nice ice baby!

It is such a simple thing ice, with many amazing qualities. My family recently saw the movie Frozen (and loved it by the way), and there is much discussion surrounding ice, even in the opening song! Coincidentally, at The Garage Creative we just experimented with this interesting, beautiful phenomena! There are many different ways to accomplish this but this is how we recently did it.

The aftermath!

To do this requires a small amount of planning as you need to freeze the balloons ahead of time. I have found the best way to make the balloons is to fill the balloon up to about the size of a cantaloupe. There will still be a few air bubbles in it so if you slowly let a little water out, that should help to take care of the bubbles. In my experience, I have found it takes two days for the balloons to completely freeze, although it can be fun to have some that are not fully frozen as well!

Once you have successfully frozen your balloons, and before you start the activity, gather random supplies to mess with the balloons. We gathered the following items:

• Bowl, cooking dish (something to keep the balloon in and from spilling)
• Food Coloring (always a good call)
• Nails
• Salt
• Sugar
• Q - Tips
• Milk
• Cotton Balls
• Paint Brushes
• Funnel
• Water
• Paper towels
• Flash light
• Glitter
• Magnifying Glass
• (Any other interesting things you may think of!!!!)

When I do this, I do not like to tell the students what it is we are looking at; it provides more suspense and curiosity from both kids and adults. To start, I place the object in the bowl and let them just get messy.

As time progresses, I slowly start introducing different items for them to utilize while investigating the phenomena. I start slowly with some of the smaller items (wooden dowels, paint brushes, sponges). It is so fun because every time you introduce something new, they ask what it is and if they can use it or how they should use it.

Another way my good friend and I took this further was freeze different items in the balloons (marbles, glitter). One time we were even able to freeze an LED with wires so I could get it to turn off and on. I do not need to tell you how awesome it looked!

I hope you give this a go and if you do, I know you'll have a great time!

Frozenly yours,

The Garage Creative

snow day

Being from Montana and an avid skier, as a child around this time of year I would start yearning for snow. I would begin calling to check the weather at least once every hour and do whatever I could to help ensure there was snow in the mountains. This inevitably lead to me walking around our house in my ski boots, goggles, gloves, snow pants, and even clicking into my ski bindings in the living room.

We now live in North Carolina and thus far it has been my experience that snow is not a substance often associated with the Triangle. As a result I have found other ways to imitate the fluffy, crystalized, beauty of snow in simple, fun, science experiments you can easily do at home with a wide age range of kids. Here's how we recently did it with preschool through fifth grade students.

As I bought different types of diapers for my girls, I often wondered why some diapers are more expensive than others; especially swim and overnight diapers. Working in the field I do, I recently found the reason behind it is the type of polymer (long chain of molecules) used in the diapers. Our first experiment will be removing the polymers from diapers to make instant snow!

Gather a disposable diaper (clean), scissors, ziplock bag, spoon, and water. Cut into the diaper and remove all the small little white salt looking particles. Put them into a plastic bag and slowly add spoonfuls of water to the plastic bag. You can watch the hydrophilic (water loving) molecules absorb the water right before your eyes!

 


To extend this experiment, I like to follow the same procedure with different types of diapers to see the difference in the absorption rate. These types of polymers are often sold as Instant Snow if you don't want to dissect a diaper. You can purchase them in most Science Museum Gift shops or at Steve Spangler Science.

Seeing the brilliant sparkle of new snow in the sun will forever remain in my memories. Snow sparkles because it is a crystalline structure. For the next two experiments we will be making crystals!

For the first experiment gather:

• Epsom Salt
• black construction paper
• a bowl
• water

Cut the construction paper into a circle and place on the bottom of the bowl. Mix 1 tablespoon of Salt with 1/4 cup of warm water and stir until salt is dissolved. Pour solution into the pie tin and let dry! To take this experiment further, try different types of salt (table), different colors of construction paper, and my favorite; food coloring!

Finally, my FAVORITE crystal growing experiment! For this to work, you need the secret ingredient, Mrs. Stewarts Laundry Bluing. The only places I have found this in the Triangle are at Kroger and Ace Hardware. The other items you need are:

• salt
• porous material (sponge, charcoal)
• ammonia (I have found the smell can really affect kids so this is a good one to help them with)
• two cups or bowls
• a plate to go under cup because crystals will grow out of cup!
• Food coloring (optional but always recommended!)

 

Place the porous material in one cup and in the other cup mix 1 spoonful of laundry bluing, 1 spoonful of ammonia, and 1 spoonful of salt. Stir the ingredients for about a minute and pour onto pours material. To finish off, drop a few drops of food coloring on top, place under a plate and let sit out over night!

I hope you have the opportunity to try some of these experiments or others I have suggested on my blog. If you do and find some unusual results, please get in touch with me via my email.

Happy Tinkering!

the garage creative (Kyle Hunter)

flying high with the garage creative!

Today was the first day we had three classes with 20 students ranging in age from preschool to fourth grade. It was all smiles as we made high flying contraptions! Here is what and how we did it so you can do to!

We have all made paper airplanes at one point in our life but how about paper helicopters? I have done this so many times with so many different ages of kids with the same result; it's a good time. You only need paper, scissors, and a pen. I like to have markers, paperclips, and single hole punches on hand to mix it up.

Simply draw a rectangle on a piece of paper with dotted lines as seen in the first figure. Fold the rotors down and opposite while folding and making the handle. It is important to fold the rotors back up a little bit before you drop the helicopter, otherwise it will not rotate as smoothly. I like to encourage kids to color, add weight, fold/ cut the rotors differently, punch holes in the rotors, anything to change the flight a little. And of course, the higher you can get for the drop, the better!

  


When we finished experimenting with paper helicopters, we moved to Magnus gliders. Gather 6 rubber bands, two styrofoam cups, and tape (I like duct tape the best). Tape the cups together as in the picture below and make a long chain with the rubber bands.

Find some stairs and release!

Wrap rubber band chain around cups

Once you have built your Magnus Glider, wrap the chain of rubber bands in the middle of the two cups until there is a small amount of rubber band left. Find a nice high location and release your cups! They should float down slowly rotating. When winding the rubber bands around the cups, be sure not to do it too tightly, otherwise you could hurt your cups. It does take some practice to launch the cups but once you do it successfully, you will not want to stop! To change things up a little with this, I like to add holes in the edge of the cups, add paperclips to the edges of the cups to see how that effects the flight, and of course, decorating your cups!

To finish our day we made hover crafts! These are a little more difficult but definitely worth it. You need an old CD, balloon, hot glue and hot glue gun, and finally a pop top to Gatorade or dish soap (these can be a little tricky to find, I really like Gatorade tops because you can twist them as opposed to pulling them up and separating the seal from the cap to the CD). 

Hot glue the top onto the middle of the CD so air can escape out of the bottom of the CD. Put your balloon on the top the drink top, blow up your balloon through the hole in your CD. Close the drink top, set on the ground and lift the top so air will escape from the bottom. Your hover craft will move around on the ground in a way that is very reminiscent to the puck in air hockey. 

Blowing up the balloon

Hovering away!

I hope you are able to do some of these, they really are fun and if you do, please share your results!

Happy flying!

The Garage Creative

rocket science

Today at The Garage Creative we experimented with Rocket Science. I have taught these engaging, fun, rockets many many times and they have never failed to leave the kids and adults wanting more. Below are the easy directions to build them so you can be a Rocket Scientist!

Our group of Rocket Scientists!

Rocket #1: Stomp Rockets

To build these collect the following items:

• Empty litter soda bottle or plastic milk jug, or empty mouthwash container (basically anything that holds a lot of air that can be stomped out quickly)
• Plastic flexible tubing (I used about a foot and half per stomp rocket)
• Toilet paper tubes
• Construction paper
• Duct Tape
• Crepe paper
• Double sided tape or hot glue (optional)
• Markers for decoration (optional)

Once you have the supplies there are two steps, first you need to make the "stomp" part. To do this, I duct tape the flexible tubing into the empty bottle making sure there is no possible way for air to escape (this will hinder the rockets ability to soar).

Now that you have the propulsion part, build the rocket! I like to give the kids different options to do this. They can use toilet paper tubes or build their own out of construction paper by rolling it into a tight fuselage.

Busy building

Putting the stomp in stomp rocket!

Whichever method is chosen (perhaps both) make sure there is no air escaping out of the nose cone and not to much is coming back out of the bottom.

I have found students like to add fins and streamers and to color their fuselage. Finally place the rocket at the end of the plastic tubing (not too far down) and stomp on the bottle!

Rocket #2: Bottle Rockets

• Empty 20 oz water, soda, barbecue sauce, salad dressing bottle, ..........
• Two different sizes of straws (one needs to slide over the other)
• Duct tape, clay, play doh, model magic......something to make a seal between the straw and bottle
• Any other item to add fins and nose cones (construction paper, notecards, cardboard)
• Super sweet safety glasses to prevent a rocket in the eye

The premise behind these is very similar to the stomp rockets but I have found they go farther and fly faster! Put the smaller straw in the empty bottle and somehow seal it so air does not escape. I like using model magic because it hardens. Sometimes when it hardens, it cracks so I will duct tape the outer layer. Slide the other straw on after you have fitted it with a nose cone and squeeze the bottle, not aiming it at someone!

Adding fins

Sliding the rocket into place

Rocket #3: Alka Seltzer Rockets

All of the rockets we built today were fun but for some reason, this type of rocket is always voted as the best. To build this correctly it is imperative to have the correct type of film canister (see picture). If you do not, the seal will not be tight enough and the pressure will not build up.

• Film canisters (can be found on eBay)
  
• Alka seltzer (can be generic)
• Water
• Super sweet safety goggles

The beauty of these rockets is the simplicity. All you need is the canister, water, and Alka seltzer. How much water and Alka seltzer used determines how fast the reaction will take place. If there is too much water or Alka seltzer the reaction will go too fast and you will not get the best results.

I have found the best result is to fill the canister about half full with water and put in a 1/4 of the Alka seltzer, turn in upside down and step back. To take this further, I like to add a second film canister and make a two stage rocket!

Adding extras

Launch pads

I hope you get a chance to do this, please let me know if you do and have fun!

Take off!

The Garage Creative
thegaragecreative@gmail.com

heart shaped box circuit

We had our second meeting today of Techno Toys and had a great time! We experimented with a couple different types of switches while learning about basic circuitry. If you would like to make a heart shaped box circuit like below, here is how we did it (if I left something out, please let me know!).

Hear shaped box circuitry!

First gather these supplies (I have included hyperlinks to my favorite types and stores to buy them):

• AA batteries and Coin Batteries (Seriously the cheapest batteries I have seen)
• AA Battery holder (I used two batteries which worked well)
• LED Lights
• Alligator Clips
• Wire Cutters (Hands down, the best, easiest wire stripper to work with with kids)
• Electricians Tape
• Duct Tape
• Markers
• Wax Paper, Cloth, light gels (anything that can be used as a lampshade)
• Aluminum foil
• Scissors
• Recycled goodness

We had seven first and second grade students working with us today. In order to have everything ready and go smoothly, I did some preliminary work to make sure students did not get frustrated. With the right planning, even preschoolers should have fun!

Making circuitry look good

I cut and striped alligator clips, wires and the battery packs(not too many because I like to give students the opportunity to work with tools) and tore pieces of duct tape and electricians tape while laying out the supplies on tables. 

First I gave students the coin batteries and one LED (light emitting diode) and told them they could get the LED to turn on with just the battery. They quickly found that there is a positive and negative and if they match up, the light turns on. Next we taped our stripped sides of the alligator clips to the coin batteries with electricians tape and "clipped" the other ends onto the LED's, making sure we had positive to positive and negative to negative.

Success

To finish off, we made our own night lights! To do this, we taped the stripped ends of the Alligator clips to the ends of the battery packs with electricians tape. To really ensure they stay well, I like to weave the wires around one another and then tape them. Next we clipped them to the LED's and turned the battery packs on and we had light, all we needed to do was to build the "base". This is the part of the class I really enjoy!

Students use items from my Recycled goodness to find inspiration. We used wax paper to create neat patterns from the LED's and cut out patterns from the bases to create other illusions. The result is a lot of smiles, learning, and cool glowing items!

 

If you do this and have any issues, please do not hesitate to contact me! I have found often times kids run into problems with loose connections and short circuits.

Next month we will be defying gravity, let me know if you want to sign up, spots are limited and filling fast!!

Stay Bright!

The Garage Creative

jittery jitterbots!

Today we did something that I have done many many times with the end result always being the same, kids loving it! To make jitterbots here are the supplies that are necessary:

• Motor
• AA Battery 
• Aligator clips
• Electricians tape
• CD
• Paperclips
• Wine cork
• Duct Tape

Cut the alligator clip in half and strip the plastic off about an inch so the wire is exposed. Twist the wire so it is not frayed and coil it into a circle. Tape one of the coiled ends to the positive side of the battery and one end to the negative side with electricians tape. Tape the battery and wires onto what you want to be the top of the jitterbot.  

Next fold the paperclips out and duct tape them on what you want to be the bottom of the jitterbot. Take the wine cork and make a small hole so it will slide onto the end of the motor. Tape the motor on the side of the jitterbot with the battery pack. Make sure there is enough room so the cork rotates freely and does not hit the CD. 

It's alive!

Finally attach the alligator clips to the motor and watch it spin! For added fun, put a marker in the middle of the CD to make robot art!

Robot Art

To finish, I had the kids create their own robots using items from our recycled gold. In all the times I have done this, I see new things each time. Today we had a pirate ship, caterpillar robots, and a tall coffee can robot!

 

Let me know if I can help clarify any confusing spots!

Jitterly yours,

The Garage Creative

the sound of science

What a wonderful way to spend my 35th trip around the sun! Today was the Pepper Festival in Chapel Hill and the garage creative helped celebrate by bringing cardboard, makedo, a sound exhibit, and making sound sandwiches with LOTS of kids!

To build the exhibit, I bought six mixing bowls, attached them to plywood, had my daughters paint, and then attached wooden and plastic spoons. Kids loved banging on the bowls, the different size bowls really had different sounds and sounded like wind chimes.

ready to see how it sounds

the sound of awesome

We also made some of my favorite and easy sounds makers in the world to go along with the exhibit, sound sandwiches. I have done this SO many times and no matter the age, kids and adults are always surprised about what they hear! To do this you need 4 things:

• Tongue Depressors (thick popsicle sticks)
• Straws
• Two different widths of rubber-bands (preferably one thick and one thin)

To start, wrap the thick rubber-band around one tongue depressor and put one straw on top and one underneath (see picture 1). Then put the other tongue depressor on top, wrap both edges of the tongue depressors (picture 2) and blow between the two straws (picture 3)! Try moving the straws closer together and then farther apart while blowing, can you hear the changes in pitch?

What you are hearing is the vibration from the rubber band. For more information about the science behind sound, follow the sound of science link.

Musically yours,

The garage creative

closet of awesomeness!

It was pretty awesome when one of my favorite sites interviewed me a couple of year ago! Check out the interview and the site and then start compiling your own closet of awesomeness!

http://howtosmile.org/blog/posts/kyle-hunter

avast, me hearties

Avast me hearties, we did it, after months of saving cardboard, we had our first community event! It was a lot of fun and I think there was at least 50 people, playing, building, and plundering and it was very easy to do. Here is how we did it so you can have your own fun, engaging, family or community event.

Adjusting the mast

Working hard

It started with a thought of having an event to bring people together to build and have fun all we needed was a theme. We then decided we would focus on the theme pirates in honor of international talk like a pirate day on September 19th. Once we had the theme, we could then find activities to fit into the theme. We decided to build pirate boats, make pirate vests, hats, and come up with pirate names.

For the boats, I started saving cardboard from our neighborhood about two months ago with the intent of using one of my favorite toys Makedo to assist in our creativity. I have used Makedo many times in classes, science museums, and other events.  Every time I use it, I can not wait for the next opportunity to find something new and different to do with it!

To collect cardboard, I would walk our dog in our neighborhood in search of the good pieces; bathtubs, washers, dryers, and air conditioning boxes. If you do not have the luxury of living in an area that has a lot of new building, it is still rather easy to come across large cardboard boxes. I have had a lot of success calling Lowes Home Improvement early in the morning and simply asking if they have any boxes.

Our garage full of cardboard

To build the vests, I saved paper bags from grocery stores. We cut straight up the middle, cut a little place out for the neck and poked out places for arms. We had lots of markers and sticky "jewels" so people could decorate.

To complete the pirate assemble, we made hats from newspaper, following these very simple directions.

Salty Sea Dog

To add even more of a pirate effect we had a treasure box full of little toys, pirate eye patches, plastic flags, and gold doubloons. We even raised the Jolly Roger.

The Jolly Roger flying high in the Christmas Tree stand!

Finally, it was time. So we took all our cardboard, paper bags, Makedo, and our recycled gold which the little buccaneers used to make canons, telescopes, and swords.

Here is a small sampling of the hard work, fun, and creativity that was had.

Thanks to all who came out to participate!

Arrrggghhhh!

Families having fun together

A "submarine" pirate ship

In the gally

 

Looking out the port windows