Kaleidoscope Learning

Wouldn’t this be a neat art project for kids? A tremendous number of similar items put together in a collection, a completed puzzle.

Lots of great photos in this collection…

Rob Roy, a friend of the photographer, has been collecting these scissors for 20 years. Sourced from all over the world, “they tell the tale of trades in which they have been plied,” Jim Golden says. The meticulous arrangement was an ambitious undertaking; Golden found himself spending hours preparing the shot only to scrap the arrangement and start over. His final shot is breathtaking, if paradoxical; a completed puzzle of distinct yet similar objects. Golden says he has been shooting apparel and footwear in this style commercially for years (jimgoldenstudio.com), and wanted to try the technique on his friend’s collection.“I like to photograph surveys of objects or people, then take a step back and look at the images as a group,” he says. “It’s my way of exploring a subject.”

Besides cold weather (or a freezer), to create ice art you’ll need some bits of nature (leaves, berries, seeds, acorns, etc), a plastic plate, ice cube tray or other baking molds, and ribbon or string. 

From Child Art Retrospective…

While this project is a continuation of our color explorations, it is a great “I need something now” kind of project. It is simple, all you need is paper and paint, and can be completed in two paint sessions. It is also gives teachers a quick check-in assessment for how children are understanding and using concepts about color (science of color).

(Source: childartretrospective.blogspot.com)

About a week ago I decided that bubbles would be my theme for the Blairstown Farmers Market. I mean, bubbles are a clear winner on a lovely spring day at the market. How could I resist?

First things first: the bubble mix. You can buy some, sure. That’s quick and easy, but a bit expensive, especially for large quantities. So I made my own using dish soap, water and bit of vegetable glycerin. Recipes abound online, but I like about a 1:12 ratio of detergent to water with about a teaspoon or two of glycerin per cup of solution, depending on the detergent I’ve used. You can use corn syrup or sugar to make the bubbles last longer, but I find that makes the mix really sticky and attracts more insects, so I like glycerin instead. No matter what, your bubble mix will get better if you let it sit open overnight, especially if your detergent contains alcohol. That said, I usually don’t have the patience to wait.

Great! You’ve got bubble mix! Now what? Get out the pipe cleaners! Let kids make bubble wands using the pipe cleaners. They’ll often make all kinds of creative designs — heart shaped tops and two-color sticks. After a bit, I like to ask if they get square bubbles form a square wands. Kids will laugh at me and say, “Of course not! You always get a round bubble!” That’s when I like to ask, “Why?”

Make them think about it for a while. 

See the Universe is an amazing thing, and it like to be efficient. A sphere allows the greatest volume to be trapped within the smallest surface area. So, you can trap the most air inside a round bubble, as opposed to a square, triangle or trapezoid using the same amount of bubble solution. A bubble wouldn’t float long if it was bogged down by extra bubble mix! The surface tension of the bubble mix pulls the bubble into that classic shape. The only way to get a bubble to take another shape is to surround it by other bubbles. If you’re looking for some wonderful geometrical studies, calculating and modeling the volume to surface area ratios can be a lot of fun.

Now that you’ve got bubble mix, there are a lot of fun things you can do. For example, there are instructions for giant bubbles and bouncing bubbles. A friend at the market showed us how to create a bubble foamer, which was a huge hit. We just cut a plastic water bottle to separate the top “funnel” from the bottom. We attached a rag to the open end of the funnel with a rubber band. Dip the rag in bubble mix and blow through the drinking end of your water bottle. Tons of fun!

Now, let’s move on to art! We did a really simple bubble print project that’s easy to set up and really neat. In bowls, I mixed 2-3 tablespoons of washable, non-toxic tempera paint (bright colors work best — blue, green, orange, red), 1 tablespoon of dish detergent and a 1/2 cup of water. Stir gently. Then, using a straw, blow bubbles in the mixture, letting them rise well above the bowl. Then gently lower a piece of paper onto the bubbles. As they pop they’ll leave colorful bursts. You can keep adding bubble prints to fill your page, using many colors and experiment with how fast or slow you blow your bubbles (it can change the size of the bubbles). You can also dip your bubble wand into the mixture and blow onto the paper to create fun patterns that way!

 

To finish up the day, we made some bubbles in other ways. We combined vinegar and baking soda, a classic chemistry experiment that yields lots of bubbles as carbon dioxide is released. But the real hit was Mentos in diet cola, a la Steve Spangler andMythbusters The set up is easy: Open a 2-liter bottle of inexpensive diet cola; unwrap a 6-pack of classic Mentos; use index cards to create a tube to hold the Mentos and a slip to cover the top of the bottle; place the slip over the bottle top, the tube on the slip and add the Mentos. When you’re ready, pull the slip out and let the Mentos drop into the cola. Then get out of the way quickly!

The result to pretty awesome. Why it works is somewhat up to debate. The links above will review some of the best ideas put forth in detail. Basically the idea is that the dissolving candy breaks the surface tension of the soda, which is holding back the expansion of the carbon dioxide bubbles within. The pits all over the candy then provide nucleation sites for bubbles to attach. The heavy candies fall to the bottom of the bottle, forcing the bubbles — and the soda — to come gushing out of that small opening, forming a geyser! You can vary the reaction in many ways to create a super fun (and potentially messy) experiment. 

Salad Spinner Art and Science

To kick off the summer farmer’s market season, I decided to do one of my kids’ all time favorite art and crafts at my table: Salad Spinner Art. Everyone loves Salad Spinner art. Seriously. Grown adults like to stop and play as well.

It’s a pretty simple concept. Select your favorite washable poster paints and thin them with a bit of water. Use a spoon, eyedropper (excellent for fine motor skills) or paintbrush to add drops, blobs and splatters of paint on a paper plate. Then put the plate into a salad spinner and spin it.

Viola! You have a beautiful piece of artwork. The key to success is to avoid putting too much paint on at once. That can be a real mess, and the colors just muddle together into a yucky brown. Some kids like to put colors on randomly. Other like to make patterns, which can yield great results. One girl painted her whole plate one color, then added drops over it, which looked a bit like tie dye when it was done. Another boy added color in layers, one at a time, which made some really lovely, subtle blends. 

If you’re feeling really adventurous, lay down a thicker layer of paint and let it tack up a bit. Put the plate in the spinner and place a handful of marbles in there as well. Give it a spin, starting and stopping randomly, even shaking the spinner gently, and you’ll get what I like to call “slug tracts.” You can also put globs of thinned white glue, sprinkle on colored sand or glitter and spin it. (Use more than I did for the example below.) It’s all kinds of awesome.

The fun thing is that you can make this a great little science experiment too. Here are some questions you can try to answer:

• Does the thickness (viscosity) of the paint affect the artwork? the distance the paint moves across the plate? (For older kids, actually plan ratios of paint to water and test each on the same plate.)
• Does the type of paint used affect the artwork? in what ways? (Compare poster paint, watercolors, acrylic, food dye…)
• Does the speed of the spinning matter? Does it affect coverage of the plate? the shape of the artwork? the distance the paint travels on the plate? (Use a stopwatch to determine spins per minute. Older kids can test the effects of positive and negative acceleration, too.)
• Does the amount of paint used affect the area of the plate covered after the spin? the shape of the final outcome? (Carefully measure teaspoons, tablespoons, etc.)
• Does the type of plate used affect the artwork? (Compare uncoated paper plates to coated ones or styrofoam.)

And once you’re done with that, give a go at exploring centrifugal motion! Your salad spinner can make a great centrifuge in a pinch. I just cut up egg cartons, glue or tape them together and add test tubes of various liquids. You can use small jars or the plastic tubes that sometimes come with bouquets of cut flowers, so long as you cap them well with aluminum foil and tape. Then fill each tube with an equal amount of liquid. (OJ with lots of pulp and vinaigrette salad dressings work particularly well.) For the best results, be sure to balance your centrifuge and SPIN! You’re going to need to keep it spinning for a few minutes, so taking turns makes sense, but you will be able to get separation.

Anyway, it’s tons of fun. I hope you’ll get out your salad spinner today and have some fun. Be sure to post your artwork or the results of your experiments!

good:

This is not a fluffy mass of cotton strung up in a room. It’s an actual, man-made cloud.

That’s not photoshop; that’s an actual cloud hovering inside an actual room. Artist Berndnaut Smilde merges art and science to create small man-made clouds that exist — albeit for just a moment — indoors.

(via singularitarian)

(via poptech)

(via discoverynews)