Janice VanCleave's Play and Learn About Science
This challenge is to separate and collect the individual parts of a mixture. Make the Mixture: Combine equal amounts of table salt and sand. One-fourth cup of each will work. Teacher Tip: Be sure to use sand and not dirt. Part of the dirt will dissolve. You want only sand, which does not dissolve in [...]
Both animal and plant cells are eukaryotic cells (cells that contain a nucleus). All eukaryotic cells are surrounded by a plasma membrane. This membrane is also called the cell membrane. The plasma membrane is much like a thin plastic sack with tiny hole. This membrane sack contains all the cell parts and fluids. Since there [...]
Deciduous Teeth : AKA baby teeth milk teeth primary teeth deciduous teeth People have two sets of teeth. The first set, baby teeth, start forming before a baby is born. When the embryo is about six weeks old, its baby teeth start developing. The eruption of these baby teeth starts when a baby is about [...]
Insulator: A material that does not easily allow energy, such as heat, electricity, light, or sound to pass through it. FYI: A material that does not transmit heat easily will not easily transmit other types of energy. For example: Since wood does not easily transmit heat, wood is used for cooking utensils. You can hold [...]
A hypothesis is a prediction about the answer to a question. Encourage kids to give hypothesis. It doesn’t always have to be in response to a science question. But, since a hypothesis is not a wild guess, they should have some reason for their hypothesis. For example, use photos, such as the one shown. Ask [...]
1. One way to encourage writing is for kids to write stories about a picture. Use your own photos or find photos on the web, such as on Flickr Creative Commons where pictures are shared–read the required credit for use. Tell the kids that they are to pretend that the photo is a “freeze frame” [...]
Buoyancy is a force pushing upward on an object that is submerged or floating in a fluid (liquid or gas). The force of buoyancy is equal to the weight of the fluid that is displaced. An object, such as the paper boat in the phot will float as long as its weight is equal to [...]
Buoyancy is an upward force on an object that is floating or submerged in a fluid (liquid or gas). The upward force of buoyancy on the boat in the picture is equal to the weight of the water displaced by the boat. WOW!! That sounds complicated, but it isn’t. In the diagram below, there are [...]
Biologists who study taxonomy are called taxonomists. The Greek scientist, Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), was one of the first scientist to organize living things. He developed the first classification system, which divided all known organisms into two groups, plants and animals. He then divided each of these large groups into three smaller groups. For example, animals [...]
Vacuoles are a membrane-bound storage sacs filled with a watery fluid. Mature plant cells may have only one vacuole occupying up to 90% of the total plant cell volume. Some of the function of a plant vacuole include: * store wastes * isolate materials that might be harmful to the cell * maintain internal hydrostatic [...]