Our local kiddos headed back to school this week, which means most households are flush with everyone’s favorite school supply… The #2 pencil! This week for STEAM Saturday, we are sharing some super fun and simple pencil STEAM projects from Little Bins For Little Hands that you and your child can do at home.
Magic Breaking Pencil
Learn about how light waves work with this incredibly simple experiment. Fill a clear, tall glass halfway with water, and the other half with oil. The oil will sit on top because it is not as dense as the water. Lower your pencil into the glass, then slowly rotate it until it looks broken from the side.
Why does the pencil appear broken? This is a wonderful opportunity to talk about light refraction. Light waves travel faster through water than through oil. This causes the illusion of the pencil being broken. Try moving the pencil around in the glass to see if you can “fix it” by changing its position relative to your light source.
Check out the full experiment and more of the science behind it HERE.
Pencil Catapult
With 12 pencils and a handful of rubber bands, your child can build a working catapult! This is a great way to help your little builder hone his or her engineering skills, and when the project is complete, the fun is just beginning!
Check out the instructions HERE, and get ready to launch into learning!
Sundial
How did people tell time before clocks were invented? They built sundials, which would track where the sun was in the sky based on the shadows it created, helping them to understand what time of day it was!
With just a paper plate, a pencil, a marker, and a sunny day, you can build your own sundial right at home!
Using the point of your pencil, mark the center of your paper plate and poke the pencil through so it is standing tall while the plate remains flat on the table. Place your sundial on the ground outside in direct sunlight in an area where it can be left for several hours. Begin your project at noon, and trace line that the pencil’s shadow makes on the paper plate. Mark that line with a 12, for noon.
Set a timer for 3 hours, trace the line the shadow makes, and mark it with a 3 to represent 3 pm. Do the same thing at 6 pm, then finish off the sundial my marking the line for 9 pm.
Now you’ll be able to use the sun’s light to tell time! Check out the full activity and the science behind hit HERE.
Little Bins for Little Hands has compiled a list of TEN awesome STEAM activities you can do with pencils. Click here to check out the full list!
As always, get as creative as you want, and above all, have lots of fun learning together!
We’ll see you right back here next Saturday for another STEAM Saturday activity! Scroll through the rest of our website to learn how Critchlow Adkins is Building Brighter Futures for the children and families we serve!
