Creative Science for Kids

• Imagine that - brain science with Sarah Macdonald and Max Gambale

  It’s time to fire up the mind with five fun and fascinating fast facts about imagination, plus some questions for Sarah Macdonald and Max Gambale, two creative people with interesting imaginations, and a visualisation and drawing activity for you to try yourself at home.   Presented by Jenny Lynch and Matilda Sercombe. Written and produced by Jenny Lynch. Music by Purple Planet Music. Sound effects by Pixabay.   Creative Science: https://www.creativescience.com.au Facebook: @creativescienceaustralia Instagram: @creative_science_australia   Episode content: 00:00 Introduction and fast facts 03:43 Deep dive into aphantasia 04:30 Interview with Sarah Macdonald and Max Gambale 10:09 Visualisation and drawing activity   Visualisation and drawing activity instructions: You will need: two pieces of paper, coloured pencils, and a banana. You don’t have to use a banana, but you will need an object that has a familiar shape and that is not too complicated to draw.   Hide the banana so you cannot look at it while you draw. In your mind’s eye, picture a banana in as much detail as possible. If you have aphantasia, you might be thinking of the idea of a banana and the concept that it is yellow, or maybe a bit green, and that it has a curved shape. Draw a picture of the banana you are thinking about. Take your time to draw as much detail as possible. When you have finished your drawing, turn the paper over so you can’t see the picture. Take the banana out of its hiding place, put it down in front of you, and look at it very carefully. Look at the colour and shape of the banana. Can you see any shadows on the banana and any markings on the skin? Draw a picture of the banana and look at the real banana as many times as you like to try to make your drawing as realistic as possible. When you have finished drawing the real banana, turn over the first drawing and compare your two pictures. Did you find it easier to draw a picture of a banana when you could see the real banana? Or did you find it difficult to draw all of the details? When we picture a banana in our mind, we often see a simple image of a curved yellow shape, and maybe some black spots. Looking at a real banana reveals many details that we might not imagine in our mind. To draw a realistic picture, it also takes a lot of practice and skill to make an accurate drawing of what we are observing with our eyes.

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• Take a breath - medical science with Dr Kenneth Soo

  It’s time to take a deep breath and get ready for five fascinating fast facts about breathing, an interview with Dr Kenneth Soo, a hospital-based doctor who knows a lot about breathing, and an energetic activity for you to try yourself at home.   Presented by Jenny Lynch and Matilda Sercombe. Written and produced by Jenny Lynch. Music by Purple Planet Music. Sound effects by Pixabay.   Creative Science: www.creativescience.com.au Facebook www.facebook.com/creativescienceaustralia Instagram www.instagram.com/creative_science_australia   Episode content: 00:00 Introduction and fast facts 03:45 Respiration with Dr Kenneth Soo 09:59 Breathing rate activity   Breathing rate activity instructions: You will need: a pen and paper and a timer (e.g. a smartphone timer, a stopwatch, or a clock with a second hand). 1.  Sit quietly, breathing normally, and time exactly 60 seconds while you count the number of times you breathe in 60 seconds. A full breath in and a full breath out is counted as one breath.  After you have counted your breaths for 60 seconds, write down the result. This number is your breathing rate, which is the number of breaths you take in one minute. 2. Repeat Step 1 to measure the resting breathing rate two more times to get a more accurate result. 3. Time another 60 seconds and do some very energetic star jumps, otherwise known as ‘jumping jacks’, and try to really push yourself to jump high and go as fast as you can. 4. Stop jumping, time 60 seconds, and measure your breathing rate again, by counting your breaths for 60 seconds, and write down the result. 5. If you are feeling energetic, Repeat Steps 3 and 4, by exercising again and re-measuring your breathing rate. Did your breathing rate change after you exercised? When you exercise, your muscle cells use up oxygen and sugar and they make carbon dioxide. Having too much carbon dioxide in the blood makes the blood more acidic. This triggers the body to breathe faster to get rid of the extra carbon dioxide from the body. Breathing faster helps your body remove carbon dioxide from the blood and it delivers more oxygen to your cells.

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• It’s no joke – climate science with Stuart Goldsmith

  Let’s get fired up with five fascinating fast facts about climate science, a deep dive into carbon footprints, an interview with Stuart Goldsmith, an English comedian with a passion for communicating about climate change, and a sea level experiment for you to try yourself at home. Presented by Jenny Lynch and Matilda Sercombe. Written and produced by Jenny Lynch. Music by Purple Planet Music. Sound effects by Pixabay.   Creative Science: www.creativescience.com.au Facebook www.facebook.com/creativescienceaustralia Instagram www.instagram.com/creative_science_australia   Episode content: 00:00 Introduction and fast facts 03:41 Carbon footprints and reducing carbon emissions 05:43 Stuart Goldsmith and climate comedy 12:58 Rising sea level activity   For adult listeners, find out more about Stuart Goldsmith’s stand-up comedy, climate comedy, and comedy podcast: https://www.stuartgoldsmith.com   Rising sea level activity instructions: You will need: A few ice cubes, two small drinking glasses that are the same size and shape, sticky tape, and a rock or some other heavy object that will fit in the base of one of the small glasses. Place the two small glasses side-by-side on a bench. Put the rock in the bottom of one of the glasses and add water to this glass until the water is just below the top of the rock. For the other glass, add water until the water is at about the same level as the glass with the rock. Place one or more ice cubes on the rock, making sure the ice is not touching the water. Add the same number of ice cubes to the glass without the rock, making sure the ice cubes are floating. If they are not floating, add some more water to the glass. Use sticky tape to mark the water level in each glass. You might have to dry the outside of the glasses with a cloth to get the tape to stick and you should carefully line up the side of the tape with the surface of the water before sticking it to the glass. Wait until all of the ice cubes have completely melted and then look at the water level in each glass. Have the water levels changed? When land ice melts, like the ice in glaciers, the melt water causes the sea level to rise. When sea ice melts, the sea level doesn’t change much because the ice was already floating in the sea. However, with less sea ice, the ocean absorbs more light from the Sun, which makes the oceans warm up even more. And when the oceans warm up, the volume of water in the sea increases, causing the sea level to rise.

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• Fantastic plants – seed science with Cassy Polimeni

  Let’s get growing with five fascinating fast facts about seeds, a deep dive into seed banks, an interview with Cassy Polimeni, a children’s author who writes stories featuring science, and a see-through seed growing activity for you to try yourself at home.   Presented by Jenny Lynch and Matilda Sercombe. Written and produced by Jenny Lynch. Music by Purple Planet Music. Sound effects by Pixabay.   Creative Science: www.creativescience.com.au Facebook www.facebook.com/creativescienceaustralia Instagram www.instagram.com/creative_science_australia   Episode content: 00:00 Introduction and fast facts 03:09 Seed banks 03:47 Cassy Polimeni and ‘The Garden at the End of the World’ 08:33 CD bean plant activity   Cassy Polimeni: https://cassypolimeni.wordpress.com/ UWA Publishing: https://uwap.uwa.edu.au/collections/ella-and-the-frogs-series   CD Bean Plant Activity Instructions: You will need: Old CD case, moist soil or potting mix, broad bean seeds, and a shallow tray. If you can’t find a CD case, you can try using a DVD case or a clear plastic zip lock bag instead. Open the CD case, lay it out flat on a bench and take out the plastic inner part. The inner part is often made from black plastic and it has the round part that holds the CD. At the end of the CD case that doesn’t have the hinge, add some moist soil or potting mix and place up to three broad bean seeds in the middle of the soil. Close the CD case and stand it up in the plastic tray. You might need to lean the CD case against a wall or a box so it stands up on its side with the soil at the bottom. Leave the CD case until the first signs of germination appear, with roots and leaves growing out of the seed, and continue to observe the plant growing over several days. You will need to keep the soil moist by adding a small amount of water through the gap at the hinged end of the CD case. A dry broad bean seed stays dormant until it has the soil and water it needs to grow. The seed has enough energy and nutrients to start growing, but it soon starts making food from carbon dioxide gas in the air and takes up water and nutrients through the roots. As the bean plant grows, the different parts of the plant can be observed through the clear CD case, including the roots, stem, and leaves. The stem grows up and the roots grow down because the plant can detect light and the force of gravity.

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• Freaky forces – rocket science with Jason Sercombe

  It’s time to lift off with five fascinating fast facts about rockets, a quick look at some famous rocket launches, an interview with Jason Sercombe, a scientist who knows a lot about building and launching model rockets, and an easy-to-make rocket for you to launch yourself at home.   Presented by Jenny Lynch and Matilda Sercombe. Written and produced by Jenny Lynch. Music by Purple Planet Music. Sound effects by Pixabay.   https://www.creativescience.com.au   Episode content: 00:00 Introduction and fast facts 04:42 Building and launching model rockets 08:42 Straw rocket activity You will need: a sheet of paper, a drinking straw, scissors, and sticky tape Use the sheet of paper to make a tube that fits over the drinking straw. Place the straw along one side of the paper and cut a rectangle of paper that is about 3 centimetres shorter than the straw and can wrap around the straw. Wrap the rectangle around the straw to form the tube and use sticky tape to hold the tube together. Make sure the tube can slide easily over the straw to ensure a smooth rocket launch. Take the rocket tube off the straw and twist the paper at one end to seal off the end of the rocket. This end is the nose cone. Look at some pictures of rockets and use the paper and scissors to make 3 or 4 fins for the paper rocket. Use sticky tape to attach the fins to one end of the rocket: the end that is closest to the open end of the rocket. Slide the rocket onto the paper straw, aim it at an open space, away from other people, and blow quickly into the straw to launch the rocket. Experiment with holding the straw at different angles and blowing harder into the straw to get the maximum flight time. You can also try making different fin designs.

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