We had another great week filled with even more physics
adventures! On Monday, we visited the U-M Physics Department and saw all sorts of
cool physics demos. We learned how our eyes focus light that enters, we saw how
a wine glass breaks under certain sound wave frequencies, and we even saw some
awesome cannons that fired when a battery was charged with high voltage, and
then released all at once! Then we came back to the Museum of Natural History
and played with our Magnus Gliders, made from Styrofoam cups and rubber bands.
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| Flying our Magnus Gliders outside the Museum |
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| Learning about wave frequencies at the Physics Demo |
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| Learning how an eyeball focuses light |
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| Watching a wine glass shatter due to high frequency |
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| The awesome tennis ball cannon! |
Tuesday was all about optics and light. We explored convex
and concave lenses, and say how they bend light differently. We made hidden
messages and then put colored cellophane over them to see which colors would
bring out the message. We discovered the opposite colors on the color-wheel
work together- so a hidden message in yellow or orange would come out if you
put blue cellophane over it. Finally,
for our big event of the day, we dissected cow eyes! Despite the fact that is
was a little gross, it was really cool to see the different parts of the eye
and what each is used for! We found the optic nerve, retina, lens and something
called a tapetum, which reflects light in the eye when its dark so animals can
see better at night.
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| Dissecting a cow eye |
On Wednesday, we took a field trip to the Hands-On Museum.
We spent a little bit of time on each floor, and had a lot of fun playing with
all of the exhibits! Some of our favorites were the bubble ring and the rock
wall.
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| Learning about sand dunes at the Hands On Museum |
Thursday we talked about polymers, which are long chains of
molecules that get all tangled up and stick to each other! We did some
experiments to see what kind of materials are polymers and even made our own
chains out of paper that helped us to understand what a polymer is. Then we
used our new knowledge to make Gravi-Goo, a gel that self-siphons, and Borax
slime, and saw how these polymers stuck together and even stuck to our hands
(and the floor…oops.)
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| Making polymer chains |
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| Mixing the Gravi-Goo |
We spent our last day exploring sound. We did several activities,
including sound charades, where we had to make sounds like car horns and
crunching leaves, and sound houses, which sing a note when you swing them
around. We also made sound sandwiches and guitars out of materials like
cardboard, popsicle sticks, straws and rubber bands! It was a very musical (and
noisy) day, and a fun way to end a fantastic week!
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| Playing our sound sandwiches |
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| Sound Charades |
We are excited to see both old and new friends next week for
our first session of forensic science camp, CSI: Ann Arbor. We will need all
the help we can to get to the bottom of some mysterious situations, and hope
our campers can help us out!!
