5 Easy Science Lessons You Can Explain to Your Kids This Summer

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Summer vacation frees up time for kids to relax, play and explore more outside of the school environment — that doesn’t have to mean all the learning stops. Not everything in life has an explanation, and that’s the fun part.

Ready for a scientific adventure? Try these five easy science lessons you can do with your kids this summer to bring out their inner explorer and scientist.

 

1. Use Starbursts to Explain Rock Formation

 

Sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous are the three kinds of rocks. Pebbles, sand and shells join to form breakable sediment. Under the Earth’s surface, heat and pressure generate a metamorphosis of materials to create ribbon-like and shiny metaphoric rocks, such as marble. Much deeper in the Earth, magma cools and hardens to form igneous rocks. Sometimes, eruptions bring shiny obsidian to the surface, an igneous rock.

 

The Experiment: Go through the rock cycle with this basic process. Unwrap three Starbursts. Place wax paper on top of foil square in the middle of the table, and center the Starbursts in the middle. Roll papers over the Starbursts, then form the foil around what’s inside.

For sedimentary, your child manipulates the foil with their hands. For metamorphic, the parent should use the toaster oven to heat the foil for two minutes while the child watches — when it cools enough to the touch, apply pressure. For igneous, increase the toaster oven time to five to 10 minutes and unwrap the foil so they can see what happened on the inside. Rewrap the foil, let it cool to the touch and allow your child to apply pressure.

 

2. Discuss Expanding Gas with the Exploding Bag

 

Gas expands with a constant pressure due to temperature increase, which boosts the force of impact when the pressure on particles increases on the container’s internal walls. Pressure rises, volume increases and the bag explodes. The acid and base in the exploding gas react to create carbon dioxide, which is a gas.

The Experiment: Do this over the kitchen sink or go outside. Inside a small freezer bag, pour a fourth a cup of very warm water and a half-cup of vinegar. Inside a tissue, place three teaspoons of baking soda, then wrap it up. Zip the bag up partially and slip the baking soda packet inside. Quickly zip up the bag, put it in the sink and back away. Watch the bag expand and POP!

 

3. Teach Them How Oil Is Made

 

To make petroleum, or oil, you’ll need carbon, oxygen and a whole lot of time. The oil generating process began ages ago. Check out this graphic by Smart Touch Energy for a visual way to explain how oil is formed.

 

 

Oil forms in shallow, warm ocean water when dead organic matter mixes with clay-like from the ocean floor. This mud can only occur in an environment with low levels of oxygen. The mud gets buried under more sediment until crude oil is formed, and an oil rig drills through the layers to retrieve the oil.

The Experiment: Although you may not have millions of years to kill, you can show your kids how oil is made with an overnight experiment. Gather three types of bread, Gummy Worms and a pile of thicker books. The layers of bread represent layers of sediment. Place the bread on a paper towel, then set the Gummy worms, which are the organic matter, in the middle of bread layers. Wrap it all in a paper towel, then pile the books on top to apply pressure. Leave it overnight and record predictions of how bread will appear tomorrow. Unwrap the next day and observe how the Gummy Worm leakage mixes with the bread to represent the crude oil.

 

4. Explore Cold Chemical Reactions

 

The frozen fizzing stars experiment explores the acid-based reaction with vinegar and baking soda, and it gives your kids an excuse to watch “Frozen” again. The acid and base react quantitatively with one another. This is called neutralization, where no excess hydrogen or hydroxide ions remain in the solution.

 

The Experiment: Make frozen stars with an ice cube tray with star molds, water and baking soda. Mix water and baking soda so it’s packable in your palm. Spoon this mixture into the tray and freeze it overnight. Use food coloring to color the vinegar for more fun. Remove the stars — or another shape — from the tray and slowly pour the vinegar on top of each. Make sure the surface underneath can catch the spreading reaction.

5. Analyze Shadows with Legos

When an object blocks out light, a shadow forms. Shadows get longer depending on the time of the day and lengthen as it goes on, based on the movements of the sun in relation to the Earth.

The Experiment: Gather all the Legos you have, then go outside to build creative Lego towers of different sizes. Face away from the sun, so the designs produce optimal shadows — and so you don’t hurt your eyes. Use chalk to trace the outlines. Go have ice cream, then come back a few hours later to trace the shapes of the new shadows and compare the difference.

Science is at the heart of the explorer, and kids are explorers by nature. Use these five easy science lessons and experiments to explore more about the world with your child. The best part is that fun is included in the mix, so your kids won’t roll their eyes. In fact, they may even be ready for more!