First in Flight – Kites

Join High Touch High Tech in celebrating
First in Flight
December 17, 2020

Image Source: Pixabay.com

What comes to mind when you hear this phrase? Orville & Wilbur Wright? The State of North Carolina’s motto and bragging rights? The movie Top Gun? We are taking this theme quite literally, trying to discover the actual first in flight. The answer is the kite!  They are certainly little flying machines that have astounded Man for centuries. There are millions of people around the world, that look up to the skies to watch or fly a kite. “What easier way to get from the ground to the sky”, said Benjamin Franklin when he was trying to figure out the nature of lightning. Kites set people’s imaginations wild.

The
earliest written account of kite flying was about 200 B.C. when the Chinese
General Han Hsin of the Han Dynasty flew a kite over the walls of a city he was
attacking to measure how far his army would have to tunnel to reach past the
defenses. Knowing this distance his troops reached the inside of the city,
surprised their enemy, and were victorious. How clever?

Kite
flying was eventually spread by traders from China to Korea, and across Asia to
India. Each area developed a distinctive style of kite and cultural purpose for
flying them.

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
Marco Polo

Marco
Polo carried stories of kites to Europe around the end of the 13th century.
Illustrations of the period show non-flying dragon kites on military banners.
Sailors also brought kites back from Japan and Malaysia in the 16th and 17th
centuries. Kites were regarded as curiosities at first and had little impact on
European culture.

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
Benjamin Franklin

Meanwhile
back in the Americas, men like Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Wilson used
their knowledge of kite flying to learn more about the wind and weather. Sir
George Caley, a very important figure in aeronautics, who quite fancied
aviation himself, Samuel Langley, an astronomer, Lawrence Hargrave, an engineer
and explorer, Alexander Graham Bell, an inventor and scientist, and the Wright
Brothers, the aviation pioneers! All of these people have experimented with
kites and contributed to the development of the airplane, and our understanding
of flight. They have all contributed to man’s desire to reach for the skies,
and ultimately the stars.

Since
its invention, there have been many adaptations to the kite by various cultures
around the world. The kite you probably flew as a kid looks a bit different to
the original Chinese kites and even the kites of modern China. 

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
Chinese Dragon Kite

A Chinese kite in ancient times would have used simple materials such as wood and cloth. They were often made to resemble the shapes of birds. Today, elaborate and large designs can be seen flying above parks in China. They will often resemble real animals and members of the Chinese Zodiac. Some kites will have LED lights attached to allow for night flights and fun light shows. There is even a kite museum where you can view designs and learn more about the history of kites through the ages!

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
Weifang Kite Museum, China

But
how do kites actually fly? What is the science behind them?

First
let’s talk about airplanes.  An airplane
flies because the wings create lift. The air going over the wing is moving
faster than the air going under the wing, and this creates a low-pressure causing
lift.

In
terms of kites, lift is generated by differences in air pressure, which are
created by air in motion over the body of the kite. Kites are
shaped and angled so that the air moving over the top moves faster than the air
moving along the bottom. To launch a kite into the air the force of
lift must be greater than the force of gravity, just like airplanes!

Image Source: Pixabay.com

Who’s ready to fly a kite? If you’re ready, check out our at-home experiment: Chinese Kite! Grab your materials and follow along with the lesson plan to make your very own kite!
https://sciencemadefun.net/downloads/Chinese%20Kite_REV%2012-09-2020.pdf

Pumpkin Spice – The Bitter Sweet Story

Image Source: Pixabay.com
Pumpkin Spice

Cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg.   This spice blend, known today as Pumpkin Spice, conjures up thoughts of wholesome fall fun – corn mazes, trick or treating, walking on crisp fall days and of course, that American fall favorite, pumpkin pie.  American people’s love for the pleasing, nostalgia-inducing taste of this spice blend means you can drink it as a beverage, eat it in baked goods from granola bars to Oreos, and even use it in soap, shampoo, and.. FISHING LURES? Pumpkin pie spice conjures memories that are wholesome and sweet, and people’s obsession with it often generates some good-humored mockery.  But what’s REALLY in that latte you’re enjoying?  The origin of pumpkin spice isn’t so sweet, but it’s definitely spicy!  About 500 years ago, the drive to obtain the spices in your pumpkin spice Cheerios was one of the most consequential moments in human history.  Your Thanksgiving pie comes with an incredible legacy –under that dollop of whipped cream is the beginning of the modern age, shocking levels of violence, and even the origin of The United States of America itself.

Image Source: Pixabay.com
Nutmeg

Nutmeg in particular has a large slice of history’s pie.  In the European Middle Ages, exotic nutmeg was the ultimate status good, worth much more than its weight in gold.  People used it as an aphrodisiac, and it was thought especially good for warding off the plague, but no one had any idea where it came from.  One of the main reasons for all of the bold sailing voyages of the “European Age of Discovery” was to find the sources of the nutmeg that Europeans craved.   In the process, Europeans reached and began to colonize places as far-flung as The Americas and Australia, initiating the early modern age and laying the foundations for our current globalized world.  Nutmeg is native to a place called the Banda Archipelago, in Eastern Indonesia.  In the 1500’s, first the Portuguese, then the Dutch showed up there, seeking this spice that was more precious than gold. They were willing to do anything to secure it.

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
Map of Eastern Archipelago, including Banda

The native people of Banda had been building their trading empire with Asia for centuries, and were wealthy and well organized, but they did not count on the lengths the Dutch would go to for profit.  To ensure a monopoly over the Nutmeg trade, the Dutch massacred almost the entire population of The Bandas, keeping only a few as slaves to work the nutmeg orchards.  This marked the start of centuries of deadly, often genocidal war between the Dutch and Indonesian people. The Dutch, however, were much more disturbed by the presence of some ragtag Englishmen who were claiming a tiny island in the archipelago, Run, for England.  Both the English and the Dutch in Indonesia were some of the toughest, wiliest, most skilled fighters either kingdom had to offer, and the fighting between them was brutal, often with many native Indonesian lives as collateral.  Giles Morton’s amazing book Nathaniel’s Nutmeg, describes the swashbuckling, and tremendously consequential, battles for The Bandas in detail.

Image Source: Pixabay.com
Cloves

To maintain their monopoly, and shake those pesky English, the Dutch eventually offered an island-swap for peace.  In exchange for Run and the nutmeg monopoly, in 1667 the English were given a much less important and less profitable island held by the Dutch:  New Amsterdam, otherwise known as Manhattan Island.  New Amsterdam became New York, the English presence in North America was firmly established, and the rest, as they say, is history.  Eventually the Dutch monopoly on nutmeg was lost, and their hard-won empire in Indonesia began to crumble.  Nutmeg and its Indonesian cousin, cloves, became cheap enough to drink and eat every day.  New York, and indeed the entire country of the United States would have been vastly different – or never even existed at all — without pumpkin spice.  If someone makes fun of you for eating your 4th pumpkin spice pop tarts of the day, now you can let them know that it’s not trendy junk food, it’s one of the most important substances in modern history.

Pumpkin Spice in food
Pumpkin Spice in OTHER things
Overview
Nathaniel’s Nutmeg
Video Journey to the Spice Islands

Nature’s Density

Image credit: how to smile

What is
Density? Density is how much ‘stuff’ is packed into a particular area.

For
example, if we have 13 balls in a box and we have the same box with 27
identical balls inside it. We say the box with 27 balls has higher density than
the box with 13 balls.

Density
is a fundamental property of matter. Density is defined as mass divided by unit
volume. It is measured in grams per cubic centimeter or kilograms per cubic
meter. The Greek letter rho, is the symbol for density.

Density,
ρ = Mass ÷ Volume

So,
two liquids can take up the same amount of space(volume) but can have
completely different masses. If liquid A has a higher mass, MORE of that liquid
is in that space and therefore is denser. If liquid B has a lower mass, LESS of
that liquid is in that same space and is therefore less dense than liquid A.

Image credit: steve spangler science

All
liquids in your tower have similar volumes but they have different densities.
What does that mean? That means that each liquid has a different amount of mass
in that volume. The liquids with the highest density are at the bottom, and the
ones with the lower density are on top of each other. So, which of the liquids
is most dense? And which is least dense?

Join our HTHT @ Home Science Experiment and make your own Density Tower:
https://sciencemadefun.net/downloads/Density%20Tower_EOTD_May%2013th.pdf

Bang in a Bag

Image credit: little bins for little hands

A chemical reaction is a process in which one or more chemicals
(or things) combine to make something new. The ‘things’ or chemicals that we
started with are called Reactants and the new ‘thing’ that is made are called
Products. It is called a chemical reaction since:

  1. It is accompanied by a rearrangement of the
    atoms in the reactants to form different chemical matter. The product formed is
    a new entity and is chemically different from the starting reactants.
  2. It is usually irreversible: this means that in
    most cases, I cannot get back what I started with.
  3. A chemical reaction is usually accompanied by
    a color change, smell, heat or light or release of a gas.

An example
of chemical reactions is the burning of wood in the presence of oxygen to
produce ash, water vapor and carbon dioxide.

A Chemical reaction or change is different from a physical change.

A physical change usually involves only a change of state: from
solid to liquid, liquid to gas or gas to water. A physical change does not
involve a change in the chemical entity of the reactant. The products will have
different physical properties than the reactants (such as state of matter,
texture, shape), but the chemical structure remains exactly the same as the
reactants. Therefore, a physical change is usually reversible.

Image source: Pixabay.com

An example
of a physical change is the change of states of water. Liquid water freezes to
become ice, and when heated turns to water vapor or steam. But in all three
states, it is still chemically identical: H2O, which is made of two
atoms of Hydrogen and one atom of Oxygen. So, change of states of matter is not
a chemical, but a physical change.

In the Bang
in a Bag chemical reaction you just observed, acidic vinegar (chemically acetic
acid) reacts with basic baking soda (chemically sodium bicarbonate) to form an
entirely new substance called sodium acetate, carbon dioxide (the gas produced)
and water. Once the reaction is complete, you cannot get back the vinegar and
baking soda. The release of carbon dioxide caused the sound and the bubbling
you observed during the chemical reaction.

Join our HTHT @ Home Science Experiment and make your own Bang in a Bag:
https://sciencemadefun.net/downloads/Bang%20in%20a%20Bag_EOTD_May%2012th.pdf

Bag Stab & Polymerization

A plastic bag is made of polymers, long chains of individual molecules called monomers. When a sharp pencil pierces the bag the polymer chains separate without breaking. The chains of molecules then squeeze tightly around the pencil creating a seal that prevents it from leaking.

Polymers
find use in our everyday life, from water bottles and Tupperware to tires for
automobiles. The word polymer
is derived from the Greek root poly-, meaning many, and mer, meaning part or
segment. Many of the same units (or mers) are connected together to form a long
chain or polymer.

Polymers
are of two types: Polymers such as starch, proteins and DNA occur in Nature,
and are called Natural polymers. Synthetic polymers are derived from petroleum
oil and made by scientists and engineers. Examples of synthetic polymers
include nylon and plastic.

Long
repeating chains can be linked together to form a cross-linked polymer, which
may become branched and become a Branched chain polymer. As the degree of cross
linking in the polymer increases, the polymer usually increases in rigidity and
toughness. This is why we see plastics that have different degrees of hardness
from a plastic bag to a hard-plastic baseball bat.

Join our
HTHT @ Home Science Experiment and learn about polymers:

https://sciencemadefun.net/downloads/Bag%20Stab_EOTD_May%2011th.pdf

MEDIEVAL ENGINEERS: THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE CATAPULT

Image source: Pixabay.com

A
catapult is a lever, a stick or beam, propped up by a fulcrum, the pivot point.
The catapult magnifies your force to throw an object. So, you do not need as big
of a force to propel a large object, but the larger the force, the farther it
goes. In ancient times, catapults were used to throw heavy rocks.

Levers
and fulcrums can be used to pick up heavy things like rocks and building
materials. Have you ever used a see-saw? That’s a lever and fulcrum! See if you
can point out which part of your catapult is the lever, and which is the
fulcrum? The craft stick with the spoon is the lever and the stack of other
craft sticks is the fulcrum. The spoon beam pivots around the stack to generate
the force to launch the load. When you press down on the spoon, it pulls up on
the rubber band on the opposite end—this is its potential energy. When the
spoon is released, it pulls back up on the rubber band and the pom pom goes flying!
The potential energy is converted into energy of motion- kinetic energy.
Gravity also does its part as it pulls the object back down to the ground.

Image source: Pixabay.com

Take
it Further:

Try
launching a bouncy ball with your catapult. Compare it with the pom pom. How far
or high did it travel? Did it go as high or far as the catapult?

The
catapult also demonstrates Newton’s 3 Laws of motion:

An object at rest stays at rest until a force is applied, and an object will stay in motion until something creates an imbalance in the motion. (First Law) The acceleration produced when a force is applied depends on the mass of the object. (F = Ma; Second Law) Every action causes an equal and opposite reaction. (Third Law)

The
pom pom will remain at rest until a force acts on it (the release of the spoon
and/or gravity) – First Law

The
bouncy ball will not travel as high or far as the pom pom as the bouncy ball
has more mass than the pom pom and will require a larger force to travel the
same distance and speed as the pom pom – Second Law (Force = Mass X
Acceleration)

When
the spoon is pushed down, the load (pom pom or bouncy ball) travels upward- in
the opposite direction equal to the force applied on it. (Third Law of
Action-Reaction)

A catapult is a simple machine that has been around for ages. Have your kids dig up a little history and research when the first catapults were invented and used! Hint; check out the 17th century!

Join our HTHT @ Home Science Experiment to make your own Catapult: https://sciencemadefun.net/downloads/Catapult_EOTD_May%206th.pdf

Image source: Pixabay.com

Thank You!

 

 

We all know that teachers lead hectic lives. Grading papers at every opportunity, developing lesson plans, investing their hearts into their students’ success. Here at High Touch High Tech, we have the opportunity of coming into your classroom to teach your students about science and understand this is no small accomplishment.  We get to inspire, explore, and engage with your students while you get to sit back and watch. That is a small way that we can thank you for all that you do for our children, and next generation.

Every day you are patient, understanding, thoughtful and energetic, even on the toughest days. Thank you!

You buy school supplies with your own money, decorate classrooms with your own supplies and volunteer your time even when there’s no time to spare! Thank you!

You don’t always get to eat lunch. At times you have recess duty, or car rider duty when it’s unpleasant outside. All after a long day, when all you want to do is finally go home. Thank you!

You stay up late grading papers, preparing for tomorrows assignments when just want to go to sleep. Thank you!

Teaching is a commitment to help with the development of your students’ curiosity and interest in learning. High Touch High Tech is also committed in keeping student’s curiosity and interest in learning. Combining those two commitments together is success for a child!

“Without teacher appreciation there can’t be any student progress.” Quote by Theresa Grim.

Thank you for being that Teacher!

50th Anniversary of the Moon Landing!

 

 

Do you remember where you were on these historic dates, July 16, 1969 and July 20, 1969? I am sure that Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong know exactly where they were!

July 16, 1969 Apollo 11 launched from Cape Canaveral Florida with Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins on board, beginning their historic flight to the moon.

July 20, 1969, 4 days later, Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin became the first humans to ever land on the moon and Neil Armstrong was the first person to walk on the moon! While taking a step onto the moon, Neil Armstrong said the famous quote that was heard around the world, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” These 2 days in history, will never be forgotten.

What science learned about the moon will also never be forgotten. The astronauts also returned to Earth with the first samples from another planetary body. Lunar rocks, core samples, pebbles and sand from the lunar surface were brought back to Earth. Scientists studied these items to learn more about the Moon, the Earth and the inner solar system.

Scientists have always been curious about space and what was out there. Children are curious as well and seem to be interested in learning everything they can about space and planets.  What if, alongside our team of professionals, students would be guided through the learning process, becoming real scientists performing real experiments!

High Touch High Tech, Science Made Fun has been around for 25 years and has been committed to moving STEM education forward within our community. HTHT  is a proud supporter of the Science, Technology, Engineering & Math initiative that is taking our Nation by storm. We encourage educators to ‘think outside of the box’ & challenge their students to find the science that surrounds us each day. This has made us an invaluable resource & trustworthy tool for teachers across the country.

Some of the Space Programs that we offer are:

Flight Command

Mission Control

Follow that Planet

Zoom to the Moon

Staggering through the Stars

These are just a few of the many space programs that we have. Whether your looking for preschool, elementary programs, afterschool programs or even Birthday Science Programs, we can accommodate your science needs!

Check out our website for more information or you can reach us at 800.444.4968 or by email us at info@ScienceMadeFun.net

 

High Touch High Tech, Science Made FUN

Hands-on FUN experiments for ages 3-12!

We come to you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Black History Month

Black History Month

 As we celebrate Black History Month, remember the important contributions and achievements of African Americans throughout our nation’s history!

Elijah McCoy was born in Canada to parents who were slaves and had escaped slavery by way of the Underground Railroad.  His parents really wanted him to get a good education.  But they could not send him to the United States.  So they saved up enough money to send Elijah to Scotland where he studied engineering.  When he completed his studies he went to the United States, eager to work.  But he was really disappointed.  He tried very hard to get a job as an engineer, but nobody would hire him because he was black. Since he needed money he got a job with the railroad.  His job was to shovel coal into the train engine, then stop the machine and oil it by hand.  He started thinking to himself.  Wouldn’t it be great if we could oil this machine without stopping it?  He needed to oil the machine because when 2 moving objects rub up against each other they produce heat.  Scientists call this “friction.”

Frederick Jones was born in Ohio in 1892 and fought in World War I.   He had over 60 patents, but refrigeration was his specialty!  He recognized a problem.  Farmers would load their vegetables on a truck so that the truck could haul the vegetables to a market.  Sometimes, it was a long haul and the food would spoil.  So he invented a refrigeration system for the truck.

 

 

 

 

Katherine Johnson,  born in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.  By thirteen, she was attending the high school on the campus of historically black West Virginia State College. She was a space scientist.  She studied how to steer and direct satellites.

 

 

One of HTHT experiments is called, The Real McCoy© So come join us on a fun filled adventure as we discover several very famous African American scientists and learn about their incredible contributions to science! All of  these scientists all had incredible imaginations.  They all had major struggles.  Some of the scientists that we are going to learn about today lived a long time ago.  Some are still alive today.  But they all have several things in common.  They are all African Americans who have overcome obstacles to make significant contributions to the field of science.

Check out our other AWESOME experiments here!

High Touch High Tech, Science Made Fun

800.444.4968

 

Sources: wikipedia.com
Pic Source: google.com