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Type
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Activity Descriptions
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supplies
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Badge
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At Home
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Visit pbskids.org/zoom for more great science experiments you can do with your Girl Scout at home.
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Home Scientist
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Snack
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Snack Discussion
While enjoying snack, here are some things for girls to talk about:
Has anyone done other activities with static electricity? What else can you do with static?
While static electricity is fun, electricity can be dangerous. What do you do to stay safe? (Hint: static shocks on a large scale are called lightning!)
What other foods can you make using science?
Now that you’ve learned different kinds of science, can you think of other ways you use science in your life?
Can anyone else think of a toy that uses science? What about spinning toys?
Another way to tell if there’s been a chemical reaction is if something changes color. Have you ever seen anyone mix two things together that changed color? What were they?
Chemical reactions also produce heat. Has anyone ever seen something heat up using chemicals instead of a stove or microwave or other appliance (hand warmers are a good example)? What was it?
From: Girl Scouts River Valleys
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Home Scientist
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Game (20 min)
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Make Sorbet
Pour about ½ cup of juice into each small zipper bag and zip tightly.
1. Give each girl a large plastic zipper bag. Help the girls each put ½ cup water, ½ cup salt, and 1 cup of ice in her bag.
2. Give each girl a small zipper bag filled with fruit juice to put in her large bag. Ensure that are the bags are very well zipped.
3. Have the girls shake their bags (large containing small) as hard as they can repeatedly. Check the bags occasionally to see if the juice has turned into sorbet and has reached the proper consistency. Have
the girls remove the small bags. Collect the larger bags to prevent messes.
4. Girls can squeeze their sorbet into a bowl to eat it or eat it directly out of the small plastic bag
Variation: Make Ice Cream
Instructions: Fill the pint-size bag with sugar, milk, and vanilla, then seal it. Fill the gallon-size bag halfway with ice, then add the salt. Place the pint bag inside the gallon bag and seal. Shake the bags for about 10 minutes, until you see ice cream forming in the small bag. (Wear gloves your hands will get cold.) Then open it up and dig in!
Tip: Double-bag both bags in case something leaks.
What happens? Salt helps keep the ice cream temperature low enough to freeze milk, and sugar helps keep the ice cream from freezing solid! (There's more cool science in ice cream -with an adult, find out more online.)
From: Girl Scouts River Valleys and Girl Scouts of USA
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Small plastic zipper bags (one per girl)
Large plastic zipper bags (one per girl)
Fruit juice
Ice
Salt
Water
Spoons (one per girl)
Optional: Bowls
or
1 tablespdon sugar
1/2 cup whipping cream or half & half
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
6 tablespoons rock salt
or kosher salt
Small plastic zipper bags (one per girl)
Large plastic zipper bags (one per girl)
Ice
Spoons (one per girl)
Optional: Bowls
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Home Scientist 1
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| Craft |
Make a salad dressing.
Salad dressing is science in action! A vinaigrette is made with two liquids that don't want to blend.
They need the help of an "emulsifier" to come together. Here,
use mustard as your emulsifier to get vinegar and oil to mix into
something yummy for your salad.
Instructions: Put the mustard in the bowl. Add the vinegar and
whisk, whisk, whisk! Slowly add the oil while continuing to whisk.
Watch closely as the dressing gets smooth.
What happens? Look really closely-your dressing is not a mixture (like vinegar and water would be), but actually tiny oil bubbles floating in vinegar, with the help of mustard. It's an emulsion!
From: Girl Scouts USA
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1 teaspoon mustard
1 tablespoon vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper
Medium-size bowl
Whisk
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Home Scientist 1 |
| Craft |
Grow rock candy.
Make your own candyfrom sugar crystals.
Instructions: With an adult's help, boil the water. Slowly pour in the sugar, letting it dissolve as you pour. When the sugar won't dissolve anymore and begins building up on the bottom of the pan, add a few drops of the food coloring. (You can also add fruit flavoring now.)
Pour this liquid into the jar, but don't let any undissolved sugar get into the jar. Put skewers into the solution or tie string to a pencil and place the pencil across the jar.
What happens? Crystals should start to form after about an hour, but if you wait several days or weeks, your rock candy will form large crystals. Sugar is actually made
of tiny crystals that clump together.
The same idea is used to make rock candy.
FOR MORE FUN: Use a hand lens or magnifying glass to look
really closely at how the crystals grow. Do they look different
than salt crystals?
From: Girl Scouts USA
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1 cup water:
4 cup sugar
Food coloring
Jar
Wooden skewers
or string
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Home Scientist 1 |
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Game (10 min)
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Salt and Pepper Dance Party
1. Have each girl put a small amount of salt and pepper on her plate.
2. Hand out a balloon to each girl. Have the girls rub the balloons on their hair until their hair starts to stand up.
3. Have the girls run the balloon over their plate without touching the plate, salt or pepper. What happens? Tell girls:
When you rub the balloon on your hair, you are putting electrons on the balloon, giving it a negative charge. Salt and pepper have a positive charge.
Since opposites attract, the salt and pepper are both pulled toward the balloon, but pepper is lighter so it moves first. When the salt and pepper touch the balloon, the electrons jump to them. Then, the attraction is gone and the salt and pepper fall off.
From: Girl Scouts River Valleys
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Plates (one per girl)
Salt
Pepper
Balloons (one per girl)
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Home Scientist 2
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| Game |
Follow the balloon leader.
A balloon charged with static electricity can make a lot of different things follow it around the room!
Instructions: Blow up the balloon and tie the end. Rub it on
your hair. Then hold it close to a Ping-Pong ball. When you move the balloon, watch the science magic.
What happens? When you rub the balloon against your hair, you give it a negative charge. The balloon takes
some of the electrons from your hair, which leaves your hair positively charged.
Your positively charged hair is now attracted to the negatively charged balloon, so your hair starts to rise up to meet it. This is similar to the Ping-Pong ball, which is drawn to the negatively charged balloon as the area near it becomes positively charged -opposite charges attract.
You also see how same charges repel here-after you rub the balloon, the strands of your hair repel each other!
FOR MoRE FUN: Try the experiment again with small bits of paper, or blow some bubbles and see if they'll follow the balloon.
From: Girl Scouts USA
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balloon
ping pong ball
paper
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Home Scientist 2 |
| Game |
Bend water.
See if you can bend water with static electricity.
Instructions: Turn the water on in a very thin stream. Rub the comb very quickly on the sweater.
Then bring the teeth of the comb near the water, about 3-4 inches
below the faucet. Watch closely!
What happens? The water bends toward the comb! By rubbing the
comb against the sweater, you gave it a positive charge. This caused the water to be attracted to the charged item.
FoR MoRE FUN: Try moving the comb different distances
from the water. Then try running it through your hair more
times. You could also try different kinds of combs.
From: Girl Scouts USA
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Running water
from a tap
A plastic comb
A wool sweater
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Home Scientist 2 |
| Game |
Egg in salt water.
See if you can keep an egg suspended in the middle of a glass with this experiment.
Instructions: Mix the salt and one cup of water in the glass, then add a few drops of food coloring. Mix to dissolve the salt.
Then slowly pour the remaining cup of plain water down the side of the glass. Carefully lower your egg into the glass.
What happens? The egg should sink until it hits the layer of salt water.
(The food coloring is to help you see the boundary between the salt water and plain water.) Why does the egg stop sinking? Because the salt water is denser than the egg!
From: Girl Scouts USA
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A tall glass or
clear pitcher
4 tablespoons salt
2 cups water
Food coloring
An egg
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Home Scientist 3 |
| Game |
Dancing raisins.
Can you makeraisins move without touching them? Try this experiment.
Instructions: Pour the soda into the glass. Drop 6 or 7 raisins into the soda. Watch them for a few seconds.
What happens? Raisins are denser than the soda so at first they sink.
But then the bubbles from the soda fill the wrinkles in the raisins, lifting them up. When the bubbles reach the top of the glass, they pop, and the raisins sink again.
From: Girl Scouts USA
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sprite or 7up
clear glass
box of raisins
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Home Scientist 3 |
| Game |
Lemons vs. limes
Scientist Badge: Step 3 - Dive into Density
Lemons and limes seem very alike. But are they really?
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Explain the concept of density. How heavy the parts are and how tightly they are packed together determines an items density.
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Fill a deep container with water. Add the lemon and lime. What happens? Usually the lemon will float and the lime won't. This is because a lime is denser than water, but a lemon is not.
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Have them take the items provided. They should guess float or sink. Then try it out. Were they right? Why was their guess right or wrong?
Notes: limes and lemons didn’t cooperate and failed to what they were suppose to, but girls enjoyed doing the other items and seeing if they would float or sink
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Deep clear container
lemon
lime
Other items
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Home Scientist 3 |
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Game (15 min)
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Cauldron Bubbles
Step 3—Dive into density
Optional: Pour water and oil into the glasses ahead of time.
1. Divide girls into small groups. Give each group a cup and a small amount of salt, pepper, sand and sugar.
2. Have girls fill a glass half full with water. Then add about ½ inch of oil. The oil should float on top of the water because it is less dense. This means that if you had a gallon of each, the oil would weigh less
than the water.
3. Ask the girls to pour in some salt and share with the group what they see happen. The salt is less dense than the oil so it will sink down to the water layer, but it will bring an oil bubble with it. The oil and salt
together are more dense than water, so they sink together in the water. Then, the salt dissolves and the oil bubble is again less dense than the water and floats back up to the top.
4. Have the girls take turns trying the other materials. Is the result the same or different?
From: Girl Scouts River Valleys
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Clear glasses
4
Pitcher
Water
Oil
Salt
Pepper
Sugar
Optional: Sand
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Home Scientist 3
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| Game |
Soda geyser.
A geyser is a hole in the earth that sprays out hot water and steam. So making your own is definitely an outside experiment!
Instructions: Take the top off the soda bottle and set the bottle on the ground somewhere outside with nothing else around. Open the package of Mentos candy, and stick them along a piece of tape so you can drop them all into the soda at once. When you are ready to make the drop, be ready to run and stand back!
What happens? A soda geyser will erupt because of the carbon dioxide gas created by the rapid reaction between the candy and soda.
From: Girl Scouts USA
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2-liter bottle of Diet Coke
Roll of Mentos candy (mint
works best)
Long piece of Scotch tap
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Home Scientist 4 |
| Game |
Film-canister rockets.
If a gas like carbon dioxide builds up, it can create a strong force.
Instructions: Fill the film canister half-full with water. Cut the Alka Seltzer tablet into 4 pieces, then drop the pieces into the canister, and snap on the lid. Time the reaction!
What happens? The carbon dioxide created by the reaction in the canister should pop the top off the canister.
Note: It is important to use a pop on lid. Pop-in canisters are usually clear, while pop-ons are usually black with a
grey or black lids. Canisters can be purchased at a film supplies store or science supplies store
FoR MORE FUN: Try again, changing the amount of water or Alka-Seltzer. Is there a best combination?
From: Girl Scouts USA
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Old film cannister with pop on lid
Alka Seltzer tablets
Water
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Home Scientist 4 |
| Activity (10 min) |
Blow up a balloon without using your breath.
Home Scientist: Step 4 - Make something bubble up
Gases like carbon dioxide will try to find a place to go when they are expanding in confined spaces. Test this out by showing your
friends how to blow up a balloon without using your breath.
Be careful-the balloon might pop!
Instructions: With one of the spoons, add the vinegar to the bottle. Ask a friend or an adult to hold open the mouth of the balloon, and, using the other spoon, pour baking soda into the balloon. Then stretch the balloon's opening over the mouth of the bottle. Make sure the baking soda inside the balloon falls into the vinegar.
What happens? The baking soda and vinegar create carbon dioxide when they mix. There is not enough room inside the bottle for the extra gas, so it expands into the balloon, blowing it up!
Notes: It was hard to get much inflation with this amount of baking soda and vinegar
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2 Spoons
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 Tablespoons vinegar
A clean empty bottle
A balloon
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Home Scientist 4 |
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Game (15 min)
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Balloon Race
Lay the tablecloths out where girls will be working.
Take out six small cups. If you have more than 9 girls, you will need to make cups for extra groups. In the cups, put:
o 2 Tbsp. vinegar
o 1 Tbsp. baking soda
o 2 Tbsp. diet cola
o 1 Mentos candy
o 1 tablet of Alka-Seltzer, crushed
o 2 Tbsp. diet cola
1. Explain to the girls that they are going to make some chemical reactions. A chemical reaction happens when two things are put together and they form something new. It is clear that a checmical reaction has occurred if something produces heat, changes color or makes a gas.
2. Split the girls into three groups. If you have more than nine girls, you can make extra groups.
3. Give each group a plastic soda bottle and a balloon. Additionally, give each group one of the three following combinations of prepared cups. Be sure that each combination is being used by at least one group.
A cup of Alka-Seltzer and a cup of water
A cup of vinegar and a cup of baking soda
A cup of diet cola and a Mentos candy
4. Ask each group to look at their materials and say what they think they have in their cups. What do they think will happen when they combine their materials?
5. Tell girls that when you give them the signal, they should put the contents of their cups into their bottle and put the balloon over the opening as fast as possible. They may need assistance from an
adult.
6. All the balloons should blow up. The size and speed of the inflation will depend on which reaction is taking place and how fast girls put the balloon on. Give the reactions time to finish. Have groups
observe their own bottle and the other groups’ bottles.
7. Remind the girls there are several ways to tell if a chemical reaction is taking place and one of those signs is when a gas is produced. Ask girls which combination of materials produced the strongest
reaction and why.
8. Have the girls clean up their areas.
From: Girl Scouts River Valleys
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Paper towels
Plastic tablecloths
Clean, empty plastic soda bottles—approximately 20 ounce size (one per group)
Balloons (one per group)
Small cups—approximately 3 ounce size (one-two per group)
Vinegar
Baking Soda
Alka-Seltzer
Yeast
Diet cola
Mentos
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Home Scientist 4
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Game (10 min)
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Water Mazes
Step 5—Play with science
Make copies of the mazes on paper or cardstock (one per one to two girls) and cut each maze out around the black line.
Put each maze into a separate plastic zipper bag.
Optional: you can laminate the cards rather than put them in a zipper bag.
1. Explain to the girls that while water may not seem very exciting, it actually has some very special properties. Three of these fun properties are:
Cohesion—the molecules (tiny pieces) of the water stick to each other.
Adhesion—the molecules of the water stick to other surfaces.
Surface Tension —the molecules on the water’s surface stick to each other forming a “skin.”
2. Tell the girls that you are going to use these three properties to play with water. Give each girl or pair of girls a maze in a plastic bag or a laminated maze.
3. Use the straw(s) to put a droplet of water in the colored portion of the maze, near the edge of the card.
4. Tell girls that the object is to get the water to drip off the other side of the card without touching the white portion of the maze.
5. When girls have completed their mazes, have them trade for a different one as time allows.
From: Girl Scouts River Valleys
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Small plastic zipper bags
Mazes
Water Maze.pdf
Cardstock or paper
Scissors
Small straws
Water
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Home Scientist 5
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Game (25 min)
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Glurch
1. Give each girl a small bowl and a spoon. In each bowl, add 1/8 cup glue, a pinch of salt, and 1-2 drops of food coloring (optional).
2. Have the girls stir until combined. Slowly add 1/4 cup liquid starch to each bowl as the girls continue stirring.
3. After a short time, each girl should have a “glob” of putty in her bowl. Have the girls grab this glob and knead it on the wax paper.
4. After the girls all have a putty-like substance, have them experiment with it. Does it stretch? Does it run? Can they use it to pick things up? Explain that Glurch is a kind of chemical called a colloid. It has
some properties of a liquid and some properties of a solid.
5. When the girls are finished playing with the Glurch, help them put it into plastic zipper bags on which they have written their names.
From: Girl Scouts River Valleys
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White glue (approximately 1/8 cup per girl)
Liquid starch (approximately 1/4 cup per girl)
Salt
Small bowls
Spoons
Water
Wax paper (12”x12” square per girl)
Small plastic zipper bags (one per girl)
Permanent marker
Optional: food coloring
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Home Scientist 5
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| Game |
Giant bubbles.
These are even more fun than the small ones from the standard bubble wand.
Instructions: To make your bubble blower, cut a long piece of string and thread it through two straws. Tie the ends of the string together, and then slide the knot into the middle of one of the straws. You can adjust the blower size by making the length of string shorter or longer before tying ends. Pour the liquids into the tub and mix. Dip your blower into the tub. Holding the straws, slowly spin around. With some practice, you should create huge bubbles!
From: Girl Scouts USA
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Cotton string
A large plastic tub
2 plastic straws
1 cup dishwashing soap
4 cups water
1/2 cup light-colored corn syrup or glycerin
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Home Scientist 5 |
| Craft |
Homemade Silly Putty.
Silly Putty is fun goo that you can stretch, stamp, and play with.
Instructions: In the bowl, mix 8 drops of food coloring, the glue, and 1 cup water. Mix the borax with 1 1/3 cups water. Slowly add the liquid starch or borax mixture to the colored glue and water mixture. Knead the mixture until you can stretch it but it isn't too mushy. Store in a plastic bag or covered container. (If it's out in the air for more than two hours it will harden!)
From: Girl Scouts USA
Notes: I really failed to get this one to work. I should have experimented more with the right proportions before the meeting.
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Food coloring
3/4 c glue
1/4 c liquid.
starch or borax
Mixing bowl
water
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Home Scientist 5 |
| Craft |
Make dinosaur snot.
Okay, so maybe it isn't real ... but it sure looks like it!
Instructions: In the bowl, mix the cornstarch and water. Add a few drops of yellow and green food coloring to the mixture. Use your hands to make sure it has really combined. After about a minute, you'll have stretchy slime that looks like it came from a dinosaur. Achoo!
From: Girl Scouts USA
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A mixing bowl
1 1/2 cups cornstarch
1 cup water
Yellow and green
food coloring
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Home Scientist 5 |
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