Activity Book 7: Elementary Level

Best suited for ages 5 to 10

Table of Contents

  1. Create Sky Effects in a Glass
  2. Simulating a Tornado
  3. Create Oobleck!
  4. Fact or Fiction: the Air Quality Health Index
  5. All About Echolocation
  6. Staying Cool in Space
  7. Answer Key

Create Sky Effects in a Glass

Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada

CREATE SMALL SUNSETS!

By doing this experiment, you can figure out why the sky is normally blue and why it then becomes orange or red during sunsets!

What you need:

You need a clear drinking glass, water, 1 tablespoon of milk, and a flashlight.

What you do:

  1. Fill the glass 2 two thirds of the way with water and add 1 tablespoon of milk. Stir well!
  2. Take the glass into a dark room and turn on the flashlight.
  3. Shine the light down on the glass so that the light is above the glass while facing down (the light should pass through the water to the bottom of the cup). When the light is at this angle, the water mixture should appear blue.
  4. Now, place the light by the side of the glass so that it shines through to the other side. If you look at the water toward the light, the water appears red.
  5. If you place the light under the glass so that it shines from the bottom to the top, the water will have a stronger red color than before!

Why does the color change when you place the light in different spots? The sky’s atmosphere has dust particles that scatter the sun’s rays. When rays are scattered, they move about and produce different colors! Here, the milk particles act like the dust particles and scatter the light’s rays! You just created a sky in a glass!

 

top of page


Simulating a Tornado

Environment and Climate Change Canada

Materials

  • two 2 L clear plastic soft drink bottles
  • water
  • food colouring (optional)
  • duct tape
  • scissors
  • pencil
  • ruler
  • cloth or paper towels

Method

  1. Fill one of the bottles with water until it is half full. Add a few drops of food colouring to make the water more visible.
  2. Cut a 5 cm piece of duct tape and cover the mouth of the bottle containing the water.
  3. With the pencil, make a hole in the centre of the duct tape. Make sure that the hole is a little bigger than the pencil.
  4. Take the second bottle and turn it upside down on top of the bottle containing the water, so that the mouths of the bottles line up. With the cloth or paper towel, wipe any moisture from the necks of the two bottles.
  5. Cut more duct tape and wrap it around the necks of the bottles so they are firmly attached.
  6. Hold the two bottles by the neck. Invert them so that the bottle containing the water is on top, and immediately start spinning them in circles.
  7. Put the bottles on the table with the empty one on the bottom.

Questions

  • Why does this look like a tornado?
  • What part of the tornado do you expect to be the most dangerous?
  • Why do you think the origin of a tornado is called a funnel cloud?

Explanation

Tornadoes are fast, violent swirling winds. In this demonstration, the spinning of the bottles and funnel-shaped opening causes the water to take the shape of a tornado. The hole in the bottle allows for the appearance of the tornado's tail -- the most dangerous part of the tornado.

 

top of page


Create Oobleck!

Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada

Become a mad scientist in your own home!

Did you know that you can change matter? Think about what happens when salt is added to an icy road on a cold winter day. It makes the snow and ice melt faster.

This transformative process is called a PHYSICAL CHANGE.

Try to make Oobleck. What, you say? Oobleck! Do you remember the Dr. Seuss book Bartholomew and the Oobleck? This oobleck recipe will allow you to create this strange substance, and witness the changes between solid and liquid that occurs.

What you need:

You need 1 cup cornstarch, a bowl, a glass of water, a plastic container (like an old, empty yogurt tub), food coloring (optional) and newspaper to cover the table.

NOTE: This recipe can be very messy, but it's loads of fun. Wear old clothes and cover the surface you are working on.

What you do:

  1. Put a cup of cornstarch in the bowl.
  2. Slowly stir in small amounts of water until the mixture is thick like syrup. Add a few drops of food coloring, if you choose.
  3. Squeeze the gooey mixture between your fingers. What happens? Can you shape it into a ball? Hold the ball on your flat palm. Watch what happens. What happens when you pour the mixture into another container?
 

top of page


Fact or Fiction: the Air Quality Health Index

Environment and Climate Change Canada

  1. There is an Air Quality Health Index that is like the UV index, only it tells us about the health risk from air pollution for that day.
  2. Air pollution is an issue for cities. People who live in rural areas are not affected.
  3. The AQHI is based on the risks of common air pollutants that harm human health.
  4. A common air pollutant that harms human health is: dust.
  5. The AQHI is part of the forecast.
  6. Air pollution makes asthma symptoms worse.
  7. For AQHI, the lower the number, the greater the health risk associated with the air quality. (An AQHI of 2 is worse than an AQHI of 10.)
  8. A common air pollutant that harms human health is: oxygen.
  9. Weather does not affect air quality.
  10. For high UV you cover up and add sunscreen; for high AQHI you change your plans.
  11. Children are the least sensitive to the adverse health effects of air pollution.
  12. High UV radiation makes more ground-level ozone, which is a pollutant.
  13. The shape of the land can allow pollutants to be trapped in basins and valleys.
  14. Strong winds allow pollutants to build up over an area.
  15. Running your gas-powered lawnmower for 1 hour is equal to driving a new car between 320 and 480 kilometres.
  16. Some people are more sensitive to air pollution.
  17. Blue is used to show a very high health risk from air quality.
  18. Air pollution is a problem throughout the seasons.
  19. A full bus takes 40 to 60 cars off the road.
 

top of page


All About Echolocation

Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Background:

The term echolocation refers to an ability that toothed whales have that lets them locate and make out objects by listening for echoes. Toothed whales echolocate by producing clicking sounds and then receiving and interpreting the resulting echo. Beluga whales rely on these echoes to navigate, communicate, locate breathing holes, and hunt in dark or murky waters. In this activity, one student will play the beluga whale and the others will act as food.

What you will need:

  • Blindfold
  • Large open space

Let's get started!

You will need a lot of space for this activity, preferably an outdoor space, the school gymnasium or a large clear room.

Object of the game:

Not to get caught by the "whale" (the person who is "it")

Rules:

  1. One person is chosen to be the whale; he/she is blindfolded and stands in the centre of the room.
  2. All the other students act as food and can stand, sit or lie down anywhere in the room.
  3. The whale counts to 10 and shouts "Echo!" and all the others students shout "Location!"
  4. The person who shouts "Echo!" has to try and catch one of the persons who shouts "Location".
  5. The whale can shout "Echo!" as much as possible. Once he/she catches a person, then that person is now "it" and so on...
  6. Try shouting loudly or whispering. Try having only one side of the room answering the whale. Does it make a difference?

Talk about it!

  1. Is it easier to track food using your eyes or your ears?
  2. What happened when the food was quieter or louder?
  3. What other animals might use echolocation to find food?
  4. What would be different in a real ocean situation?
  5. What do you think happens to whales if there is a lot of noise in the ocean?
 

top of page


Staying Cool in Space

Canadian Space Agency

Background

Working in space takes a great amount of effort. During the first spacewalks or Extravehicular Activities (EVA), astronauts relayed how warm it gets while wearing a spacesuit that has a mass of over 100 kilograms!

To help the space-walkers stay cool during an EVA, researchers developed the Liquid Cooling-and-Ventilation Garment. The garment is a one-piece body suit with a zippered-front. Its soft nylon lining is covered with an additional layer of SpandexTM and a network of plastic tubing that surrounds the body. This tubing is used for cooling and ventilating the suit. A set of tubes is used to circulate cool liquid, while another set of tubes is used to transport sweat, carbon dioxide, and any other contaminants into the Primary Life Support System to purify the atmosphere within the suit.

The Activity

Students will use plastic tubing and water to lower their body temperature.

The Objective

This activity teaches students about an astronaut's challenge of working in space and the need for researchers to devise solutions for real-life problems. Students will have the opportunity to experience how an astronaut regulates his body temperature while working in space.

Materials

  • two buckets
  • 3 metres of aquarium tubing
  • water
  • ice to fill a bucket to the halfway point
  • kitchen size plastic garbage bags (one per student)

Method

Understanding Heat Retention

  1. Give each student a plastic bag. Students should roll up one shirt sleeve.
  2. Ask the students to place their bare arms in the plastic bag. Wrap the bag around the arm (but not too tightly). For a period of two minutes, they should wave their covered arms.
  3. After this time period, ask the students to observe the sensation in the arm once they remove these bags. The following discussion should explain how the suit, like the plastic, retains body heat, and why their arms suddenly felt cooler with the removal of the bags. (Warm air in the bag was released and moisture from perspiration on the arms began to evaporate to create a cooling effect.)
  4. You can now segue into the next part of the exercise. Students will understand how to circumvent the problem of heat retention within the suit.

A "Cool System"

  1. Set up a bucket of water and ice on a desk.
  2. Set up the empty bucket on the floor.
  3. Ask a student volunteer to sit on a chair in front of the desk and the ice water
  4. Wrap the tubing around the student's bare arm and place one end of the tube in the ice water and the other end of the tube in the empty bucket.
  5. Start a siphon flow from the ice water to the empty bucket. Ask the student to describe the sensation for the rest of the class.

Staying Cool in Space

More Activities to Stimulate Interest and Learning

  • Devise a method that will eliminate the need for the siphons and buckets of water in this experiment. How can you ensure that water can be continuously circulated?
  • Set up teams to design and construct liquid cooling garments. Each team can choose their base garment (e.g. long underwear, thermal undershirt, running tights, bodysuit). They can also decide on how much tubing to apply for maximum cooling and how it can most effectively be networked and attached to the suit.
  • Devise a method to compare and test the effectiveness of each of the suits. Which was most effective? Which was least effective? Why?
  • Who else might benefit from these liquid cooling garments?
 

top of page


Answer Key

 

Fact or fiction: Air Quality Health Index
1. Fact
2. Fiction
3. Fact
4. Fact
5. Fact
6. Fact
7. Fiction
8. Fiction
9. Fiction
10. Fact
11. Fiction
12. Fact
13. Fact
14. Fiction
15. Fact
16. Fact
17. Fiction
18. Fact
19. Fact