Volcanoes and types of lava

Surely every child loves to learn about volcanoes! The rice crispie volcano models are always a hit.

Stratovolcano inside

Viscosity of lava—the amount of gases each type will dissolve determines that lava's characteristics.

Frosting island chain?? Or cornstarch and water demo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaKMlAawumE

Viscosity levels of lava: blowing bubbles, sliding down a slope (milk vs corn syrup)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwR64Zqov3k eruptions

https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B0DQ23G8NS/ref=atv_sr_fle_c_Tn74RA_14_1_14?sr=1-14&pageTypeIdSource=ASIN&pageTypeId=B0DQ25V2H7&qid=1752458813444 documentary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNGUdObDoLk volcanoes 101

Iceland volcano https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95wvk34Pi2Q 

Underwater volcano https://www.mombrite.com/underwater-volcano-experiment/

Mt. Vesuvius: https://www.howitworksdaily.com/pompeii-how-are-casts-of-the-dead-created/

Tornadoes, Hurricanes, Floods, Tsunamis

Links:

Some of our previous activities: https://nielsonschool.blogspot.com/2013/12/tornadoes-hurricanes-convection.html

Make a levee in dirt https://levees.sec.usace.army.mil/levee-basics/how-levees-work/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yNoy4H2Z-o flood risk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBivwxBgdPQ why rivers move

*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_ZLyzByj98 hydraulic flume—structures in rivers

*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yNoy4H2Z-o coastal defenses and flood risk

Convection currents in a tub

Turbulence as the currents mix

Cold and hot water separating into layers

We got out the tornado bottles, of course.

"Underwater volcano" erupting

Natural Disasters Unit plan; Plate tectonics; Earthquakes

 

Our second "Summer School" unit was Natural Disasters, another perennial favorite topic among especially little boys (though my little girls have never complained about it either!). (Posts from the Old Days)

First was earthquakes, with this demonstration of plate tectonics on a molten cocoa earth (you just heat water with a layer of cocoa powder on top and then watch the convection currents break it up and move it around).

More plate tectonics and types of faults

Wow, some great buckling here

Testing different building heights and compositions for stability

Towers and liquefaction

Building earthquake-resistant structures (or trying to!!)

Clementine made gnomes, of course

Starting small :)

A little more daring

Ziggy was excited to try this earthquaking this tall tower I made (he anticipated what was coming)

Another gnome?? Does she do nothing but make gnomes? (Gnope.)

Some more avant-garde designs

Rockets

Of course we made film canister rockets as part of learning about fireworks! They're so fun. Some resources:

Rocket launching https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD8HxvI4Xms

••Parts of a rocket https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8-MHP4lVOc

••How rockets work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI-HeXhsUIg

Rocket science https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ5mobRcXAU

Fuels, explosives, propellants https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEhH7735gSs 

••https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcjYdEW_HLQ chemistry of rocket launch

Make film canister rockets  https://stemium.com/science-fair-project-alka-seltzer-rocket/ diagram

Also of course, we repeated our ever-popular "building demolition" demonstration where we use strings (not explosives!) to tear down a block creation. It makes me nostalgic to remember how much the big boys loved doing this when they were little. (And this group reminds me so much them, including little Daisy!):

Demolition and other uses of explosives resources are here:

https://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/car-technology/a14479213/heres-how-much-explosive-power-is-hiding-in-your-airbag/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRcajZHc6Yk slow-motion airbag

Mine blasting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXfYkw6B-kw

Building demolition https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gISv99-aqfM

Demolition https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRJz0PePXZ8

Skyscraper demolition https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-H7E-KQgHQ

Colored Fire

I have always remembered how cool it was the first time we made colored fire (this was WAY back when we first started homeschooling) so we decided to try it again. Sam helped since it always scares me to do things like this alone.

(People don't look extremely enthralled here, but they were!)

Chemicals to use:

Colored fire: Yellow HEET (methanol)

Lithium from battery—red
Calcium chloride ice melt—orange
Baking soda (sodium) or red HEET—yellow
Boric Acid (ant and roach killer)—green
Plain yellow HEET, copper sulfate—blue/turquoise
Potassium chloride salt substitute—violet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2XIMKX3ktg&t=124s How to make rainbow fire
https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/explore-the-science-behind-fireworks-and-the-galaxy Colored chemical reactions in the galaxy
https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/youre-a-firework-scientifically-speaking
https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/the-science-of-firework-color

Firework models; Chemical Reactions

 

We haven't ton a ton of chemistry lately in school, so it was fun learning about some basics like chemical and physical changes and chemical reactions with the kids. We did a bunch of the classic demonstrations like convection currents and baking-soda-and-vinegar and hydrogen-peroxide-and-yeast reactions. (Here's a fact sheet and experiment page for that last one.)

I love their pleased smiles as the reactions work

…some of them had pleased smiles, anyway.

They liked this "fireworks in a jar" demonstration too (instructions here, but you can just google "fireworks in a jar" if that link breaks; there are tons of examples of it)

The kids really liked making these fireworks "models" out of lentils and poppyseeds and so forth. (That smiley face Ziggy made is how they really would make one of those shaped hearts or smiley faces you see sometimes at fireworks shows!) You can look at pictures of cross-sections of real fireworks to get an idea what they look like and how to make them (one is here, and we'd also watched a few documentaries about the process).

https://www.reddit.com/r/ThingsCutInHalfPorn/comments/8z0a46/cross_sections_of_fireworks_1761_x_1125/ cross sections
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1ixjhzwr_E how fireworks work
••https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfkjm2YRG-Q&t=963s fireworks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS7AXFcvkS4 How it’s made
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuZdCvcZyxw How it’s made

No matter how much tape we put over these sections, some of the seeds and beans always get out!

This is Gus pretending to be a fireworks man, in his safe little hut with all his computer-controlled display set out for the show!