VanCleave's Science Fun

Your Guide to Science Projects, Fun Experiments, and Science Research

Chemistry:Wrinkled Fabric

By

Question: Why do clothes wrinkle if you leave let them cool in the clothes dryer? Answer: Polymers are large molecules made of repeated units linked together. When fabrics made of polymers are heated, some of the bonds holding the linked units of the polymers break. This allows the fibers to move around. I in vision […]

Astronomy: Sun’s Colors

By

The Sun and sky have such beautiful colors sometimes. It amazes me that they change because of such teeny tiny particles in Earth’s atmosphere. The Sun gets so hot that it emits white light, which is a combination of all the visible colors of light. When this white light passes through Earth’s atmosphere some of […]

Scratch-and-Sniff

By

Scratch-and-sniff stickers and books work because the aroma is trapped in microscopic spheres. When you scratch the indicated surface, you break some of these teeny tiny balls  and the fragrance is released. The capsules not broken continue to protect their contents, which could be released years later. Scratch-and-sniff surfaces is much like having millions of […]

Mixtures: Smoothies

By

Smoothies are examples of mixtures. So what is a mixture? Easy! Two or more things in the same container. Now that was easy science. Now let’s build on this foundation. If the mixture is blended thoroughly, it is still a mixture? If you are only mixing stuff together and there is no chemical reaction, then […]

Clouds: Man-Made

By

There are many types of clouds in the sky, some are even man-made, such as the clouds left by airplanes as they fly by. The name of these man-made clouds is contrail (short for “condensation trail”). Contrails are vaporized water that condenses. Condensation is a process by which water vapor is cooled resulting in the […]

Mixtures:Snow Ice Cream

By

1. I am always amazed when a person announces that they don’t like science, and chemistry was not their favorite class in school. The problem is that they just don’t see the whole picture. Fist of all, chemistry is about everything that most people love and enjoy way too often–FOOD! Let’s have a bit of […]

Analyzing Data: Graphing

By

The diagram shows the set up for a science investigation in which the temperature of two containers is to be compared. The two jars are identical, except the one on the left is covered with plastic food wrap. Readings from the thermometers in each jar will be recorded every ten minutes for a total of […]

Mechanical Waves

By

A mechanical wave is the transfer of energy through a medium (any material through a wave can travel). Please note that it is energy that is moving and not the material through which the energy travels. For example, the diagram shows how one wave of energy moves though water. Each colored dot represent one water […]

Converstion Factors

By

I’ve had to really dust off a few brain cells lately. Well maybe I should say that My few brain cells needed much dusting. When I taught physics,  stuff about conversion factors was easy for me, but I’ve been working on basic experiments for kids for some time now. Young learners are not ready for […]