Resources
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Boomwhacker Orchestra
Grade 1, Grade 4
Music can be defined as: The art of producing significant arrangements of sounds, usually with reference to rhythm, pitch and tone. A succession or combination of notes, especially if pleasing to the ear. This may or may not happen with a Boomwhacker orchestra, but students will certainly unveil the relationship between pitch and instrument length. […]
Topics: Energy, Sound
Air Cannon
Grade 3, Grade 4
This activity is designed to get students thinking about what happens when air moves. Sometimes it is difficult to think about air and what it does because it is invisible. The air cannon is a way to ‘see’ air as it moves objects within its ‘blast zone’. The air that shoots out of the cannon […]
Topics: States of Matter
Balancing Pencil Challenge
Kindergarten, Grade 2, Grade 6
In this exploration, students are given washers and wire and challenged to balance a pencil on their finger. In order for any object to be balanced and stable, a vertical line drawn from the centre of gravity should fall within the base of support. It is much easier to balance an object with a broad […]
Topics: Forces and Motion
Balloon Hovercraft
Grade 2, Grade 6
Students explore Newton’s Third Law of Motion (“for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”) by building a hovercraft. The small hole in the centre of the CD forces air escaping from the balloon downwards. This creates an opposite force upwards which lifts the hovercraft off the ground, explained by Newton’s Third Law of Motion. The […]
Topics: Forces and Motion
Animal Restaurant
Grade 3, Grade 4, Grade 5, Grade 7
Ecological niche refers to a species’ role in its habitat. In this activity, students will investigate the unique ways in which different species in the same ecosystem feed themselves and the special features that make it possible. No two species have the same niche. Each species has a specific combination of food choice, how they […]
Topics: Animals, Ecology and Evolution
Benham's Disk
Grade 4, Grade 6, Grade 8
Students make a contraption that appears to produce colours from black and white. Benham’s Disk was invented by a nineteenth-century toymaker who noticed colours in a black-and-white pattern he had mounted on a spinning top. Why do we see colours? There are three types of cone cells in the retinas of our eyes. One is […]
Topics: Human Body, Light
Biodegradable Seedling Pots
Kindergarten, Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 5
In this activity, students build a biodegradable pot and plant seeds inside. By making a seedling pot out of an empty paper egg carton, or newspapers, you can reuse materials and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with landfills. The biodegradable pot helps protect a seedling’s root system before it is transplanted. Seedlings can then […]
Topics: Cycles, Natural Resources, Plants, Sustainability
Bird Feeders
Kindergarten, Grade 1, Grade 3, Grade 4
In this activity, students build a bird feeder to attract common bird species to their homes. Birds, like all animals, have specific needs for survival. In a city, birds may find water in puddles or in a pond. They may make their home out of a hole in a tree, or they may create a […]
Topics: Animals
Bullfrog Caller
Grade 1, Grade 4
In this activity, students use their knowledge of vibrations and sound to mimic the sound of a bullfrog. The “Cuica” (pronounced “kweeka”) is a Brazilian percussion instrument. Inside the Cuica, a wet cloth is rubbed up and down along a bamboo stick attached to the inside of a calf-skin drum. The rubbing motion produces the sound and the pitch […]
Topics: Energy, Sound
Burglar Alarm
Grade 7, Grade 9
Have you ever wondered how a burglar alarm works? Burglar alarm’s science revolve around complete and incomplete electric circuits. A real burglar alarm is triggered when the intruder breaks a light or laser beam, which is invisible to the human eye, but needed to complete a circuit. When the beam is broken, the electronic system […]
Topics: Electricity
Butterfly Feeders
Kindergarten, Grade 1, Grade 3
In this activity, students make simple butterfly feeders to encourage butterflies to visit their garden. Adult butterflies drink nectar through a straw-like proboscis,1.5 times their body length, to reach nectar inside flowers and feed. Nectar contains sugars, amino acids and minerals to maintain their water balance and energy supplies. This nutrition contributes to their ability to […]
Topics: Animals, Ecology and Evolution, Plants
Candles
Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3, Grade 4
Students explore the melting and solidification of wax. Students observe wax as it is heated and cooled, and make observations about this substance as it changes from a solid to a liquid, and back again.
Topics: States of Matter
Come-Back Can
Grade 4, Grade 5, Grade 6
In this activity, students make a Tin Can Toy with a secret mechanism, while exploring kinetic energy. When you roll a Tin Can Toy away, it comes rolling back! Adapted from GEM this Tin Can Toy made of a coffee can contains a simple elastic powered motor. The “secret” to the Come-Back Can is in […]
Topics: Energy, Engineering, Forces and Motion
Create a Creature
Kindergarten, Grade 1, Grade 3, Grade 4, Grade 7
In this activity, students create their own specialized animal that lives in a specific imaginary environment. Where an animal lives often effects how it lives, and behaves. An animal won’t live successfully in a place where its features are poorly adapted for survival. A mountain goat with webbed feet would have a hard time climbing […]
Topics: Animals, Ecology and Evolution
Crystal Trees and Gardens
Grade 2, Grade 3, Grade 4, Grade 5
In this activity, students see dissolved substances come out of prepared solution. The amount of salt that can dissolve in water depends on the temperature of the water. As water evaporates from a salt and water solution, the salt stays behind and forms crystals. The solution you make in this activity is a very concentrated […]
Topics: States of Matter
Elastic Powered Car
Grade 4, Grade 5, Grade 6
In this activity, students will make a car powered by an elastic engine, and thus kinetic energy. Rather than converting chemical potential energy to kinetic energy like your family car, this car converts elastic potential energy to kinetic energy. This activity is adapted from PBS Kids.
Topics: Energy, Engineering
Gum-drop Structures
Grade 6
In this activity, students create delectable models of building structures with gumdrops and toothpicks, and examine their strength and stability.
Topics: Engineering, Geology
Homemade Chalk
Grade 1, Grade 8
In this activity, students have the opportunity to make their own sidewalk chalk while learning about mixing pigment to obtain different colour combinations.
Topics: Art, Light
Homemade Kazoo
Grade 1, Grade 4
In this activity, students create their own homemade kazoos to illustrate that sound vibrations can be seen, heard, felt, and amplified. When you hum into the kazoo, vibrations from your vocal cords travel through the tube, vibrating the air molecules. The waxed-paper membrane that on the other end of the tube creates additional vibration, amplifying […]
Topics: Energy, Sound
Human Lung Simulator
Grade 3, Grade 4, Grade 5
Students make a model of the human lung with a pop bottle, straw, and balloons. “Winds will blow from high to low” applies even during breathing! When we breathe in, the volume of the chest cavity is increased. Since there is more space available, the air pressure in the chest cavity and lungs is reduced, […]
Topics: Human Body, States of Matter
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