This Hands-On Wednesday blog requires adult supervision. Make sure to conduct this experiment with help from a parent or friend. Electrical currents aren’t the only thing that can make a light bulb glow — follow these steps to see what microwaves do when passing through the tungsten filament of a light bulb. The results may surprise you!
Today’s activity doesn’t require a lot of materials, but it’s a great test for your senses! Our muscles, tendons, joints, and inner ear all contain what is called proprioceptors. These ‘stretch receptors’ help us know positional locations, which means that we have a sense of where our hands, fingers, and other body parts are in relation to the rest of our body and the environment around us. See how well your proprioceptors are working by completing a few simple tasks with your eyes shut.
Observe both a physical and a chemical reaction in this tasty experiment. You may have seen agate crystals used as a colorful home decorations, but it took many years for these rock formations to develop. Agate crystals are formed when microcrystals within a hollow pocket of a host rock begin self-organizing to form patterns. The colors and arrangements of the crystals are influenced by changes in temperature, pressure, and mineral content. Luckily, our experiment only requires a physical change by being crushed, a chemical change from the oven by being heated and melted, and it takes a lot less time to develop these crystals!
