Week 1 - February 25th
As the girls arrived they finished up their World Centres/B-P posters that were started last week as part of the Canadian & World Guiding Badges.
After opening, we had a game and then moved on to our first activity - Chromatography Butterflies. Each girl was given a coffee filter and set to work to decorate it using markers. Once the girls had finished decorating, we folded the coffee filters in half, then in half again to make a cone shape. The cones were then placed in tubs with a small amount of water in the bottom (as the water wicks up the coffee filter it pulls the ink apart and spreads the colours). Later in the evening we took the filters out of the water and stacked them with newspaper inbetween to dry for next week.
Our next set of activities was Chemistry Magic Tricks. All of these can be found online and require basic items found around the house.
(1) Coloured Water - This trick requires a little bit of set up. You will need: 4 glasses, 4 teaspoons, water, white vinegar, food colouring, and baking soda. To prepare, fill 3 glasses half full with water and 1 glass half full with white vinegar. Place one drop of food colouring on 3 of the spoons. Fill all 4 spoons with baking soda, making sure to cover the food colouring. Arrange a tray with the 4 glasses and a spoon in front of each glass (the spoon with just baking soda is placed in front of the glass of vinegar, the 4th glass). Ask girls to come up and stir the white powder into the glass. The first 3 glasses will change colour (which is pretty cool, especially if you use different colours of food colouring), but the fourth will bubble up and overflow the glass!
(2) Put a Candle Out With Air - Mix a small amount of vinegar and baking soda together in a glass. Light a candle and then put it out by 'pouring' the air out of the glass. (The vinegar and baking soda have produced carbon monoxide, which is heavier than oxygen, so it stays in the glass until it is 'poured' out and suffocates the flame on the candle.)
(3) Pepper and Water - For this trick all you need to do is fill a bowl with water and sprinkle some pepper on the top. Secretly coat one of your fingers with dishwashing liquid. Ask girls to try to move the pepper by dipping their finger into the water (nothing will happen). Dip your coated finger into the water and the pepper will move to the sides of the bowl.
(4) Magic Milk - This is a classic activity that many of the girls had done before, but it was still a hit. Pour enough milk onto a plate to cover the bottom. Place drops of food colouring onto the milk in different parts of the plate. Let the girls dip a cotton swab into dishwashing liquid and then touch it to the milk. Watch the colours swirl! (Milk is made up of many different molecules. When you add the detergent to the milk, it lowers the surface tension so that the food colouring is free to flow through the milk.)
We ended our meeting by making up and sharing skits about life in 2075.
Week 2 - March 4th
This week's arrival activity was for each patrol to make a list of ways that they use science & technology in their daily lives. After our usual opening and an active game, we moved into more chemistry activities.
Our first activity was to finish off the chromatography butterflies by pinching the dried coffee filters in the middle and twisting a pipecleaner around to make the antennas.
Next, we did another chromatography experiment with coloured mentos (the instructions called for jelly beans). Each patrol had a selection of candies, coffee filters, cotton swabs and water. The candies were placed on the coffee filters and water dripped onto them until the candies were wet. We left them for a while and when we came back, we could see the rings of colour from the dyes on the coffee filters.
We then made Shrinky Dink Art - something only a few of the girls had done at camp. This craft can be done using #6 plastic that has been sanded. We only had #1 plastic available, which doesn't shrink much but it does turn white and curl up on the edges - so it was kind of neat anyways. The girls coloured their plastic with pencil crayons on the side that was sanded and then we placed them on a baking tray in the oven at 350F for 3-5 minutes. Remember to punch a hole in the corner for a safety pin before baking!
Part of Science is being able to communicate and describe what you see happening so we did an activity called Object Drawing. The girls sit back to back in pairs. One partner has a piece of paper and a pencil and the other has an object. The girl with the object tries to describe it in clear enough detail that her partner can draw or write down what the object is.
Last, but certainly not least, we made Slime! The recipe we used was 500mL Elmer's White Glue, 1 cup + 1 cup of water, 3tbsp Borax and food colouring. Pour the glue into a large container and mix with an equal amount of water. Pour the other cup of water into a separate bowl and mix in Borax. Put a little less than 1/2 cup of the glue mixture, 2tbsp of the borax mixture and a few drops of food colouring into a ziplock back. Squeeze the air out and let the girls work the mixture with their hands until it forms a single glob that doesn't stick to the bag. (This recipe makes enough for about 12 girls) Slime is a huge hit everytime we make it!!
