We had a great first week of camp here at the Museum of Natural History!
We started off with some camp favorites on Monday, building
roller coasters and making catapults. We used pipe insulation tubing and talked
about potential and kinetic energy and gravity to design some Cedar
Point-worthy roller coasters. Then we made catapults out of toilet paper tubes, plastic spoons and rubber bands and even competed to see who’s catapult could fling the farthest!
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| Image credit: pbskids.org |
Tuesday was all about light. We did an activity to explore
the color of light, where we used 3 flashlights covered in colored cellophane
to see what happens when you combine different colors of light. We discovered
that it is different than combining pigments, like paint. Next, we made color
spinners to see how the colors on the wheel are mixed when it spins rapidly.
On Wednesday, we took a trip to the Hands-On Museum and
spent our time exploring the various exhibits. We had a lot of fun climbing the
rock wall, going back in time and pretending to be customers and cashiers at
the General Store, and hanging out in an ambulance!
Thursday we did a lot of activities with magnets. We talked
about what a magnet is, and played around with neodymium magnets, and extra
strong magnet that can attract paperclips through your hand! We did an activity
to look at the magnetism of a dollar bill, and discovered that there is
magnetic ink in the money to prevent counterfeiting. Then we made spinning
motors using magnets, batteries and copper wire! 
We ended our week on Friday looking at alternative energy sources. We had a car race with our solar race cars, and then built wind turbines using household materials such as toilet paper rolls and index cards. Who knew alternative energy could be so fun!
We had a great week, and look forward to another week of
phenomenal physics activities!
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