Margarine and Marbles by Nicola Moon and Mark Oliver. Crabtree Publishing. 2006
Magnets and Batteries by David Evans and Claudette Williams. Scholastic Canada. 1993.
Visually better for younger ages. I have only drawn from the magnet experiments.
The Science Book of Magnets by Neil Ardley. Doubleday Canada. 1991
Good robust experiments and good simple explanations. No explanation of how magnets actually work.
Animals in Winter by Henrietta Bandroft and Richard Van Gelder. Harper Collins. 1997
Not West coast animals, but nicely written, and good for younger grades.
Animals in Winter by Ron Fisher. National Geographic Society. (Books for young Explorers) 1982
Super pictures. The text jumps about a bit, but OK for older students.
one ore more of:
Distribute materials to make rainbows, either with one or several methods. These methods separate light into its colours.
White light is a mixture of many colours. Other coloured lights are made up of a mixture of a subset of these colours. See the first photo to see how light colours mix to make new light colours.
CDs/DVDs:
Tip the disc towards the room lights, the sun, or shine a flashlight on them. When light hits the groves in the CD, they spread the light out into its component colours, which line up into a rainbow. See the second photo.
Cut glass or prisms:
A piece of cut glass or a prism in a box can be arranged so that a flashlight shining onto a cut edge of the glass separates the colours of the white light into the colours of the rainbow. See the third photo.
A hanging ornament (sometimes called a "rainbow catcher") of cut glass separates sunlight into its rainbow of colours.
Scratched plastic/diffraction gratings/rainbow glasses:
The scratched lines in the plastic of these materials separate light into its component colours.
White light separates into the spectrum of the rainbow. With objects or light sources that only emit some colours e.g. holiday lights or various coloured objects, they only emit a portion of the whole colour spectrum, so when their light is separated, a reduced range of colours are seen.
(Astronomy connection lesson plan on star spectra.)
Using marker pens, the scratched plastic can be used to find out the primary colours of light (cyan (a light blue), magenta (pinky red) and yellow:
Give students purple or dark blue, green and red markers. Ask them to make a blob of colour on white paper, then look at the blob to see what colours "bleed" out of the sides. They should find that cyan, magenta and yellow appear around many colours. This is because the scratched plastic is splitting up the light coming from the marker pen and splitting it into its component colours - these are the colours that make up light (cyan, magenta and yellow). Just like paint there are also secondary colours, which might be seen where primary colours overlap.
Oil:
A thin layer of oil (e.g. on the road from a car) can also make a rainbow of colours when light from the sun hits it.
With older students, discussion can include how the colours are separated:
The edge of a glass prism, or cut glass, bends each of the wavelengths (colours) of light slightly differently, so that they are separated out. The bending of light is called refraction.
The colours in a CD or scratched plastic, in bubbles or an oil slick are formed by interference. When light is reflected from the grooves of the CD or the top and bottom surfaces of a bubble or oil, the light waves interact with each other. Interference of the waves enhances some wavelengths and cancels others in different places, resulting in a rainbow.
Buy rainbow glasses from spectrum-nasco.ca
Turn the lights on and of in different combinations while holding a hand up to create shadows.
Experiment to find out what is going on.
With one bulb we get the light coming from it showing on the white wall. If our hand is in the way, we block the light and there is a dark shadow.
With two colours we make a new colour (additive colours of light). Our hand blocks one, leaving the other colour showing in its shadow.
cyan is blue and green
magenta is blue and red
yellow is red and green (red and green receptors in our eye are stimulated by yellow)
With three colours, we make almost white. Our hand blocks one, leaving the mixture of the other two colours in its shadow. We get dark where all three shadows overlap.
This lesson is best done once students have been introduced to Newton's Laws:
First Law - objects will stay stopped or in constant motion until a force acts on them (which might make them stop or start or change direction)
Second Law - F=ma: for a constant force a smaller mass will accelerate more than a larger mass; a greater force will make the same mass accelerate more.
Third Law - for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction; when an object pushes on another it gets pushed back with equal force.
Balloon rocket activity in the classroom on a string, or outdoors with no string - let it fly free.
Discuss why it flies - the air is under pressure in the balloon so it rushes out of the hole. As it leaves it pushes back on the balloon exerting a force on the balloon which sends it forwards/upwards. Third Law Newton's Laws of action-reaction.
The Third Law (action reaction) is also demonstrated with a rocket, either the film canister rocket or Baking soda and vinegar rocket demonstration.
A chemical reaction is used to build up gas pressure inside the rocket. As the gas exits downwards, it pushes on the rocket and makes it go upwards - action and reaction.
Newton's Second Law F=ma can be demonstrated in a rocket in two ways. We can either increase the force which increases the speed it goes up - this can be achieved by pushing the cork into the demonstration rocket harder (more gas pressure builds up before the cork exits). Or we can decrease the mass - turn the demonstration rocket upside down for launching and with the same amount of baking soda and vinegar (same force) the smaller mass of the cork means that it is shot way higher than the greater mass of the whole rocket. (Note that it is best to use a dry cork, and dry the inside rim of the bottle, for this comparison as a wet cork slides out more easily. Try and push the cork in the same as before.)
Use molecule models to show how the baking soda and vinegar make gas.
Show the chemical reaction for real rockets.
Airplanes have more complex forces than rockets, but Newton's Laws are still happening.
Students make paper airplanes, followed by discussion of the balance of forces that keep them in the air.
Lift is from Newton's Third Law - as the airflows off the wing it flows downwards. This downwards flow of air pushes back up on the wing, making a lifting force.
Allow students to experiment with tailoring their airplanes with the forces in mind.
The catapult demonstrates all three Laws - change the ammo weight to see how the same force makes it go further, or the elastic band tension to see how a greater force gives greater acceleration.
Balancing sculpture demonstrates forces in balance - the sculpture settles where the forces balance each other out.
Destination Imagination Science Workshop