At one point in time or another, every child’s attention has caught the fancy of studying astronomy.
Below are some simple at-home experiments which can be enjoyed by the whole family:
1. Rockets
Materials needed: 5 feet of string, balloon, tape, drinking straw
Procedure: Insert through the straw the string and tape the balloon onto the straw. Release the hold on the balloon to allow the escape of the air and measure the distance that balloon moved forward.
Explanation: This simple experiment shows how the rocket works. When certain gases or chemicals are released, it pushes the object to which it is attached to a specific direction at a specific distance.
2. Craters from meteorites.
Materials: Rocks (or various sizes), basin, flour, cocoa powder
Procedure: cover the basin with about 2 inches of flour and sprinkle with some cocoa powder on top. Ask each member of the family to drop a rock (each member should have a different size of rock) at a specific height. Measure the diameter of crater each had made.
Now, ask each to throw the rock at an angle, and at various heights. Likewise observe the crater that it makes.
Explanation: Before the start of the experiment, it is common belief by most that if the rock is thrown at an angle, it would produce an oblong-shaped crater, when actually, at various angles of point of impact, it will always produce a circular crater. The reason, a meteorite impact would always result to an explosion that would somehow always produce a symmetrical sphere.
3. Location of the sun.
Materials: cardboard, stick, marker, glue
Procedure: Glue the stick at the edge of the cardboard (upright). If the family wants to do the project for more than a few weeks, it would be best to mark the spot from where it would be placed to be able to measure the exact location of the sun. At various times during the day, mark where the shadow of the stick falls. Note the same position of its shadow on the same time as it was yesterday.
Note the difference on the location of the sun.
Explanation. The Earth, as it orbits around the sun, tilts on its axis. Thus, its location varies every day (except at the equator). If the family would be able to do the activity for one whole year, when they would try to connect the dots or marks of the location of the sun , they would see a point of intersection, that is March 21 and September 21 the only time when the sun is at its exact position.
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