Tag - Easy Science Experiment

Experiment of the Week – Real Science Fair Project Ideas

I’m excited that people are using our library of easy science experiments over at SteveSpanglerScience.com. Over 100,000 people receive our Experiment of the Week,but as you might imagine the level of interest goes through the roof at this time of the year when everyone is searching for a cool science experiment or science project idea. My hope is that parents will take a minute to view the opening video on our Science Fair Secrets page to better understand how to help their children avoid the most common science fair mistake – not understanding the difference between a science demonstration (a cool science trick) and a real science experiment. As so many of you know, it’s easy to turn a science demonstration into an experiment as long as you understand how to control a variable and compare results from a number of trials.

You’ll find lots of science fair resources for both students and parents on our Science Fair Secrets page and just a few ideas that might get your creative juice flowing.

UV Beads Help Students Understand the Importance of Sunscreen

You might have seen t-shirts or special jewelry (beads) that changes color in sunlight. UV Beads look like ordinary white beads used to make a craft project, but embedded in the plastic is a special pigment that changes color when exposed to ultraviolet light. The color change takes place in just seconds – almost like magic. Mrs. Bratteli’s Third Grade Class from Aikin Elementary School in Paris, Texas, used the beads as a way to see if sunscreen lotion really blocks out harmful ultraviolet light from the sun.

We did an experiment with your UV beads and sunscreen and the types were 10, 30, and 50 SPF. We put them each on a foam plate and had a nothing plate. They changed colors exactly how they were supposed to, but the 50 you couldn’t see. Read the full experiment write-up.

But, like all good experiments, these third graders discovered something else…

We left them all over the weekend and here are our results. The SPF 50 sunscreen also ate through the Styrofoam plate! The spf 10

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