Month: June 2019

Ultimate Space Speed Race – Space & Weather

Ultimate Space Speed Race – Space & Weather

Today the space missions continued as our astronauts got ready for the “Ultimate Space Speed Race”  by finishing their hovercraft designs. They then participated in a series of missions/races and were able to explain the choices they made in the shape, size, materials, and layout of their hovercrafts that ultimately affects the efficiency of their designs.

Ask your student: “How do hovercrafts work?” (Hovercrafts are able to float because they create and trap a pressure differential underneath that allows them to levitate.)

Aurora, IL Program Pictures

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Oceanography – Submarine Rescue!

Oceanography – Submarine Rescue!

After building and testing, refining and re-testing all week long, our Ocean Engineers were ready to put their submarines to work rescuing stranded sea creatures at the ocean floor. Depending on the needs of the stranded sea creature, campers adjusted their designs, for each rescue attempt!

Ask your camper: How did the mass of the stranded sea creature affect your submarine’s operation? (the additional mass may have impacted the submarine’s ability to fully surface)

Aurora, IL Program Pictures

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Copy of Ocean 1

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Toy Creations – Makey Lab

Toy Creations – Makey Lab

Today our inventors finished their toy creations! Each camper now has a completed, one-of-a-kind toy to bring home and show off. They worked hard all week designing, building, testing, and finalizing their finished product. After the toys were finished, each group of campers had to give a sales pitch to the other campers to try and sell them on their toy idea.

Ask your camper: Share the sales pitch you gave on your toy!

Edwardsville, IL Program Pictures

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Ooey Gooey – Chemapalooza

Ooey Gooey – Chemapalooza

There was a lot of ooey gooey goodness to end off our fantastic week of chemistry camp today! Today, our chemical engineers put their polymer knowledge to good use by mixing up a batch of bouncy balls according to an “industry-secret” recipe. They then evaluated the effectiveness of their bouncy balls by measuring & calculating their average bounce heights.

Ask your camper: What was the average bounce height his/her bouncy ball achieved? (What can be done to make the product even better?)

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Edible Water Pods – Space & Weather

Edible Water Pods – Space & Weather

The microgravity environment of outer space can have a weird effect on how substances and alter how they “normally” behave here on Earth… Today our scientists were able to explore more about the cohesive properties of water. They also made (and ate!) edible water pods to help model the look of water in a microgravity environment.

Ask your camper: What is cohesion? How many drops of water were they able to get on their pennies?

Aurora, IL Program Pictures

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Edwardsville, IL Program Pictures

 

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A Model Jellyfish – Oceanography

A Model Jellyfish – Oceanography

Jellyfish are beautiful and mysterious ocean creatures! They have no bones, no brain, no heart, and no eyes! They have clear, bag-like bodies that contain their digestive organs and have trailing tentacles that are used to sting and capture prey. About 50% of all jellyfish are bioluminescent! Our biological modeling engineers created bioluminescent jellyfish models (to bring home) and that actually glow in the dark!! They were challenged to make their models anatomically correct, but to use their own creativity along the way!

Ask you camper: Why do jellyfish use bioluminescence? (as a defense mechanism to evade predation)

Aurora, IL Program Pictures

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Power Project – Makey Lab

Power Project – Makey Lab

Let’s light up the night! Today campers began designing and decorating their own night lights, to finish and bring home at the end of the week. Campers applied their knowledge of circuits to draw out the base of the night light, where the lights and on/off switch will be placed tomorrow. To decorate their night lights, campers created tissue paper mache cups to place over the base that will illuminate beautiful colors!

Ask your camper: Which type/s of circuits will be part of your nightlight? (BOTH series and parallel)

Edwardsville, IL Program Pictures

 

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Gummy Bear Science – Chemapalooza

Gummy Bear Science – Chemapalooza

Today our budding chemists reviewed osmosis, diffusion, and absorption, set about measuring the size of their Gummy Bears and recording the data. Since an important part of science is being able to communicate your results, students were asked to create posters of their experiments that included their question, hypothesis, observations, experimental design, data, and conclusions. Our chemists were challenged to think of what factors may have combined to achieve their results.

Ask your camper: What aspects are included in experimental design? (observations, questions, hypothesis, methods and results)

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Galactic Glow & Goo – Space & Weather

Galactic Glow & Goo – Space & Weather

One primary reasons why space has captivated the human imagination for so many centuries is arguably because of the beautiful lights and dazzling twinkle that can be seen in the night skies and today, our scientists were able to capture some of that “galactic glow” in the classroom. Campers were able to learn about some of the different ways light gets produced and even created some glow-in-the-dark slime to keep as a momento as well.

Ask your camper: What is chemiluminescence?

Aurora, IL Program Pictures

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Oceanography’s Blubber Gloves

Oceanography’s Blubber Gloves

Blubber is an adaptation that marine mammals have to survive the frigid ocean temperatures. The young marine scientists used conducted an experiment today to create the most effective blubber possible! Upon first testing the temperature of the water, students found they could hardly hold their fingers in the ice water without protection more than their two layered rubber gloves. The marine scientists then were able to use materials like vegetable shortening, petroleum jelly, and cotton balls inside their “blubber gloves” to model actual blubber.

Ask your student: What was the dependent variable in the experiment today? (amount of time your hand was submerged in the water) What was the independent variable? (the material used to create the “blubber”)

Aurora, IL Program Pictures

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