Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education at an early age fosters growth in the curiosity and creativity of young minds. The
se young minds are the basis for the next big discovery and the world depends on STEM innovations. STEM exploration includes interactive and hands-on activities, and let’s be honest, learning through play is more fun! It is never too early to start building the skills that youth will need for their careers and future success as adults. I encourage you to take the opportunity to allow Cloverbuds to “explore” through “doing” and spark the thought process that leads young minds to understand there is “more than one way to complete a task successfully”. To get you started here is an activity to use at your next meeting to explore STEM.
Rain Cloud in a Jar
A great way to demonstrate how rain arrives to us through clouds.
You will need a few supplies:
– food coloring
– water
– clear jar (pint or quart)
– shaving cream
– plastic pipettes or eye droppers
– small glass
- Mix a few drops of food coloring into water in the small glass and set aside.
- Fill the glass jar ¾ of way with cool water.
- Fill the glass jar the rest of the way with shaving cream creating your “cloud”.
- Now we are ready to make it rain!
- Kids can now use the pipettes to squirt the colored water into the top of the shaving cream.
- Once the cloud gets heavier with liquid, colored rain will make its way through the cloud and start falling onto the ground (bottom of the jar).
Clouds are formed from billions of water droplets. When those droplets get heavy enough, gravity pulls them down as rain.
Source: Activity retrieved August 29, 2019 from thestemlabratory.com