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!
Hi everyone:
We just heard that it may be until September 11 that Houston children can go back to school. We’ve been providing STEM education for girls in Houston for over 4 years, and we have been our Houston office for over a year. We know our schools and families are hurting. We are hurting for them, too. We are, in our own small way, trying to do things to help. We are putting together welcome kits for the groups of families that come to shelter in Austin. We are hoping to bring some hands-on science activities to families who are sheltering in Houston, Dallas, and Austin. We also thought that because Houston schools won’t be in session for two more weeks, maybe, just maybe, we have a few ideas to help parents and children between now and then.
At the end of each year we have a virtual program called DeSTEMber and in it, we share daily activities that you can do with really simple materials. We know that not everyone has access to all the materials right now, but maybe you do have some of them. So we, your DeSTEMber elves, want to try to bring you some fun science cheer during this tough time. We’ll re-post some of the more popular and accessible DeSTEMber activities between now and the first day back to school, and we’ll also post some of our awesome videos that are both fun and inspiring. I hope that if your interest is piqued, you’ll also look back at our other DeSTEMber or Hands-On Wednesday blogposts, or our Pinterest pages, or our Instagram photos to find more STEM fun.
We’re getting ready to begin Girlstart After School this fall in 80+ Houston, Central Texas, the Dallas/Ft Worth area, San Antonio, the Rio Grande Valley, Waco, and Bryan/College Station schools. We know that all Girlstart girls are brave, creative, and curious and we can’t wait to begin another year of weekly after school STEM.
We also hope that all of you can think about ways that you, too, can #helpHouston!
Tamara and all of us at Girlstart
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.
