museum at home - floating devices
Mamma’s crew love a bit of inventive play - especially one that involves getting a bit wet!
Mamma’s crew love a bit of inventive play - especially ones that involve getting a bit wet! We checked out the Museum at Home guide from Scienceworks and followed their steps to create some awesome floating devices. It was so much fun, the kids didn’t even realise they were learning about density!
Step 1: The first thing you need to do is grab some house-hold objects. We used some building blocks, toy figurines, pebbles and spoons. Get the kids to have a go at putting each item into the water and sussing out which ones float and which ones sink. They should then get a pretty good idea of the materials they should use to help construct their floating devices.
Step 2: Construct your device! Use Aluminium foil and some objects that you think will make your device float extra well. Mamma’s crew found some sticks, plastic building blocks and polystyrene worked well.
Step 3: Test them out! Put them into the water and see how they go. Add some toys - or passengers - and set sail! For extra fun, add some teaspoons - one at a time - to see how many you can get before it sinks. Mamma’s crew made this into a competition to see whose device was more sturdy.
Age suitability:
We think this activity is fun for everyone from 2 to 200 (with parent supervision!). And can take 30 mins or more depending on how many you make!
the nitty gritty
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push and pull with air - museum at home
Ready Set AIR CANNON
Oh my golly how we miss Scienceworks! This Mamma practically lived at this awesome place and we can’t wait for it to re-open. As we can’t visit Scienceworks RIGHT now, the team at Museums Victoria have provided a fabulous step by step guide on how to recreate some of their fun in our own homes!
The push and pull with air cannon activity is a super easy experiment - perfect for all ages - exploring how we can push and pull objects using air with our own homemade ‘air cannon’!
What do you need:
- a paper cup
- a balloon
- plenty of light objects, (raid the craft box for this one - feathers, paper, pom poms!)
For their method on making Click here for all the instructions
Then have some fun…whilst you and the kids test out shooting objects across the room all using the power of air. Such cute reactions and this activity makes a great brain break for all those online learning at home!
Age suitability:
We think this activity is fun for everyone. Mamma made the air cannon for the toddler (2 YO’s) and he got to ‘experiment’ with it for hours!
Mamma’s special mentions: Make sure you give some of the other activities a go too there are lots to choose from PLUS they are adding more fun every week - CLICK here for all the at home family activities
the nitty gritty
Follow Museums Victoria on FACEBOOK HERE