You don’t know how to keep your child busy this weekend or during the next school holidays: what if you stimulate their interest in science? The 33rd Science Festival, which takes place from October 4 to 14, aims precisely to promote scientific knowledge and careers. For the occasion, we offer you experiments to do easily at home. Who knows, this could ultimately spark a vocation…
“The point of experiments is to conceptualize. Up to 8-10 years old, it is by manipulating that we memorize best,” explains Élodie Castro, in charge of mediation at the Cité des enfants of the Cité des sciences in Paris. That’s good: during confinement, the establishment published on its site dozens of practical sheets to reproduce experiments at home. All for free, with explanations and basic materials. Here are six that caught our attention.
Water games to understand the concept of capillarity (2 to 7 years old)
To carry out this experiment, all you need is a marker, paper, a pair of scissors, a bowl and water. The child must first draw a basic flower on a sheet, cut it out and bend each of its petals towards the center. You must then place the flower on the surface of a bowl filled with water and watch the petals open.
The next step is to cut a boat out of cardboard and soak a cotton swab in dishwashing liquid. Once in the water, the boat remains stationary as it is “pulled” from all sides. But if you place the cotton swab at the back of the boat, it will move forward because the dishwashing liquid will lower the tension.
Build the tallest tower possible and defy the laws of physics (2 to 7 years)
To understand the laws of physics, the easiest way is to test them. Get a box of lump sugar and a measuring tape. The objective here is to build the tallest tower possible by taking turns placing a sugar cube and measuring the tower each time. When it collapses, start again but with a base of two sugars and compare the results. Don’t hesitate to blow on your constructions to test their stability!
In the same vein, you can also use toothpicks (20) and modeling clay (10 balls of approximately 1.5 cm in diameter) to build the tallest construction possible. Don’t hesitate to play as a team and set a time limit to spice up the game.
Launch your own tasting workshop to test your senses (2 to 7 years old)
The experience here consists of testing your five senses to understand their usefulness. To do this, set aside chocolate, fruit, orange juice, syrup, powdered salt and powdered white sugar. Blindfold your guinea pig, make him smell each food and record his responses. Repeat the same manipulation but this time, let him taste it.
Finally, remove his blindfold and ask him to recognize the elements. Then compare the answers and explain to your child the usefulness of olfactory receptors and taste buds, particularly in distinguishing salt from sugar.
Make a sundial to find out if the Earth still rotates at the same speed (5 to 12 years)
Make a sundial (see practical sheet) and place it in a sunny place all day. Then compare the time indicated by the dial and that displayed on your watch at several times of the day. Isn’t it the same? This is normal: the time on our watch is calculated according to the rotation of the Earth and not according to solar time, which varies depending on the place from which we observe the Sun.
Decode a message broadcast in Morse code (5 to 12 years old)
Teach your child the importance of communication by introducing them to Morse code. To do this, nothing could be simpler: have him watch the video below and try to decode the message it contains with him. All you need is a sheet of paper, a pencil and the international Morse code (downloadable here).
Create a water fountain to observe the principles of communicating vessels and atmospheric pressure (5 to 12 years)
To create a water fountain, you will need a balloon, a plastic bottle, a straw, fixing paste, water and a pencil. Start by inflating a balloon, slip it over the neck of the empty bottle and observe how the air takes up space, even when you can’t see it.
Then remove the balloon and make a hole in the bottle, halfway up, using a pen. Place a straw in the hole with it pointing upwards and seal the hole with fixing paste. Fill the bottle three-quarters full of water and observe the water: it is at the same level in the bottle and in the straw, in accordance with the principle of communicating vessels. Finally, add an inflated balloon to the neck, as at the beginning of the experiment. This time, it will deflate and cause water to gush out through the straw: you thus observe… the atmospheric pressure.
Looking for other experiment ideas? There are a multitude of ways to interest our children in science, but “those that work well generally have gameplay,” says Élodie Castro. Shadow theater, cooperation or coordination games, quizzes… The Cité des sciences website is full of free resources. All you have to do is try them with your family!
