Plastic bottles - soda bottles, water bottles, etc. - are easy to come by and can be used for a variety of demonstrations and activities. Here is a whole book of things you can do with empty soda bottles:
(If you click on the words "Bottle Biology" to the right of the image, you'll be taken directly to amazon.com where you can read more about it and order your very own copy, should you wish to do so) It's a pretty neat book with lots of ideas, from simple to complex.
I will try to post a picture of a self-watering planter I made last summer (from this book) in the next day or two. The self watering device worked really well for a few months, until it rotted. But, up until that point, it kept the plant alive without my touching it, for a good three months.
3 comments:
Cloud in a Bottle
You'll need a 2 liter bottle with its cap. Place a few drops of water in the bottle. Then light a match and let it burn for a few seconds. Blow it out and drop the smoking match into the bottle. Quickly cap the bottle. Then, squeeze the sides of the bottle and release. Poof! You've got a cloud. You can recreate the cloud several times.
Discuss the three things you need for a cloud to form: moisture, particulate matter, and pressure. Try the demonstration again, omitting one of the 'ingredients' and see what happens.
Kids love to play with these bottles. I encourage as many kids as possible to bring in a bottle, so they can "play". I deal with the matches, but as soon as I drop the match into the bottle, they can do the rest.
Model Lung
You'll need:
Water bottle with bottom cut off
1 whole balloon
1 balloon with "neck" cut off
Stick the whole balloon into the top of the bottle and stretch the end of the balloon over the mouth of the bottle. Streatch the half balloon over the bottom of the bottle. The whole balloon represents the lung. The half balloon represents the diaphragm. Allow students to push and pull the diaphragm and observe what happens to the lung. Students should be able to model inhaling and exhaling. Older students can explain the pressure changes that occur during this process.
Sandy Fay said;;;
The following activity can be used when studying the respiratory system and lung capacity. To measure lung capacity you will need a plastic gallon bottle from water, a rubber tube about 18 inches long, and a plastic plate about 2 inches square. Turn the plastic bottle upside down and mark off ml by 500 gradations using a permanent marker and adding that amount of water each time to mark the levels.
Then you fill the bottle with water, place the plastic square over the opening and turn it upside down into water in a large pan or sink filled with water.
Slide a piece of rubber tubing under the plastic plate and into the opening of the bottle. Each student can then take a deep breath in and blow out slowly into the tube. The water will bubble out and when they finish quickly slide the plastic over the opeing and measure the amount of water they were able to displace. This will give a rough measurement of that student's lung capacity. The tube can be washed off with alcohol and then hot water for use by the next student. Students enjoy doing this .
Post a Comment