Sand Castle Experiment

This surface tension experiment comes from The Indianapolis Public Library Kid Blog! Students explore measuring by adding different amounts of water to 1 cup of sand to see what water to sand ratio makes the ideal sand castle. They investigate fractions when measuring their water (1/4, 1/3, 1/2, 1 cup). They construct a total of four mini cup castles (using different amounts of water for each one). Then, they estimate how many pennies each "castle" will hold. Which castle do they think will be the strongest? They count out the pennies, as they lay them on top of each cup castle. Can any of their mini castles hold 25 pennies? Which castle was the strongest? Visit IPL Kid Blog for the scientific explanation behind this experiment!

Coins, Bills, and Presidents

Coin Experiments Featured:
1. Make a Quarter Cast and fool your friends with a magic trick! -  Magic.About
2. Make green pennies and glimmering pennies, exploring electrochemistry! - Fun Science for Girls
3. How many drops of water can you put on a penny before it spills off? - The Last Blog After Eugenics
4. How many pennies can you put into a cup of water without a spill? - Learning Ideas K-8
5. Knock the bottom coin out of a coin tower, without it toppling over! - Zoom
6. Coin Drop: Make a basket with a flick of your fingers! - Steve Spangler
7. Swing a coin by a coat hanger! How does it stick?! - Visit ABC News in Science for this magical trick!

More:
8. Color Changing Quarter: Turn a quarter copper! - MegaMVP555
9. Vibrate a penny and make it dance on the opening of a water bottle - April Oaks
10. Fool your eyes with a refraction experiment (penny in a cup of water) - Steve Spangler
11. Make a quarter scream! - Science Bob
12. Trick your friends with Candace's Coin Trick (glue stick, 3 pennies)
13. Pennies Afloat - Riding in a boat

Money Maker - Put yourself on a bill! - Upload a photo at Festisite!

Coin Scavenger Hunt - Hunt for coins minted from various years and sequence them in order! 
Coin Rubbings - Put coins under thin paper and rub over top with crayons.
Where's George? - Track a dollar bill!

photo via spoonful

Paper Log Cabin - Split students up into teams. Then, have them sketch out a design and construct it using paper tubes. Visit Spoonful (featured left).


Pretzel Stick Log Cabin - Chocolate Frosting Adhesive


Cherry Tree - Use a soda bottle for prints or crunch up tissue paper.


Life-Sized Presidents - Have kids split up into groups and pick a president. They measure out his height and create a paper president.


Writing - What would you do if you were president?