Simple science experiments for young students

Teaching Pre K-8, Apr 1996 by Vancleave, Janice

Broaden the spectrum of learning for the under-7 set and add color to your curriculum with rainbow experiments

"Come see! The sky is orange and pink and blue!" exclaimed Lauren, my granddaughter, when she was a preschooler. The open fields around our Texas farm allowed her a full panoramic view of a sunrise. I joined Lauren and together, we watched the kaleidoscope of changes in the sky as the sun rose. We had free front row seats to one of the most spectacular shows on earth.

The sunrise we watched was an unscheduled time to learn about nature. We compared the colors in the sky to those in her clothes, and I capitalized on the moment by asking a question I knew would lead to later experimentation: Do you think it's a rainbow? After some deliberation, she decided it was not a rainbow, but that the colors of a sunrise are similar to those of a rainbow.

As Lauren began to squirm, it was obvious she was losing interest in my questions, so I asked if she could make a rainbow.

As the author of science experiment books for children, I could have demonstrated a rainbow experiment right away. Instead, I selected a few books from the shelf, and we chose several rainbow experiments together. We discussed the materials we would need, and we talked about how we would make our rainbows.

Discovering science. Lauren was excited and proud of the rainbows she helped to produce, and she was eager to tell her parents all about her experiences. I was thrilled with her response to our experiments, which I must credit in part to the "magic" of discovery learning.

As a teacher facilitating discovery learning, you know to direct the learning process by asking leading questions, but most importantly, to refrain from providing too many different answers. You know that the students will learn the most by observing, organizing, measuring, predicting, describing and formulating their own conclusions.

The goal, of course, is to encourage the children to provide answers. With increased involvement, students' memory retention improves, as does their self-esteem.

Sharing the magic of science. You certainly don't need to be a specialist in order to experience - and share - the magical appeal of science. Your role is to support and encourage children to develop their inborn gift of curiosity.

On their own, however, 4- to 7-year-old children are less likely to verbalize their curiosity in concise questions. You probably know that the question asked most often by this age group is "Why?"

Let's Find Out About Science (John Wiley & Sons, 1996) is one book in a fourbook series I'm developing, partly as a result of science questions submitted by students of Teaching K-8 readers. This experiment book is designed to help show young children that science really is fun, and it provides some leading questions that may help you stimulate students' natural curiosity about different science phenomena.

The rainbow connection. While your class probably hasn't observed a sunrise at school, they may have had the opportunity to see a rainbow. Whether this phenomenon has been observed during your time together or at other times, the students are probably curious about it nonetheless.

Many of us know how to make a rainbow by creating a fine mist in the air with a garden hose on a sunny day but did you know you can make indoor rainbows, too?

Lauren and I had so much fun with our rainbow experiments that I included them in my book, along with some others that are easy to do at school or at home with common household supplies.

Before trying the experiments on these two pages, you might want to brush up on your rainbow facts:

A rainbow is an are-shaped band of colors that might be seen in the sky during and after a rainstorm if the sun is shining.

To see a rainbow, there must be water drops in the air and the sun must be behind the viewer.

The lower the sun is in the sky, the more nearly complete is the arc of colors. If the sun is higher than 42 deg above the horizon, no rainbow will appear.

Rainbow colors can also be produced by the sun (or by a lamp) with a prism, or things that act like a prism, such as a glass of water.

When students discover that science is at the end of the rainbow, they'll surely want to follow its path.

Janice VanCleave, author of more than 30 science books for children, taught science for 26 years. She lives in Riesel, TX.