science experiment

Temperature and Water Density Science Experiment

Science experiment fun is the best, fun way to learn. And a fun activity to do outside in the beautiful spring weather. The perfect thing to do this time of year is to spend time outside. This temperature and water density science experiment is the perfect experiment to take outside.

Temperature and Water Density Science Experiment

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When you are stuck home and bored, you do science experiments that you have always wanted to try but always figured would be a huge mess. But again, bored means just doing it no matter what.

This science experiment is easy to do, but does pose the risk for making a mess. Embrace it, or go outside where you won’t worry about the mess.

What you need:

cold water
hot water
two Mason jars
food color
index card

What you need to do:

Fill one jar with cold water and add food color.
Fill the other jar with the hottest water you can while still being able to touch the jar. Add a different color of food coloring to the water.
Place the index card over the opening of the color water jar.
While holding the index card in place flip the jar over and on top of the jar of hot water.
Quickly remove the index card and watch what happens.
Redo the experiment but instead placing the jar of hot water on top.

Scroll down to find a printable version of the directions.

How to Do this Experiment

cold water on the top, heat molecules rise.

I had a towel under the jars because I was prepared to make a huge mess. I was fully expecting the whole jar of cold green water to pour everywhere. BUT I was surprised with only a few drops of water being spilled.

Thanks to my school supply stash, I had everything for this science experiment including the index cards. I placed an index card on the top of the jar of cold water, holding it in place, I quickly flipped it over on to the top of the jar of warm water, and pulled the index card out from between two.

You will see the warm water on the bottom quickly rise and mix into the cold water. The cold water jar on the bottom, barely mixes with the warm water on top.

What’s Happening

The molecules in hot water move faster than those in cold water. Hot water molecules bounce around and leave gaps. This makes hot water slightly less dense than cold water.

Cold water on the bottom, the denser cold water stays there.

Cold water on the top, heat molecules rise.

Water Density

Prep Time: 1 minute

Active Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 6 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

The molecules in hot water move faster than those in cold water. Hot water molecules bounce around and leave gaps. This makes hot water slightly less dense than cold water.

Materials

cold water
hot water
food color
index card

Tools

two mason jars
index card

Instructions

Fill one jar with cold water and add food color.
Fill the other jar with the hottest water you can while still being able to touch the jar. Add a different color of food coloring to the water.
Place the index card over the opening of the color water jar.
While holding the index card in place flip the jar over and on top of the jar of hot water.
Quickly remove the index card and watch what happens.
Redo the experiment but instead placing the jar of hot water on top.

Shark Buoyancy – Animal Science Experiment

by Ashley Mullen

Do your kids ever ask questions about animals and your not sure how to answer or explain them? Mine do too, and then we have to find a way to replicate it to learn more. Similar to when we were learning about how arctic animals stay warm. This shark buoyancy is another great animal science experiment for animal lovers.

Shark Buoyancy – Animal Science Experiment

This post contains affiliate links, see my disclosure policy for more information.

We love hands on learning here, science experiments are a favorite way to learn and spend our time together in our family and homeschool. This science is easy to do, and perfect for shark week in July.

Floating Shark Science Experiment

What you need:

a large bowl filled with water
balloons
dish detergent
water
vegetable oil
marker (optional)

What you do:

Add about 1/4 cup of dish detergent, oil, and water to each of your balloons. Try to get any air out of your balloon before tying the knot or it will affect your experiment.
Fill a large bowl with water.
Draw a face on your balloons – optional.
Place your balloons into the bowl of water and watch what happens.

What you see happening:

What happens when you place the balloons in the water? Does one float? Does one sink? Is there one that is just kinda floating there in the middle?

There is one balloon that is going to float and this is the answer to how sharks can float and why this shark buoyancy animal science experiment can be a success. Tip: make sure to get all the air out of the balloons or it will throw this experiment off.

What Helps Sharks Float

Sharks rely on their liver which has oil and fats. Their liver has two parts filled with oil and fats, substances that are lighter than water helping them to float. Liver is as much as 30% of the shark weight, and although it helps for buoyancy, sharks must swim continuously to avoid sinking.

Shark Buoyancy - Science experiment

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Active Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Estimated Cost: $1

Let's learn more about how shark float.

Materials

balloons
vegetable oils
dish detergent
water

Tools

A large bowl of water.

Instructions

Add about 1/4 cup of dish detergent, oil, and water to each of your balloons. Try to get any air out of your balloon before tying the knot or it will affect your experiment.
Fill a large bowl with water.
Draw a face on your balloons - optional.
Place your balloons into the bowl of water and watch what happens.

Notes

Check out Arctic animal science experiments for more animal science fun.

More Learning about Sharks:

Animal Science Activity

We’ll be doing more animal related science projects around here as I have three kids who love hands on learning and science experiments. My oldest, she is an animal lover and wants to learn everything she can. Make sure you check out our arctic animal experiment, and learn how animals stay warm in freezing cold temperatures of the arctic and similar place.

You may also be interested in:

Best of 2018 on Forgetful Momma

by Ashley Mullen

The year 2018 had it’s ups and downs, mainly the beginning of the year was great and the second half of the year sucked. It really did guys, the only great thing in the second of the year was that our homeschool plans rocked and went smoothly. I am hoping to see 2019 go smoothly all year long, maybe with a move in there for us.

Best of 2018 on Forgetful Momma

*This post may contains affiliate links, see my disclosure policy for more information.*

Kids in the Kitchen – My kids love getting in the kitchen and helping Hubby or I while we are cooking supper or baking something. We have been working on getting them in the kitchen more and more, giving them more to try and do.

Asian Ground Beef Ready in 30 Minutes – I can create chicken meals in no time, I have no problem throwing something on it and making it great. Ground beef however tends to eludes me, but not my Hubby, enter his Asian ground beef recipe.

Simple Mini Donuts – There are a couple small appliances in our home that don’t get the attention that they deserve. One is our blender. The other our mini donut maker.

Rhubarb Crisp in the Slow Cooker – This recipe is a great way to use rhubarb straight from your garden. It’s simple to make, and delicious. Bonus: your house is going to smell amazing!

No Bake Cookies – These are delicious cookies, they are perfect for making in the summer. No heating up the oven. Very little heat involved. Plus, cold cookies are a nice treat in the heat of summer. No bake cookies are the perfect summer cookie.

How to Plan Your Homeschool – Unschooling or Eclectic – I know that it sounds odd to hear and to think about how you would plan your homeschool when your homeschool style unschooling or eclectic. But when you have to submit a plan to your school board it doesn’t hurt to plan even just a little, a basic outline, the outcomes that you are hoping for your children to achieve.

Arctic Animals – Science Experiment – We learned more about arctic animals in the Arctic and Antarctic. What child isn’t wondering how arctic animals stay warm considering we make our kids wear layers of clothing in the winter and the animals just have fur.

Slow Cooker Poor Man’s Stew – Do you have those days where you just don’t know what to make, what to do with the package of ground beef you took out of the freezer? Here’s an idea: Poor Man’s Stew. I make this at least a couple times a year.

7 Free Homeschooling Websites – There are a ton of free homeschooling websites out there. You just need some time to look and to know what it is you are looking for in terms of education style.

Sun Protection Science Activity – This is the perfect way to explain it to them with this sun protection activity. Most kids learn from seeing and doing, so grab sunscreen and a piece of construction paper and get outside.

Heart Pumping Human Body Science Experiment

by Ashley Mullen

One of my favorite subjects to teach my kids is science, and one of those reasons is that it can be so hands-on. How my do kids learn the best? By involving them, and getting hands on with science! This real-life method- is a great way for them to learn more about the subjects that we are covering through the year. Over the past couple of weeks we have been doing human body-related lessons in science. Human body-related science experiments to go along with those lessons just came naturally.

HEART PUMPING JAR SCIENCE EXPERIMENT - heart pump science project

Heart Pumping Human Body Science Experiment

*This post may contain affiliate links, and is part my ambassadorship with BookShark. I share a post monthly about our using BookShark curriculum in exchange for receiving it to use with my children this year. You can see just what we received this year here.*

Over the past two weeks and for the next few weeks, we are learning about the human body in our BookShark Science Level 2 curriculum. Some of the things we have been doing along with our curriculum are running in place and then checking our pulse, seeing just how germs stick to our hands with glitter, and more.

Most everything we have been doing has been included in the science kit that came with our BookShark curriculum.

The book we’re using right now is The Usborne Book of Knowledge. The book goes through the systems of anatomy by showing different machines that can do what our body can do. BUT the kicker for them was that there is no one machine that can do everything our body does.

To illustrate one of these machines, thought it would be fun to make a model that pumps blood.

This simple experiment shows how the heart beats to pump blood out of the heart. You probably have everything you already need at home.

What you need:

a clear jar
a balloon
2 plastic bendy straws
water
food coloring (optional)
tape
scissors

How to do this Heart Pumping Experiment

Cut the balloon where the neck starts to widen into the balloon. Add a few drops of food coloring to a cup or so of water. The color helps you see the water movement better.

After filling the jar with colored water, stretch the balloon over the mouth of the jar, you want it to be as flat as possible. Cut two tiny holes in the balloon, slightly smaller than your straw holes, about an inch apart.

Take the neck of the balloon and wrap it around the end of one straw. Tape it in place. It doesn’t have to be fancy just enough to prevent water and air from going into or out of that straw.

My straws would not stay uncrossed in the jar, but it does not affect how it works. I would recommend having a pan under your jar or doing this over a sink to contain the water mess.

Now press down lightly onto the balloon you have stretched over the jar mouth. Watch what happens.

Heart Pumping Human Body Science Experiment - heart pump science fair project

My kids were very into what was happening, they were not only asking questions but answering each others question based on what they remembered from our lessons and what we read in The Usborne Book of Knowledge. They were working to together, teaching one another what they had learned.

What just happened with these pumping heart experiment:

We made a simple pump that moved water from the jar through the straws and into the pan. The cut end of the balloon worked as a valve or a gate, to stop the water from going back down the straw.

Your heart pumps blood out into your body through your arteries in a similar way. Human hearts have four separate chambers inside. This pump shows how one chamber and its valve works.

Heart Pumping Science Experiment

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Active Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Estimated Cost: $1

Learn about how a heart pumps blood through the heart and the body.

Materials

water
food coloring (optional)tape
scissors

Tools

jar
balloon
scissors
tape
2 plastic bendy straws

Instructions

Cut the balloon where the neck starts to widen into the balloon. Add a few drops of food coloring to a cup or so of water. The color helps you see the water movement better. After filling the jar with colored water, stretch the balloon over the mouth of the jar, you want it to be as flat as possible.
Cut two tiny holes in the balloon, slightly smaller than your straw holes, about an inch apart.Take the neck of the balloon and wrap it around the end of one straw. Tape it in place. It doesn't have to be fancy just enough to prevent water and air from going into or out of that straw. My straws would not stay uncrossed in the jar, but it doesn't affect how it works. I would recommend having a pan under your jar or doing this over a sink to contain the water mess.
Now press down lightly onto the balloon you have stretched over the jar mouth. Watch what happens.

For freebies make sure to sign up to our newsletter that is sent out once a week. You’ll be sent access right away and get the password at the bottom of each week’s email.

You can check out my Instagram homeschool story highlights to see just how this worked.

BookShark Science 1 Curriculum for 6-8 Year Olds

by Ashley Mullen

We are science lovers. We love making and doing science experiments. I admit I was nervous about getting an actual science curriculum for fear of losing that aspect, but we’ve still gave it a go. BookShark Science has to be one of my kids most looked forward to subjects now. I look forward to it too because I’m learning with them.

BookShark Science 1 Curriculum for 6-8 Year Olds

*This is a sponsored post, meaning that we received this curriculum in order to share it with you.*

We are using the BookShark Science 1 which is for kids aged 6-8 (my girls perfectly this year). BookShark is a literature based curriculum, and if you have followed me on Instagram or read some pasts posts here, then you know we are big fans of books, which is probably the reason we love BookShark so much. There are a number of great books included in this curriculum, plus a DVD, science kit, and of course the parent guide.

The parent guide has the curriculum spread out of 36 weeks, four days a week just like the Reading with History 1 curriculum, a day off to do other things. We aren’t actually doing it that way. And it’s perfectly fine, the guide actually says that it is just a suggestion, make it work for you. We do science twice a week, one day for the reading and worksheets (basically Monday-Wednesday of their schedule) and the next day is all about the hands on experiments.

One thing I quickly want to mention that it is a secular curriculum.

The full list of books and what’s included:

Pasteur’s Fight Against Microbes
Space
First Encyclopedia of the Human Body
Science Activities, Volume 1
The Magic School Bus at the Waterworks
Why Do People Eat?
The Usborne World of Animals Science 1 Instructor’s Guide
Science Supplies Kit 1
Discover & Do, Level 1 (DVD)

We love the books, my oldest has been reading through them since they arrived in July. We love sitting down together on the couch each Tuesday and Thursday (our science days) and reading through the pages before either a) watching a copy linked videos to learn more, b) doing the worksheets, c) watching the DVD, or d) getting hands on and doing the experiments. Such as this quick video I had shared on Instagram one day.

AD We are doing some magnet science today from @bookshark. Definitely my favorite day of the week (when we get hands on). . . . #homeschoolingscience #secularscience #handsonscience #homeeducation
A post shared by Ashley (@forgetfulmomma) on Oct 6, 2017 at 9:44am PDT

What are your kids actually going to learn

BookShark science includes basic introductory studies fields such as meteorology, biology, electricity, soil science, astronomy, physiology, and hydrology. All the things that my kids are actually interested in, and they are presented in a way that keeps their attention.

Children will uncover mysteries of the human body and health as they enjoy the First Encyclopedia of the Human Body. They’ll marvel as they travel from Earth to the ends of the known universe in the engaging, picture-filled book, Space.

They’ll also learn about animals, space, and water processing, and enjoy a biography of Louis Pasteur.

Science Experiments.

There are 30 major experiments center around water, magnets, light and mirrors. They have included what you need, with the exception of things like water of course. The DVD has them to watch either before or after you do your, as well as a great science activity book to make sure you know what your doing.

science experiment

Temperature and Water Density Science Experiment