Super Hero Science

I mentioned earlier that our library's summer reading program is Super Hero themed this year, which is right up my family's alley.  In addition to the reading program itself, they have several fun free activities for the kids to do throughout the summer ranging from arts & crafts to music in the park.  In reading through the brochure, one in particular stood out for this week that I thought might be fun to try.  Put on your capes and masks kids, we are headed to rid the city of evil with the help of none other than . . . SCIENCE!

Time was of the essence, as we learned from an earlier project here, that the room they do these activities in is quite small.  :(  So we arrived at the scene precisely the moment the doors opened to be greeted by our friendly neighborhood "scientist".  She explained that there were stations set up for us to try different experiments and we were welcome to attempt them as many times as we'd like.  A quick glance around the room had us all grinning from ear to ear ... the experiments were all X-MEN THEMED!!!  

Not ones to shy away from a challenge, we decided first to try to "defeat" one of the most notoriously evil villains in comic book history, Magneto!  (LOL!  I'm having way to much fun with this theme!!  Can you tell?)

As you can see from the instructions above, the object was to see if you could keep the paperclip floating in mid-air using the magnets provided.  This was a little more difficult than it looked.  Not only did you need to have patience but also a steady hand to keep the force between the two objects intact.  But Super Heroes must persevere!  At last, they achieved success!!

"The Force is strong with this one."....  oh wait, wrong movie!  Oops.  :)

Next, we worked along side JEAN GREY in efforts to learn a little about her powers of telepathy.  I would like nothing more than to be able to move things with my mind, like say... the folded towels into the linen closet or the clean dishes back into the cupboard.  But I suppose that isn't what super powers are meant to be used for...bummer.

After rubbing a balloon against your hair for a minute, the kids learned two things:    

1.  They have the best kind of hair to create static cling.

 

 2.  They were, in fact, able to move a pop can by the shear force of their minds (or the incredible amount of static electricity from their hair).  It was pretty exciting to say the least!

As much as the kids would have enjoyed "telepathically" moving pop cans all afternoon, STORM needed our help as well.

This particular experiment was one that we have done many times in the past at home.  But none the less, it was still fascinating to create the tornado of water with in the bottle and watch it spiral down the tube.  

Last, but certainly not least, we dove to the depths of the ocean to assist AQUAMAN.  Only to find that he had already defeated the enemy ... aka this experiment was out of commission.  :(  

We spoke with the "scientist" on duty & the kids learned how to manipulate objects in water should we ever be confronted with the same "evil" as Aquaman.  (Translation ~ how to attempt this experiment at home.)  

All in all, these were pretty simple but cleverly done.  It sparked enough interest in the kids to add "Science Experiments" to our Summer To Do List, so I say the "Mission" was accomplished!  Job Well Done Super Heroes!  

Thank you for putting up with all my ridiculousness in this post.  I just couldn't resist!  :)