Day 3: Egg shrinking and Simple Machines

We had a wonderful day today at camp.  Our day began with a a short worship followed by an ice breaker game as we continue to foster camper friendships.  The campers then separated into their two groups.  

The younger group collected data from their seedlings as well as fed the venous flytrap they planted on Monday. Their anticipation as to when that plant will sprout is evident in their excitement!  These young scientists then conducted an investigation on the properties of water and how water may affect a different type of material.  They compared playground dirt sand to "quick sand" which is really magnetized sand. Observations on how each sand type felt, smelled, and looked were recorded.  Then water was added to each of the sands and observations were taken again.  At last it was time to check on the eggs that had been left in water yesterday.  The campers measured the egg mass and were shocked to see how much they had grown and gotten heavier!  After writing/illustrating these observations the young scientists added Karo syrup and/or molasses to their eggs and observed how the eggs began to shrink immediately, their reactions were priceless.  We discussed what was happening and campers agreed that the eggs were shrinking because the water was leaving the inside, but how?  We will continue this investigation tomorrow when we look at the eggs again.  Art was a part of the day as campers created a collage of leaves which they painted.  We will discuss the leaf sizes tomorrow when we look at their finished and dried products.

The older group spent the morning learning about the different types of simple machines: Pulleys, Levers, Wheel & Axle, Inclined Planes, Wedges, and Screws.  To built a conceptual understanding of what they learned they also conducted to investigations.  One investigation involved understanding inclined planes by using cardboard, mini toy cars, protractors and rulers.  The scientists goal was to figure out at what angle should the ramp be for the car to to the farthest.  The second investigation involved levers.  The campers had to create a lever using a ruler and a rubber stopper which would then be used to find out how many magnets does it take to to balance the lever against a specified weight.  For both of these investigations campers had to create data tables and come up with a hypothesis before conducting the experiment.  The afternoon for these scientists was spent on the continued construction of the model of a playground.  They are expected to have at least three types of small machines included in their playground equipment.  These projects are really coming along!  These scientists are very creative!

Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!