Physical Science Quest 1

Our first week of camp has been going great! We have had many exciting experiments and even more exciting campers to share them with!

On Monday, we experimented with Luminescence. We did a Glow Stick experiment, in which we cut up glow sticks and placed them in cups of warm and cold water. The fast-moving molecules of the warm water caused the glow stick to glow much brighter, yet for a shorter time, than the one placed in cold water. Then we made Glow in the Dark sculptures!!

Elaina connecting her group's individual polymer chains.

On Tuesday, we investigated polymers. We discussed the structure of polymers by creating chains of monomers (a stencil of a stick figure). The result was a strand of people (the polymer).

Myra coloring her individual polymer chain.

Next, we made silly putty and bouncy balls, two examples

Adi with his slime!

of polymers that we see in everyday life. We also explored polymer properties by extracting the powder from a disposable diaper and seeing how it absorbs water.

Hannah's group making their silly putty and bouncy balls.

On Wednesday, we did an Egg Drop experiment

Roni dropping one of her groups' egg contraptions from the Rotunda balcony.

 and then made towers out of crafts materials. Only two of the eight groups' eggs broke!

Brittany helping Drew and Scott see if their egg broke from the fall.

Ready to test our boomerangs!

On Thursday, we took a field trip to the Hands on Museum to do a Flying Toys workshop. We built and tested paper airplanes and boomerangs.










On Friday, we had a lot of chemistry fun! We did an exploding lunch bag experiment, where we put vinegar, water and baking soda inside of a zip-lock bag and watched it expand and, finally, explode! We cleaned pennies in a special vinegar and salt solution. Finally, we tested different kinds of juice with an acid (vinegar) and a base (washing soda solution) to find which juice was artificial.

We had a great week and hope your campers did too! Be sure to ask your children about the experiments that we did so you can hear first-hand what we discovered!