Perform a simple and interesting classroom or home based experiment to demonstrate the capillary action used by plants to consume water. Take a regular white flower, such as a lily, and before the watching eyes of your young scientists, cut down the center of the lily's stem vertically -- the lily stem should now be in two halves but still attached where the stem joins the flower. Place two glasses next to one another and fill each glass three-quarters full with tap water. Add 10 drops of blue food coloring to one of the glasses. Ask your learner scientists what will happen to the flower in this condition and why. Hide the plant for at least 24 hours before showing them the lily flower. Explain to the children that the half of the flower with the stem submerged in the blue water turns blue because of the capillary action.
Conduct an experiment to determine which substance melts ice faster: salt dissolved in water or sugar dissolved in water. Start by making two ice cubes of the same size by emptying half of a medicine dropper into two slots of an ice cube tray. As the water is freezing, add 1 tablespoon of salt to a measuring cup of water and 1 tablespoon of sugar to another measuring cup of water. Empty one solution into each beaker, noting which is which, before adding an ice cube to each one and starting a timer. Get your young scientists to predict which ice cube will melt faster before your experiment begins. Write down the time it takes for each ice cube to melt completely before comparing the ice-melting performance of salt and sugar water.
Start your fun investigation into the density of hot and cold water using two identical balloons and mixing bowls. Fill one mixing bowl half full of hot water and the other with cold. Stretch out the two balloons before filling them each with water that is at room temperature. Place a balloon in each of the mixing bowls, observing the difference between the hot and cold water conditions. The youngsters will note that hot water is less dense than cold water because the balloon in this mixing bowl sinks deeper into the water.
Use your cool and fun kids' experiments to help educate your youngsters about health and safety when carrying out scientific studies. Even though your experiments are all relatively safe, you should still capitalize on this opportunity to introduce health and safety to your learner scientists. Prior to starting your experiments, instruct youngsters to put on white laboratory coats, rubber gloves and safety goggles. Take time to explain how these items protect clothing from stains, skin from harmful chemicals and hot or cold equipment and the goggles protect the eyes.