At every Science on Ice lesson, we combine theoretical lessons, demonstrations and experiments. During the session, students will learn about three topics:
The Properties of Water section teaches children about what water is, a brief introduction to molecules, compounds and substances, and the different states of matter.
We perform a demo with dry ice to show how sublimation works.
Kids perform the first experiment, which involves beakers filled with water and food dye. Recording the time measurements, the children will determine the average speed that dye diffuses through water.
The second section covers Newton's laws, and focuses on the second Law. The concepts of mass, acceleration and force are introduced.
This activity is done at a slingshot station on the ice, using multiple pucks with different weights. Students split into groups, and each group will fire each puck twice, and record how far each of them travels on the ice. Since the slingshot provides a fixed maximum pull, we know the force will remain constant, and we can determine how the different mass of the pucks changes the acceleration of each shot.
The last section covers objects in motion, focusing on the concepts of inertia and angular momentum, allowing us to explain how figure skates twirl.
This activity uses a ramp and two disks of same diameter and mass, but one disk is solid, while the other one is a ring. Students will let go of both disks at the same time from the top of the ramp, and determine which disk travels the furthest.