Oceans

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Home : 2001 : August : 25

Oceans
By Marlena

Hiya Rosie,
Yes, there are TONS of cool stuff you can do on oceans. Here is just a few of the things I did...let me know if you need more! : )

A globe (rubber ball) Have the kids toss it around the room and mark
on a tally sheet where there left thumb lands on ocean...in the end they will see that the world is mostly covered in water. There is also a mathematical formula that shows how to calculate percentage.
Water Density: Take 3 containers of water. Add a different food coloring to each one. But leave one "plain" water-no color. Add varying degrees of salt to "2" of the containers...make

sure one has a lot of salt. Now you have to use a dropper and drop the varying degrees of salt water (just a drop or two) into the plain water and see which salty water sinks. This is really a cool experiment because you can have the kids predict which water will sink, etc...I did it once but I had 4 different color salty waters and it was was GREAT...we had a nice rainbow container in the end. This takes time, but it's worth it, the kids seem to love it.

Ocean floor. Mix cornstarch, water and sand (play sand is ok) Let it come to a boil in a pot and it becomes this great sand mix. You can have the kids make their own "ocean floors" like sea arches, valleys, etc...Plus it's messy and they love it. AFter that I had them draw and diagram there models, so that was cool.

Oil spill: You can spill veggie oil in a pan and kid can put different items in pan to demonstrate what happens during an oil spill. You can also experiment with different substances to clean up oil spill and have the children discover which one cleans the best...etc They can also predict, etc...

Gosh - there is more!!! Let me know if you need it!