Igniting the Spark

It’s easy to get kids interested and excited about science when you cultivate their natural curiosity.

October 2007

By Holly O'Dell

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When you can, complement science experiments from school with activities at home. “Take the experiment that occurred in the classroom, change one thing, and see what happens,” Ellenbogen suggests. “Learning about something the first time is good, but children learn so much more from doing it a second time and doing it differently.”

Such curiosity not only inspires learning, it also begets creativity—a necessity for tomorrow’s science workforce. “Our society doesn’t necessarily need smarter scientists, technicians, or engineers,” says Steve Jevning, founder of Leonardo’s Basement, a hands-on learning facility in Minneapolis. “We need creative ones—people who are comfortable taking risks and trying to solve problems that have been determined to be insolvable.

“The only way to foster an environment that encourages young people to think in those terms is to give them unfettered freedom to explore.”

More Ways To Explore
Frozen Fortress	Tiny Bubbles	Light Painting
Can your child stack ice cubes? Have him try it. What happens? Now use this little trick to make them stick. Have your child add a little salt to the top of each cube as he stacks. Salt lowers the freezing point of the water long enough to make the cubes stick together. How tall can he make the tower? Does the shape of the ice chunks matter? Using salt, can he make other items stick to the top of the tower?	Can your child magically raise a raisin? Start with a clear glass filled with clear soda pop and a small pile of raisins. Ask your child what she thinks will happen if she drops a raisin in the glass. Once she does, the raisin will drop, but the fun isn’t over. Bubbles from the soda will attach to the raisin, increase its volume and reduce its weight just enough for it to rise. Once some of the bubbles pop, the raisin sinks again. Drop in more raisins—do they all act the same? Try other objects—coins, rice, pebbles—and have your child predict what will happen. Some things are too heavy and bubbles won’t help lift them.	Can your child capture light in motion? She can if you help her slow it down. At night, put your camera (digital will show immediate results), on a slow shutter speed or night setting and turn off the flash. Give your child a small flashlight or florescent glowstick. Set the camera on a table, turn out the light, and press the button as you have your child swish the glowstick in lines, circles, or stars while you count to ten (long enough for the camera to take a long-exposure photo). The image she’ll see has swirling lines of light against a dark background. Light travels at 186,000 miles per second, but when the camera eye (lens) stays open for a few seconds, it captures light’s path.

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