Week 12- Mad Scientist Day

Every year we have Mad Scientist Day on Halloween. It is always so much fun so I wanted to share some pictures from today. Before I do I thought I'd share the directions I created for each rotation for my parent volunteers. 

We started with one of parents doing a demonstration. The kids are always excited when there is fire and they always want an explosion. 

Here are a few girls holding the rag after it burned. Doesn't even look like it has been on fire! So cool!

This year I had enough parent volunteers to set up rotations. I love when I have enough parents for this. We had a great time and I was able to circulate and visit each rotation. 

Check out all these parent volunteers! They rock! I want to thank all the parents who sent in supplies and those who also came in to help today. We couldn't do it without your support. 

We wrapped up the day by walking on raw eggs. The kids were so funny and everyone got a chance to walk on them. 

I even jumped in and gave it a try!

STUDENTS: Which experiment/activity did you enjoy the most during scientist day?

Week 11- Halloween Candy and Mad Scientist Day

Are familiar with http://www.yummymath.com/? This week I used a math word problem from their site to get my students thinking about purchasing candy for Halloween. We used the data given to figure out which bag of candy was the best deal.



I had them work in groups to determine which was the best deal and which was the worst.



Some were surprised with the results. We also decided that if you like Snickers you're willing to pay a little more to get them.



Friday we had Mad Scientist Day! This is always so much fun. Every year we schedule this day around Halloween. The kids are able to dress as scientists and we do science experiments.





We did experiments like Shy Blue and Drop by Drop to explore water surface tension. In shy blue we add color to the water and then drop rubbing alcohol into the water. The water looks like it is running away from the alcohol.





Drop by drop- we drop water on waxed paper and use toothpicks to move it around.



We also made some snow with Instant Snow from Steve Spangler.



The lava lamps were a big hit! Want to make one yourself? Fill a bottle 3/4 of the way with cooking oil. Then pour in water to top off the bottle. Add 10 drops of your favorite color food coloring. Do not shake the bottle! Then use an Alka Seltzer tablet. Break it up and drop in a small piece. It creates a lava lamp. You can continue adding pieces of the tablet until it is gone. Be careful if you put a lot in at one time. Make sure to open the lid to release pressure that builds up in the bottle.



We ended the day by walking on eggs. I even gave this a try! Did you know you can walk on eggs? As you can see they had a great time doing this.





STUDENTS: What was your favorite experiment during mad scientist day? Explain what you did and why you liked it so much.