on top of the cake and we baked it at 450 degrees for three minutes.
Sooooooo..... the meringue didn't quite set up the way it's suppose to and it ran all over my oven, but the ice cream was still hard and cold. Amazing, right?!
And then we ate a yummy snack!!
We also take part in "maker days" at our local library. It's something new they just started recently in support of our homeschool community and it's been a nice addition to our schooling. One of the children's librarians puts together projects once a month and then it's a come and go type thing.
This month they had bracelets to make. Since Marissa and Morgan both own their own looms and tons of rubber bands, this was a well enjoyed project.
They also had a center where you could make your own marble run maze out of paper plates and strips of paper.
Even Nolan made a small bracelet before losing interest and running into the toddler room to play.
I just might have been the only adult to make a craft!! :-)
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