ingridscience

Students can be instructed step by step on how to make the sound sandwich.
Or, they are given a model at each table group to replicate - they need to use skills of careful observation and small manipulations.

Make the sound sandwich as follows:
Loop the wide rubber band around one of the large popsicle sticks.
Push the coffee stir stick piece under the rubber band, near the end of the popsicle stick.
(Optional addition: Lay the small popsicle stick over the rubber band, near the other end of the popsicle stick.)
Lay the second large popsicle stick over the first, sandwiching the coffee stir stick (and small popsicle stick if used) between them.
Wrap the small rubber bands around the ends, to strap the large popsicle sticks together.
Blow through the large popsicle sticks to make the rubber band vibrate (making sure not to get it wet with your tongue).
(Optional if part of model: Move the small popsicle stick nearer or further from the centre of the sound sandwich, to change the tone of the sound.)

Once they have made it and figured out how to make a noise, ask how they think the noise is made (and how we hear it).
(Blowing makes the band vibrate, which makes air molecules vibrate. The vibration of air molecules spreads out and moves to our ears where it causes the vibration of our ear drum, which leads to the stimulation of neurons in our inner ear.)

Then add nuances of the noise maker:
The sound can be changed by blowing harder or softer (makes the band vibrate at different frequencies, therefore producing a different pitch).
Can you make a sound by sucking air through it?

Detailed instructions at:
https://www.exploratorium.edu/snacks/sound-sandwich

Students can be instructed on how to make the hummer, or ask them to look at a model and figure out how to make it themselves (skills in careful observation, trial and error testing).

Put the erasers on the end of the posicle stick.
Cut the index card so that it fits between the erasers, then staple it to the popsicle stick.
Tie the string onto the posicle stick, beside the index card.
Stretch the rubber band around the erasers.
Hold the end of the string and swing the hummer around your head.

Instructions at:
http://www.exploratorium.edu/afterschool/activities/index.php?activity=…

Tip: the rubber band must be flat (not twisted) for this to work.

Discuss how the sound is made:
As the hummer moves it makes the rubber band vibrate. The index card amplifies the sound.

Students can try changing the rubber band to see how it changes the sound.

Look at each animal part, and discuss it as an adaptation for the animal.
Look at the living animals, and ask students to note parts of its body that is an adaptation to its environment.

Antlers:
After laying the antlers on the table, ask the students what they are. Who they are from.
Students can carefully lift them to experience how heavy they are. How does a moose carry around that weight?
Use questions of students, along with asking them to notice features to lead discussion on antler formation and function
e.g. blood vessel lines: antlers were first cartilage covered in a skin with blood, then replaced by bone.
e.g. nibbled part provided calcium for other animals.

Give the students their ears.
When their ears are on their head they are a coyote.
To be a rabbit, students turn one of the ears down, floppy bunny ear-style.
To be grass, students put their ears around their necks out of the way, squat down and put their fingers up like blades of grass.

Divide the students into different species for the first round of the game: about 10% of them are coyotes (wearing ears); the rest of them split between rabbits (with floppy bunny ears) and grass (ears around necks and fingers up).
Divide the area into three parts. The coyote territory is in the middle, the rabbits on one side, the grass on the other side.

When the teacher signals the start of a day (or more realistically, a month), the rabbits try and run across the coyotes territory to get to the grass. The coyotes try and catch them by tagging them as they run across. If a rabbit does make it across the coyote territory, it needs to find a grass of its own.

Initially at least, once the rabbits have made it across, or not, the teacher signals the end of the day, and the class discusses what has happened and resets the characters as follows:
If a rabbit is caught by a coyote, the coyote gets to eat and reproduce: the rabbit becomes a coyote for the next round.
If the rabbit makes it across the coyotes’ territory, and finds its own grass to eat, it reproduces: the grass it pairs with becomes a rabbit for the next round.
If a coyote does not catch a rabbit, or a rabbit does not find their own grass, they die, and recycle into the earth: they become grass for the next round.
At the end of the round, all rabbits walk back across the coyote territory unchallenged to their starting side.
If the students get the hang of becoming a new species each round, try running the game continuously: they switch out their ears/tail/grass as they become a new species each time. Rabbits can walk back across the coyote territory unchallenged before attempting to run across without being caught to reach the grass.

Run the game for several rounds, maybe stopping earlier if one of the living things dies out (or not - to see how the other populations are affected).
Discuss what happened: the individuals that are able to eat can reproduce. If there are a lot of one species, the food that they eat becomes depleted, then there is competition for the less food available, and not as many of that species are able to eat and survive, so their population decreases again. This game shows population changes in action. Sometimes a species may die out, and the populations of the other species it interacts with in the food chain take over.

Add in an adaptation, showing natural selection:
One rabbit gets a random mutation in its DNA that makes it run a little faster than the other rabbits. Signify this by adding a clip or other marker to the headband of one rabbit. In the game this rabbit with a mutation gets to cross the coyote's territory without being tagged. If it finds its own grass it can reproduce to make another rabbit, also with the "fast" mutation (add a clip to the headband).
As the days past by, more and more of the rabbits that survive have the fast mutation. It is a beneficial adaptation that has spread through the population. This shows natural selection - how beneficial mutations are selected for.

Discuss other adaptations in coyotes and rabbits that help them survive:
The coyotes have teeth and claws to catch their prey, large ears and good noses to locate prey etc
The rabbits have long legs to escape from predators, also large ears to listen out for danger etc
Both animals are camouflaged to blend in with their surroundings. For the rabbit, a prey animal, it can hide in the grass better and not be spotted by a coyote. Coyotes are camouflaged so that they can sneak closer their prey without being seen by them.

To make the rocket:
Roll the cardstock snugly around the stiff tube, then tape along its length to make it into a tube. Slide the cardstock tube off, flatten one end, and tape it closed with packing tape. Optional now or after launching a few times: decorate/add rocket fins etc.
To make the launcher:
Pull the bike inner tube over the mouth of the plastic bottle and secure with duct tape. (Or push the PVC tubing inside the mouth of the bottle and secure with duct tape.)
Pull the other end of the inner tube over one end of the stiff tube and secure with duct tape. (Or push the other end of the PVC tubing inside the stiff tube and secure with duct tape.)

To launch:
Take the rocket outside, or into a gym/hallway with a high ceiling.
Slide the cardstock rocket over the stiff tube, point away from people, then stomp on the water bottle.
To reinflate the water bottle, blow down the stiff tube, before putting the rocket on again for relaunch.

Replace plastic bottle once this one stops working - try a bigger bottle (e.g. 2 litre), although stiffer plastics tend to crack sooner.

Add fins to the tube to make it fly straighter and higher.

Build with PVC tubing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za_2uj1mbyw

Discussion in terms of molecules:
When the plastic bottle is stepped on, the air is pushed out of the bottle and into the tubing next to it, creating an area of high pressure (i.e. the molecules of air are closer together). This high pressure region moves along the flexible tube (molecules always move from high to low pressure areas), and into the stiff tube. When the high pressure molecules exit the stiff tube, they hit the cardboard rocket and push it upwards. The pressure is great enough to exert a force that sends the rocket high into the air.

This activity needs quite a dark area, so give students a while to get their eyes adjusted to the dark first.

Place a wintergreen lifesaver on the cloth under the piece of plexi.
Smash the plexi with a hammer.
As the candy gets broken into small pieces, flashes of blue light are seen in different places under the plexi.

Young student explanation: when you hit the candy you put in energy. The energy comes out again as light. It is lightening on a very small scale.

Older student explanation: As you hit the candy you separate charged particles. As electricity flows between them it excites the nitrogen in the air. The excited nitrogen re-emits the energy as light - mostly UV but some blue. This happens with regular sugar, but the light emitted is mostly UV so not so visible. This is the same chemistry as lightening. The wintergreen flavour amplifies the light - methyl salicylate is a fluorescent molecule: it absorbs the UV emitted by the nitrogen and re-emits blue light, so making the light given off more in the visible range where we can see it.

When you shine light on these items they glow. The UV light gives fluorescent molecules extra energy. They release this energy again as light.
(Older students: discuss how electrons move to a different energy level when excited by the UV light, then release photons of a different colour light as they return to unexcited state).

Fluorescent markers only glow when the UV light hits them - the fluorescent molecules release the light energy right away.
Glow in the dark object release light after the UV light is taken away - the "phosphorescent" molecules in them release light slowly.

Some rocks are fluorescent. See photo of calcite fluorescing pink.