Looking for a fun way to teach your children about UV light? Especially during the spring and summer months when they need to be wearing sunglasses and sunscreen, or in my kids cases, swim shirts as well.

In her comment earlier this week, Laurel reminded me of solar beads (aka UV Beads or Energy Beads). These are a great tool for teaching your kids about UV light and have some fun as well.

At first appearances, solar beads look like just little white plastic beads, like you would use for a kid’s beading project. But these are special in that when they are exposed to UV light they turn colors and then turn white again once out of the UV light.

We were first introduced to these last year and the kids loved them. The olders each made their own bracelets and had great fun showing them off to others. It was a novelty to see how much the beads would change color (if at all) under different types of light.

Personally I love Laurel’s idea of using the beads as a reminder to the kids to put on sunscreen. But in addition to that, the beads can be used in various experiments on how effective sunglasses and/or different levels of SPF sunscreen are in blocking out UV light, as well as how we are exposed to UV light under different light and weather conditions.

You can buy solar beads from a variety of sources online, just search for “solar beads”, “UV beads”, or “Energy Beads”. Amazon.com has several sets of a variety of quantities. And, Laurel recommended Steve Spangler Science, and I have to say a few minutes on that website and I am hooked.

Not only do they sell different quantities of solar beads, but also have written instructions for experiments with solar beads and and an explanation on how the solar beads work (look at the bottom of the solar bead experiment page). The site also contains lots of free science experiment videos, including this one on solar beads. Lots of fun to watch and get ideas from.

Enjoy!

Lately, my 7 year old is really into how things are made. Today’s question was “How is a Light Bulb Made?” And so we headed over to Google’s Video search to see if there was anything good available.

Here are two 5 min. videos that pulled not only my 7 year old’s attention but also that of his older siblings. One is for an incandescent light bulb and the other for a flourescent bulb. Enjoy!

…Shannon

How An Incandescent Light Bulb is Made

How A Flourescent Light Bulb is Made

Last summer, my daughter’s Chemistry curriculum introduced us to the idea that YouTube could be part of our homeshool science curriculum. Everyone would gather around the computer to watch the explosive reactions of alkaline metals hitting water and beg to watch it again.

Since then, we’ve periodically used Google’s Video search to find other free online videos that demonstrated a concept or inspired our own experiments.

As with anything, there’s a lot of junk out there we don’t want in our kids’ heads, but there is also some wonderful experiments and demonstrations that we wouldn’t be able to do on our own. We use these videos as springboards of conversation – not just on the topic, but also on safety and appropraiteness of the content.

This week my 9-year-old ran across this video on how to make a simple “bb gun” from a toilet paper tube, a balloon, a penny. From this, we discussed velocity, force, safety, when it is okay to replicate the experiment and when it is not, and what we could change to test how it work under different conditions (different type of tube, different balloon sizes, a different type of projectile, etc.)

Over time I’ll share more of our favorite videos with you. But for now, here’s my 9-year-old’s find for the week:

Safety Alert! I’m a big believer in over emphasizing safety. When watching any science videos or demonstrations, it’s always wise, especially with active, indepenent-thinking, creative children, to explicitly discuss when it is okay to replicate an experiment and under what conditions…and be sure to explain why or ask what would happen if they don’t follow the safety instructions.