Submarines - more things to do with your power vote bottles

I did Submarines with J and our 3 yr old neighbor friend (not pictured) shortly after I took it to J's school for the 5 year olds last month.  However, because they were so young, I decided to assemble the submarines for them before we were going to play with science.  I made a few modifications.  I decided to use the cap with a hole drilled into it for the straw instead of clay since the clay didn't stick well for long water exposure (note cheap clay was used).  I also created a valley on the aluminum foil wrapped pennies for the rubber bands.  Next time, hot glue the rubber bands and penny stacks.  They still kept falling off.  Here's the final product:

Note the holes in between the rubber bands (3 total)
Use caution when making holes, we used an awl

Let the sub fun begin!

J tosses the sub into the water

Sink sub, sink

J demonstrates what the 5 year olds found out too - that these subs make good fountains, which is also ok since it's still science (pressure differences).

Scientist at work

Science is fun, but how often do you get to do science naked?

Eureka!

Our version of Sink/Float:

Sponges float

J sinks

Sponge Bob shoes float

Bouncy ball floats

Lessons learned: science with kids doesn't necessarily go as planned (see naked baby and fountain sub above).  The idea is to go with the flow and roll with what the kids show interest in.  The 5 year olds loved their sinking subs, but they also liked the fountain it created when pulled out of the water.  If there's a teaching moment you think they'd understand, go for it.  If not, congratulate them for experimenting as ask them if they know what's going on.  Re-direct their attention if you don't like where the experiment is going.


**Now I realize, that is not a Pepsi bottle featured in this article.  I apologize.  We did this experiment in the middle of July.  Yes, I had applied to the Refresh Grant by then, but I had no idea about the craziness of these power vote collections that is needed to win.  (so pass on a power vote code or two if you don't mind).

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Edited 6/30/13 to remove Pepsi Refresh Voting tag. Voting has long since ended.

P.S. I love you guys. Thanks for all of your support!

Proud Nerdy Mama

You know when you are a nerd when your two-year old can properly identify who Albert Einstein is and that he likes to do science (we're working on more specifics).

J-man spent the weekend giving his Einstein Doll piggy back rides and talking about his "crazy hair." At one time, I think he even rocked and tucked in Einstein for sleepy time. How sweet, and nerdy.

(Einstein was a gift from Nerdy Gma D.)

Sorry I don't have pics or audio - maybe some other day...

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Obligatory vote tag:

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Vote by Text: 107753 to 73774.


Also...

Please use your power votes (codes on specially marked Pepsi products). I got two 50 "power votes" lately with my soda addiction. I'll be happy to use your unused codes too...just send them my way and I'll do the dirty work.

And Follow us on Facebook: NerdyScience


****I'll be giving suggestions for your other votes here. Feel free to help out others! ****

Please use your extra daily votes to support our Partners:

Atwater Classrooms (text 107863 to 73774).

Tech'ing Morganton Day School Classrooms  (text 107954 to 73774)

And very nice supporters, who are giving us lots of votes and encouragements, so please support them with your votes however you can:

Inclusion Project (co-founded by Clay Aiken) (text 108169 to 73774). - Exploding sodas was featured in their blog as a way to use Power Votes without drinking soda.

Squeeze - Feed, Teach, Nourish (text 107827 to 73774).

Recycling Robot (text 108147 to 73774).

**** Don't forget to use comments, so they know we are supporting them!!! ****

P.S. I love you guys. Thanks for all of your support!

Exploding Soda!

I've been dying to try out Mentos and Diet Coke Geysers for years. However, Diet Coke wasn't going to get me a handful of power votes (the power votes work I promise). Here's a video of how easy it is. My two-year-old, J, can do it!

Steve Spangler explains that the reaction is caused by the small pockets of air "pits" in the Mentos candy that allows a lot of bubbles from the carbonation to form, basically releasing the gas from the soda bottle, causing a fountain.

It's really fun to try.

First you take a soda bottle and place it somewhere where a giant wet mess is going to be ok (aka the grass in a local park).

Then open the soda top (which you would save for a power vote towards Nerdy Science).

Then pop some Mentos candies into the bottle (1 will work, 2 is a little better, >2 seems a little wasteful)

Run away

Watch the explosion

Repeat (over and over and over again).

Just be careful the camera person is not in the line of action:

Things to experiment with:
1. Different sodas (warning: sugar soda leaves an icky, sticky mess).
2. Different sized bottles/cans.
3. Amount of Mentos added to soda (we started with a whole roll, but it seemed to give us a good reaction with even just 1 or 2).
4. Try different kinds of Mentos (fruit/mint).
5. Taste the soda before and after the Mentos experiment:

6. Taste the diet soda flavored Mentos.
7. Compare the Mentos you threw in the soda to fresh Mentos.
8. How high can you get the soda to shoot? Set a target to aim for. Adjust the size of the nozzle (hint: smaller diameter).

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Edited 6/30/13 to remove Pepsi Refresh Voting tag. Voting has long since ended.

P.S. I love you guys. Thanks for all of your support!

Setting Up Sailboats

Sorry, I've been off of the blog-wagon for the weekend.  We had a visitor (my mom), and we were just very busy (we did do a science experiment, so stay tuned tomorrow for that post - video needs uploading).

Well, my mom is gone and the kid is asleep.  I promised a science lesson to J's class for this Friday.  I realized that I haven't shopped for it or tried it out.  I wanted to do Sink/Float with the Toddlers for sure, but I also wanted something a little more mechanically oriented - like sailboats.  Originally, I wanted to do dowels in styrofoam plates.  I found the coolest (clean looking) styrofoam trays in the recycling bin at Stanford (but these are little kids who like to put everything in their mouths, so I refrained from claiming them).  Anyways, the design I was thinking might be too clunky for little hands.  I was searching around my house and found a sponge, a toothpick (with the pointies cut-off), and an index card.  I had my husband try out my design in the sink and it seems to work with blowing on it (I'm just hoping our handheld fans get here before Friday).  I might try to see if I can hot glue the toothpick in so it doesn't get pulled out, but it might affect the buoyancy of the boat.  Ultimately, the goal of this project is to let the two year olds see that they can move something with the wind (pressure, force).  I'm sure it'll turn into a splashfest, but hey, they are two and science is supposed to be fun!

Anyways, I'll keep posting this week, so stay tuned and keep voting, please.

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Pepsi Refresh voting has ended, the voting tag was removed.

Fantasy Friday: Shake Table!

New theme for Friday posts for August: Fantasy Friday. What are some of the things I would do with the $5k from Pepsi Refresh?

One of the things I am excited to bring to the kids: earthquakes!!  I think kids would really like creating structures and watching them fall apart on a shake table.  I would make a couple of shake tables since I'm sure one won't be enough for the eager, science loving kids.  Of course, the tables would be more permanent than the poster board, plastic, and hanger wire directions listed in the reference and enclosed so little fingers are protected.  I tried searching for good blue prints for sturdy smaller shake tables and came up empty handed (good thing my background is in mechanical engineering).

I'm thinking tall towers out of basic building blocks could get a good squeal out of the kids, or we can construct houses made out of Popsicle sticks the day before (so the glue dries).  A little competition for longest standing house/tower never hurt, and since it's engineering learning, of course they would be able to redesign and try again at least once.  I always learned better from my mistakes.

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edited 9/5/14 to remove Pepsi Refresh information since the contest is over


P.S. I love you guys. Thanks for all of your support!