First Science Night for Girl Scouts

I usually plan a craft night for the last meeting of the month for Girl Scouts, but I decided to try out a science night, instead for this month.  We had also made Valentine's SWAPs earlier in the month, so I wanted to do something different.

Before the meeting, I went outside and gathered natural water pollutants (dirt, grass, leaves, and acorns), put them in a Mason jar, and filled the rest of the jar up with water.  I put a second empty jar next to it and draped a washcloth in between them to show water filtration.  Sure enough, it actually worked!  There were only a few drops of water, though, so if I ever do that again in the future, I'll start an hour or two before the meeting.  Magnifying glasses would be a fun addition, too.  I'll have to show them the picture to show them that it really worked.

We may explore how to purify water another time, as I would not want to drink the filtered dirty water.

While that was starting to filter, we explored water molecules.  My son had brought home Scientist in a Bag, which consisted of several books with experiments.  For the water molecules exploration, I had three jars, one with cold water, one with warm water, and one with hot water.  I added a little purple food coloring (since purple is my daughter's favorite color) to each jar.  The cold water jar's dye clumped together at the top.  The warm water jar's dye clung to the sides more.  The hot water jar's dye quickly separated and spread throughout the jar.  I further explained water molecule's movement by having them move around inside of a hula hoop.  When only one girl was inside the hula hoop, there was lots of room for movement and energy for heat, but not so much when all 5 girls were inside the hula hoop.

Lastly, we planted carrot seeds inside an empty Gatorade jug that I had.  They helped fill the jug, examined the seeds, and planted them.  Again, I'm really wanting magnifying glasses now.

Thanks for reading!

 ~Vanessa