Q&A DEARTEACHERS
BY PEGGY GISLER AND MARGE EBERTS
PARENTS: Your children may not have had the opportunity to do many hands-on science experiments this past year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our summer science activities will give them a chance to not only learn more about basic science concepts, but also have fun doing it. Be sure to choose activities for them that are age-appropriate. Some will require parental supervision to ensure their safety. You can find more science activities on our Dear Teacher website under “Learning Activities - Science.” Plus, there are endless science activities online. Just search for “science experiments for kids.” You can add the words easy, fun and video to reveal even more choices.
A SCIENCE EXPERIMENT WITH SOUND
Children love to make noise, and this experiment
is all about an audio ruckus. Sound is part of physical science, so here is an opportunity to learn more about it by making a water xylophone. To do this, kids need
4. Tap the different jars or glasses to observe the sound or pitch each produces. 5. Note how the tapping sounds when tapping the top of containers rather than the sides. Is it a purer sound?
water, four or more mason jars (or the same size tall glasses), wooden sticks (tinker toys, bamboo skewers) and food coloring. Here are the steps they should follow:
1. Tap the empty jars or glasses with the wooden sticks to get an idea of the starting sound. 2. Fill the jars or glasses with varying levels of water.
22
3. Add food coloring to each one.
kcparent.com july 2021
EXPANDING THE EXPERIMENT 1. Tap with a table fork instead of a wooden stick and observe whether it produces a different sound. 2. Fill two glasses to the same level with different liquids. See how the sounds differ. Because the liquids have different densities, the sound waves will travel differently through them.
