Hands-on science, kind of..

There are lots of places on the net where you can read up on science topics. If you're looking for a science site that's engaging, well, those are few and far between. I've come across a couple of great sites that don't just tell you what's going on, they show you.

This site popped up on the BBC Science ticker a couple of days ago. Periodic Table of Videos from the University of Nottingham. It's a periodic table, but for every element you click on, you get a video explaining unique properties of the elements (okay that parts a little boring, but really the meat of the info), and then showing you cool experiments to illustrate those properties. This new project (there are still about 30 elements left to finish) really makes the elements memorable. Really, who would have thought Sodium (Na) could be such a big hit? Why else would my 5yo ask "Can you put it on Helium again, please?!"

Next is Aspire (it's an acronym). It's provided by University of Utah Physics Department (thank you) and is billed as "Interactive, Web-based Science Labs for 8th & 9th Grade Students", but it is actually quite cool. I came across it looking for a demo on simple machines, and let the kiddoes use it to experiment with the mechanical advantages of levers and pulleys. Sure they could do this a-la-real world, but these experiments work the way they're supposed to 100% of the time (I can't say that about mine). So, if you're not science minded, you could run through the experiments here first before you do your kitchen table version and then you'll know what to expect. How do pressure and temperature affect volume? You can see it at this site. Don't worry about the grade level thing. If you have younger ones, just bring them to the experiments after they cover the info in their own curriculum and skip the lab report forms.

This one's for the younger kids. It's a weather maker. Yes, mess with the temperature and pressure and see what happens here: Scholastic Interactive Weather Maker.

Have some fun with science!