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STEM FUN

Making a Paddleboat

7/30/2020

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Today, I will show you how to make a paddleboat using recycled materials.

This is a great experiment to do on a hot day and will teach you about energy.
You will need:
1 plastic bottle
2 sticks/pencils
1 popsicle stick
Duct tape
1 rubber band (The picture shows a thick band but a thinner one works better). 

  
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Stick the sticks/pencils to the side of the plastic bottle.
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Put the rubber band around the sticks/pencils.  
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Twist the popsicle stick on the rubber band and hold it.
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Let the popsicle stick go and watch it spin.
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Now you can test it in water. I first tried it in the sink and then moved to an inflatable pool so it had more space. The boat moves forward.
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The science behind it:
When you twist the band, it stores energy called potential energy. When you let it go, the potential energy converts to kinetic energy. The popsicle stick acts like an oar, pushing the water as it spins. This moves the boat through the water.
I hope you have fun making your boat. 
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Making a Solar Oven

7/13/2020

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I love backyard camping. One thing we don't have is a firepit so there is no way to make s'mores outside. We decided to make a solar oven so that we could make and enjoy s'mores. It was a fun project and it worked. Scroll down to see the instructions. 
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You will need:
- A box or two. We used two boxes as the main one had a hole on the top. 
- Scissors 
- Aluminum Foil
- Plastic wrap
- Tape
- Glue
- Black paper (enough to cover the bottom of the main box)
- Markers and stickers (optional for decorations)
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Here are the steps:
Cut a big hole in the middle of the box. My box already had a hole so we only had to cut out a little.  
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Glue black paper to the bottom of the box. 
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If you want, decorate the top of the box using stickers or markers. 
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​Tape plastic wrap to the bottom of the lid of the main box. This should fill the hole that we cut out.
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​Cut out the lid of the other box. Wrap it in aluminum foil and tape it.  Tape this lid to the top of the main box.
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Finally, tape some poles to the lid so that it stays up when cooking. Your oven is ready.
Then it is time to test it outside. 
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We first prepared some s'mores. While we were doing this, the oven was preheating outside in the sun. We moved the box and the lid around to make sure the oven was catching the sun and directing it to the oven.
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When the inside of the oven was warm, we put in the s'mores. We waited at least 30 minutes for them to melt. This time will depend on how warm the sun is. We did it in the morning when the sun was still warming up. 
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How it works:
The silver foil refracts the sunlight to the oven. The black at the bottom of the box absorbs the heat from the sun. The plastic wrap traps the heat in so that the oven stays warm. This cooks the food. Our oven wasn't warm enough to cook anything else, but maybe on a warmer day it would be hotter. We will have to test. 

Finally, our s'mores were ready. They were delicious. 
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Now we can enjoy more s'mores when we do backyard camping.  

I hope you enjoy making your solar ovens and your s'mores. 
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Recycled Crayon Cupcakes

7/4/2020

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Today we are making colorful recycled crayons using broken crayons. We are making them in the shape of mini cupcakes. Scroll down to see the instructions. This makes a great Earth Day activity, (especially if you use green and blue crayons).
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You need:
- Broken crayons
- A muffin tin
- Cupcake liners
- knife/scissors
- Oven

Put the liners in the muffin tin. 
Sort the crayons in similar colors. I mixed the blues and greens together, the reds and oranges together, and the various yellows together. You can do rainbow combinations, too.  
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Preheat the oven at 350 degrees. 

Peel the paper off the crayon. This can be tricky so you may need an adults help. We even had to use a knife for some of them. 

Break the crayons into smaller pieces, (you may need a scissors for this), and put the crayons in the cupcake wrappers. 
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When the oven is preheated to 350 degrees, put the tin in the oven.
Watch them until the crayons are melted. This only takes a few minutes. 
Take them out. You will need an adult's help with this.
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Carefully transport them to a plate and put the plate in the fridge to cool and harden. Mine were ready in about 30 minutes. Make sure they are hard on the inside, too.
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Peel the cupcake wrappers. It adds a fun effect. 
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Here is the finished product. How fun and colorful!
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Now you can gift them or draw and color with them.  You can get great effects with the different textures of the crayon. 
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This activity also makes a great craft for Earth Day as you are recycling and if you use green and blue, they look like Earth.
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I hope you enjoy. 
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Making a Parachute

6/25/2020

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Today, I made a parachute for small and light toys. Scroll down to see the instructions. Have fun.
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You need:
- A napkin
- 4 same sized pieces of string
- 8 pieces of tape
- Paper bowls
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How to make it:
Tape the pieces of string to the corners of the  napkin.
Tape the other ends of the string to the paper bowl.
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Now I  tested it out.
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It went down slowly. It worked!
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Now I tried it higher and it worked. 
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I hope you have a great time.
1 Comment
    Here are some of the awesome STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) activities I have done.
    I try to use recycled or enviromentally friendly materials as much as possible.
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