This is an activity that enables you and your child to observe the life-cycle of fruitflies.
Put some fruit in a bowl and simply, wait for fruit flies to land on ’em !
While the flies are feasting on the fruit, discuss what the flies may have done. “What are they doing?” ”What kind of changes do you see on the fruit?”
Whip out your magnifying glass and look at the fruit. Do you see any eggs there?
Cover the platter of fruit with a cloth and fasten it with a band. You could lift the cloth off
at various intervals in the day and look for changes in the fruit. In the span of a week, you
and your child can view the changes as the eggs hatch into larvae, the larvae grow into
pupae and watch as the the pupae emerge as adult flies.
Filed under: Exploring Science on August 9th, 2007 | No Comments »
When Joy was littler, we used to watch storms together from the balcony door of our flat. The balcony overlooked a large pond, which made lightning streaking across the dark evening sky look more spectacular than ever. We would sing that rhyme-song, “I hear thunder” or sometimes we’d just stand and watch. I taught […]
Filed under: Exploring Science on July 24th, 2007 | No Comments »
This is one dirty thing to make! Smog , particularly ground-level ozone and airborne particles, is harmful to living things. Making this experiment is a handy way to kickstart a discussion about pollution and
conservation.
Smog is a concoction of tiny water droplets in air and carbon dioxide. This results in a foul
atmosphere.
This is how you can make smog:
-Cut a strip of paper, fold it, then twist it.
-With some foil, make a jar cover. Then put that aside.
Now you need to make the foil really cold. You can do that by placing some ice cubes on it.
-Wet the jar so that its walls are damp.
-Light one end of the paper strip, drop it into the jar.
-Seal the mouth of the jar with the cold foil. Keep the ice cubes on top of the foil.
Ask your child what she can see in the jar.
Ask her what happened. You could ask questions like:
-What happened to the water on the sides of the jar ? You could ask leading questions like:
“What happens to water when it is heated up?
( turns to vapour.)
- What happens to vapour when it is cold? ( It condenses and becomes water/ droplets) So ,
what happened to the water vapour in the jar when it met the cold air ( from the foil)?
-Can you think of times when you have seen this?
Mist actually forms in the jar. It forms when warm air meets cold air. In the absence of moving
air, fog is formed.
Filed under: Exploring Science on July 20th, 2007 | No Comments »
A chameleon is able to see in different directions at the same time. This enables it to ‘multitask’- watch for predators and look for food. As a mom, I can think of times when I wish I had eyes like that - watch the toddler and keep an eye on the frying pan, watch the […]
Filed under: Exploring Science on July 17th, 2007 | No Comments »
Before you decide to throw out your old stockings, restrain yourself. They come in handy for this simple ‘gardening’ activity.
Fill an old nylon stocking with compost ( soil-lest). Make a knot at the opening. Now you’ve got a head, somewhat. Use some markers and draw in a face. Plant grass seed on top of the […]
Filed under: Exploring Science on July 14th, 2007 | No Comments »
When we had our first baby, we were living in a cramped apartment in the inner-city. There were no playgrounds no parks nearby; directly below our flat was a sprawling carpark, lined with tarred roads and hemmed by wired fences. The year before, someone living a floor below us got busted by the police for possessing firearms. That year itself, two shootings had occured just a block away , […]
Filed under: Exploring Science on July 5th, 2007 | No Comments »
