Tag: science

FUN Science with Halloween Candy!

Check out our updated list of spooky science Halloween Activities here! 
Worried about having too much Halloween candy laying around? Here’s a little science you can do with your kids’ haul—or your own!

Chances are if you’ve got kids they’re going to want to go trick-or-treating. This means they’ll end up loaded with way more candy than you’d want them to actually eat. What could you do with the rest? Well, you could donate it, you could take it to a candy buyback program or you could do a little science with it! Here are a few ideas from Candyexperiments.com.

Lifesaver Lights
Here’s a simple one. Grab some wintergreen flavored Life Saver candies, stand in a dark room, face a mirror and chew them with your mouth open. You’ll see flashes of light that result from electrons in the candy; these are more easily visible thanks to the wintergreen flavoring.

 

 

Pop Rocks
Ever tried pouring some Pop Rocks into a glass of water? If you do, you’ll find that it’s a pretty effervescent experience.

 

 

 

Chocolate Bloom
By rapidly heating and cooling a piece of chocolate, you can gradually seperate it into its component parts. This results in white streaks and spirals called chocolate bloom. You can even still eat the chocolate once this is done—the texture might be a little unusual but it’s still perfectly edible!

 

Density Rainbow
Skittles are both delicious and colorful – here’s a way to really help that color shine. By using different quantities of various colored Skittles and the principle that sugar makes water more dense, you can create a liquid rainbow. This is one of the tougher experiments to try; make sure you pour the melted Skittles very slowly otherwise the different colors will just mix together.

 

Color Separation- Chromotography
Even if a piece of candy is only one color, that color can actually contain a variety of differently colored dyes. By dissolving candy coloring into water then slowly dripping that water down a piece of paper, it’s possible to see all those various colors. This is an easy experiment and the results are striking. Try it with brown M&Ms!

Want To Record Your Dreams?

 

Image Source: Pixabay.com

So I know I’m not the only one who has woken up after a good night sleep, gotten on with the day and later vaguely remembered dreaming about something cool or crazy, but couldn’t for the life of me remember what it was. Well, what if we could record our dreams and watch them back later on?

Very nice and friendly scientists from Berkeley University have recently started reconstructing imagery and video from people’s minds! Incredible! However, while the technology is still improving, you can see that the results are still a bit blurry and not quite cinema-worthy. I’ll explain why after you watch it:

So the researchers monitored the brainwave activity of three people who were watching YouTube videos from the inside of an MRI machine (they used some Hollywood trailers, of course). The information that was gathered from this analysis was then stored in voxels (3d-pixels), since the pictures were moving (like how they make animation).

The next step of the process was to analyse a few more YouTube videos to compare them to those watched by the researchers. 13-million seconds of videos were seen by the computer to build a potential database from which to reconstruct the original brain signals. The computer then picked 100 videos to combine to make the original videos again. The result is quite blurry and obviously not perfect, but it is apparent that the final video does in fact resemble the original!

The process works kind of like what you tried to do as a kid when you were fingerpainting your dog in primary school using only a few colours. You combined a bit of yellow and red to better resemble your orange dog, right? Well in this case the dog represents the original video, the colours represent the videos that the computers analysed and you are the painter. You mix the paint to recreate the image of the dog that you have in your mind!

Obviously the technology is not ready to make Inception a reality, but it looks like we’re on the way. It’s extremely exciting (even if it is a little unnerving); but I am quite excited for the day that I can relive my journeys around the world, flying like superman or just watching how dreams morph from one thing into another!.

What dreams will you be recording?

 

NASA Corn Mazes…Awesome Crop Circles For Science!

Image Source: Pixabay.com

Imagine looking out your airplane window (or alien spacecraft portal) and seeing a giant Mars Exploration Rover or an astronaut a half-kilometer long etched in …. a corn field? That’s exactly what is happening this fall, as seven farms across the US are participating in a special collaboration with NASA called Space Farm 7 to celebrate the space agency’s achievements and progress in space, as well as providing education and activities about agriculture. The farmers have created some absolutely amazing and intricate crop-circle-like formations that double as corn mazes, giving kids and families the chance to get lost — if you will — in space.

 

Read More on this story here and learn how you can win a chance to tour Kennedy Space Center by voting for your favorite maze!

Unprecedented Scientific City To Be Built in New Mexico!

There are all kinds of ghost towns around the globe. There’s an abandoned city in Latvia that was up for auction.  There are multiple small former communities in Antarctica, which are present day ghost towns. At one point, there was even a ghost town amusement park, abandoned in the heart of New Orleans.  This past  Tuesday, a Washington based technilogical co mpany mad e the big announcement of a new, modern day ghost town that  sounds straight out of the movie- Back To The Future.

There is no doubt that this brand-spanking new “city of the future” would make Doc proud! New Mexico is already home to several of the nation’s premier scientific, nuclear and military institutions.

The 20-square-mile model of a small US city named “The Center,” will be  used to test everything from renewable energy innovations to intelligent traffic systems, next-generation wireless networks and smart-grid cyber security systems.  No one will live in The City but it will be modeled after a typical American town of 35,000 people, complete with highways, houses and commercial buildings, old and new.

The Center is an unprecedented science project that will allow private companies, not for profits, educational institutions and government agencies to test in a unique facility with real world infrastructure, allowing them to better understand the cost and potential limitations of new technologies. For instance, developers of solar technology will be able to assess exactly how their systems would best be delivered and used in one house where the thermostat is set at 78, and another where it’s set at 68. The center could also help show how efficient it might be in an old building versus a new one.

You can read more about the announcement of The Center on the Washington Post website by clicking here:

 

 

 

After 5 Years, Student Attracted To Doing The Right Thing!

Today, we received a letter from a young student that has been carrying a heavy burden since participating in a High Touch High Tech program almost 5 years ago.  As you can see in the letter below, this young student slipped a few magnets into her pocket while cleaning up from the hands-on workshop that had just taken place in her class.We cant help but smile after reading this letter and would like to commend this young lady on her honesty!

Summer Science FUN at The Lab

Long summer days are full of fun with baseball games to bike rides to hours spent doing nothing but daydreaming. But summer vacation is also the perfect time to keep your child’s brain buzzing with hands-on science experiments, from hunting hurricanes and counting constellations with weather and astrology to classifying geodes and befriending beetles with geology and entomology. You may think that combining science with summer vacation sounds like a parental pipe dream, but with all the time for child-directed learning and hands-on experimentation, summer is a kid scientist’s dream come true!

One such place to explore the many wonders of science during the summer is The Lab in Wellington, Florida where High Touch High Tech of South Florida hosts week long camps all summer! Camps are geared toward children ages 4-12 years old and can be modified to accommodate children with special needs. From erupting volcanoes to exploring the rainforest, campers are kept engaged and interacting all day long.

To read more about summer camp at The Lab, check out this AWESOME article recently published by the Sun Sentinal:

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/wellington/fl-wf-sciencecamp-0713-20110713,0,7014455.story

To learn more about High Touch High Tech and The Lab, visit www.ScienceMadeFunSFL.net.

The Final Launch

Today marks an important day in history as thirty years and 135 missions after its debut, NASA launched a space shuttle for the final time. It was a bitter sweet moment as Atlantis streaked into orbit from Kennedy Space Center.

Atlantis and its four-person crew are embarking on a 12-day mission to the International Space Station.

The liftoff at 11:26 a.m. thrilled a crowd of an estimated 1 million people who packed viewing sites along the Florida coast for one last look at a spaceship that captured the imagination and attention of fans around the world.

The mission is the 33rd for Atlantis which first flew on Oct. 3, 1985.

Atlantis is hauling nearly 10,000 pounds of supplies — about a third of it food — and equipment that should keep the International Space Station stocked through next year.

On July 20, at Kennedy  Space Center, the shuttle program will officially end with the call of wheel stop.

After retirement, Atlantis is destined for its new home at the KSC Visitor Complex.

Click here for pictures of Atlantis over the years: http://mediagallery.usatoday.com/G2440

 

 

Got the Winter Blues? Weather’s Effect on Mood Revealed

 

Does cold, dark weather get you down? Research explains how weather tends to affect people’s moods. New research into the connection between weather and moods has started to chip away at old myths as well as uncover some potentially powerful treatments for the winter blues. When it comes to how weather affects moods, people fit into one of four categories, according to new research. The cause of these categories is unknown, but it could be in our genes, our upbringing or even our diets.

To find out which category you fall into, click the link below!

http://news.discovery.com/human/winter-weather-mood-101220.html#mkcpgn=emnws1

The Tech Behind the XBOX 360 Kinect- Is it Science or Magic? *Hint- It’s Science!*

 

The new XBOX 360 Kinect is a game-changer when it comes to how we play our games. At first glance, Kinect looks like an overly wide webcam and indeed an RGB camera is one of its components. What sets Kinect apart is that it also incorporates a depth sensor and multi-directional microphone array to create a plethora of additional features and functionality. Where a camera can merely track movements in two dimensional space, Kinect can track movement in three dimensions and perform facial and voice recognition. Furthermore, Kinect connects to its base on a motorized pivot which allows for a certain degree of movement

The two stars of the show are the depth sensor and RGB camera. While we all might have an idea of how an ordinary camera works, the idea of a depth sensor is definitely out of the ordinary. The way the depth sensor works is by firing an infrared laser into the room and subsequently using an image sensor to gather information upon the reflection of the infrared beams. Data, including the amount of light reflected back as well as the time it takes the laser to return to Kinect, is compiled to compose a 3D map of the room. It’s very similar to a bat’s use of echolocation in navigating the environment despite having poor eyesight

When the depth sensor and RGB camera work together it allows Kinect to track up to six people passively and two people for actual motion analysis. In simpler terms it means that while it may be able to recognize six people at once it’s really only designed for two people to be playing games through it. When Kinect monitors two people and performs its motion analysis, it’s able to extract detailed information including recognition of up to 20 joints for each player right down to individual fingers in certain instances.

For more on the X-BOX Kinect- check out these stories online:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40077373/ns/technology_and_science-games/

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2010/nov10/11-03kinect.mspx

http://www.npr.org/2010/11/19/131447076/how-the-x-box-kinect-tracks-your-moves

Starry Starry Night: Our Expanding Universe

Image source: Pixabay.com

What are Galaxies?

Did you know that galaxies are the vast islands of stars filling space?  Our own spiral-shaped Milky Way, parts of which can be seen on clear nights streaking across the sky, contain hundreds of billions of stars.

Here Are 3  Fun Facts about Galaxies:

  1. The word ‘galaxy’ is derived from the Greek word galaxias which means “milky”, it is a reference to our own galaxy the Milky Way.
  2. There are potentially more than 170 billion galaxies in the observable universe. Some, called dwarf galaxies, are small with about 10 million stars, while others are huge containing an estimated 100 trillion stars.
  3. Based on shape astronomers have identified various kinds of galaxies including, elliptical galaxies, spiral galaxies, lenticular galaxies, and irregular galaxies.

Can you Identify These Galaxies??

  • Spiral galaxies are rotating flattened disk-shapes with at least two spiral arms of newer stars extending out from a central bulge of older stars. The dense molecular clouds of hydrogen gas and dust in the spiral arms of spiral galaxies are areas of intense star formation.
    See a sample image here: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap031103.html
  • Barred spiral galaxies (like our Milky Way) contain a long bar in the middle with spiral arms coming off the ends. Around two-thirds of spiral galaxies contain a barred structure in their center.
    See a sample image here: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap181009.html
  • Elliptical galaxies are a mass of stars bunched together in the shape of an elliptical disk.
    See a sample image here: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap060520.html
  • A lenticular galaxy is a type of galaxyintermediate between an elliptical and a spiral galaxy in classification schemes. It contains a large-scale disc but does not have large-scale spiral arms.
    See a sample image here: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap020408.html
     
  • Irregular galaxies are any galaxy that has no obvious spiral or elliptical structure. Some irregular galaxies would have just formed that way while others are the result of other galaxy types crashing into each other.
    See a sample image here: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180921.html

Join our HTHT @ Home Science Experiment to make your own Expanding Universe:
https://sciencemadefun.net/downloads/Space%20Case_EOTD_May%208th.pdf