STEAM Away the Cold!

This week @ the library we are STEAMing (activities in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, & Math) about snow!

•  Look at snow through a magnifying glass. What do you see? 
• Which melts snow more quickly, salt, flour, or water? What happens when you put the melted snow back outside? 
• Paint snow with eyedroppers of water color. What happens as the snow melts?
•  Learn about snowflakes, then make one of your own. 
• Blow bubbles outside. What happens? So much to learn, so much to see! 

You can do these things at home too! Here's a great one for days like today & tomorrow:

• Go outside with your budding scientist (very briefly) and blow bubbles. No bottle of bubbles? Make some with water and dish soap. If you have a choice, Joy or Dawn are best. But any type will work. Then you need something to blow with. Pipe cleaners or thin wire or anything else that can be rounded into one shape will work. So will paper tubes! Dip the bubble blower into the solution, blow, and watch what happens. 
• If you don't mind, let your young scientist blow some bubbles inside. What's the difference between the bubbles you blow outside and those you blow inside? Why? 
• Try blowing a bubble onto a plate and set the plate outside. What happens to the bubble?

Want to learn about all this? Check out the Canada Science Technology Museum for a great explanation, picture, and a bubble solution recipe! (That's about 1/2 cup dish soap, 1/2 cup corn syrup, and 3 cups water. You don't have to have corn syrup--it may make the bubbles last longer--but so will the cold! And I didn't use corn syrup or hot water, but my results were the same.)
Check out the library's Facebook page for another fun cold weather activity.