The kids are home from school and are already saying, “We’re bored!” Here are some science activities that celebrate the season while the kids are home and looking for entertainment.
Borax Christmas Tree Ornaments All you need is a little borax, food coloring, string, a jar and pipe cleaners to make these beautiful snowflakes that won’t melt.
Grow Your Own Newspaper Tree Use a few sheets of recycled newspaper and some heavy duty scissors to make a growing magic Christmas tree.
While the turkey is cooking and everyone is standing around waiting for the meal to start, take out a few kitchen items and entertain your guests. Make sure you practice the challenge beforehand so you can amaze and baffle your audience. Don’t forget to reveal your tricks and your science knowledge. Make your big finish the Table Trick Challenge.
The Amazing Egg Drop
The Egg Drop is a classic science demonstration that illustrates Newton’s Laws of Motion, namely inertia. The challenge sounds so simple… just get the egg into the glass of water, but there are a few obstacles. The egg is perched high above the water on a cardboard tube, and a pie plate sits between the tube and the water. Still think it’s easy? Sir Isaac Newton does.
Tablecloth Trick
The classic “whip off” the tablecloth trick is a must for any aspiring science demonstrator who wants to be amazing! This experiment is guaranteed to either bring down the house or to get you into a lot of hot water. The idea is really quite simple – yank the
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Are you planning your Thanksgiving dinner? Make sure to include the Tablecloth Trick for the pre-dinner entertainment.
First, make sure you have a tablecloth without a seam or an edge. A frayed edge that hasn’t been sewn is perfect. Lay the tablecloth on the table and stack a few of your friend’s dishes on it. Never use your own, just in case. The dishes stay in place when you pull downward quickly and whip the tablecloth out from under them.
The Tablecloth Trick works thanks to the Law of Inertia – the tendency for an object to stay at rest until a force acts upon it.
But why stop there? Why not add a new trick on top of whipping the tablecloth? Lay a plate on the tablecloth and then stack three glasses filled with water on top of the plate. For extra heart pounding
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You are busy cooking the turkey and preparing all the side dishes. Then everyone will sit down to enjoy a Thanksgiving feast. But do you have a finale to your perfect meal today? You need to amaze your guests with the ultimate table trick challenge. Yes, we will be performing this in the Spangler home this evening.
Drop the egg in the bottle, make the egg fly, whip off the table cloth and make a soda geyser all in under 60 seconds. The soda geyser will be the big finish with the guests drinking from the fountain.
Did you take the Table Trick Challenge this Thanksgiving? If you did, leave us a comment below or send us a picture or video of your family taking the challenge. Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Steve Spangler Science.
I do a live weekly science experiment segment on the NBC affiliate in Denver. I practice the demo before I go on, check and double check my materials and do everything I can to ensure a flawless performance. On live TV, there are no do overs. This week during my Science Monday on 9News, I attempted to show my cohort in crime, news anchor Mark Koebrich, how to pull a cork out of a wine bottle. Sounds easy, right? It didn’t exactly go as planned until the last 5 seconds of the segment.
