These STEAM invitations are perfect for learning & exploring about the weather + changing of seasons.
After reading & talking about rain, we learned some of these fun facts:
-The average puffy, white rain cloud weighs as much as 100 elephants?!
-The rain cycle starts with bodies of water evaporating under the warmth of the sun, turning from liquid to gas. That warm gas rises up into the sky. But as it rises, it hits cooler air & as it cools, it turns liquid again.
-Water droplets are itty-bitty. The average drop inside a cloud is smaller than the thickness of a piece of paper. When billions of these droplets come together, a visible cloud forms. So while an entire cloud may be heavy, the individual droplets are much lighter than the air around them. Eventually, the droplets in the clouds are heavy enough to be pulled down by gravity & that's rain!
Then we set out to explore & experiment with these two invitations:
1. Rain Cloud in a Jar Experiment: To set this up we set out different sized clear glass jars with water, leaving 1/2 inch of room. We placed shaving cream to represent the cloud. Then we provided another cup with water that was mixed with different Colorations Paint (Liquid watercolors + BioColor). We gave the children pipettes & they were invited to create rain. They drew the colored water with their pipettes & squeezed it over the shaving cream rain cloud. While they used their fine motor skills & hand-eye coordination to create rain, they began to see that they made the cloud rain!
2.Invitation to Paint Rain on Umbrellas: We hung umbrellas to float from branches & placed some on the ground. Provided water mixed with Colorations Paint (Liquid watercolors + BioColor) + placed Learning Resources Twisty Droppers + Pipettes as the painting tools. The children were invited to squirt, drip,explore, experiment, & create rain on the umbrellas.
Scientific opportunities such as these let children learn & explore their environments through a multi layer hands on approach. As they learn about cause & effect, cycles of nature, comparisons, chemical & physical changes, reactions & properties of matter, their curiosity about how the world works continues to build. STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) invitations are a great way to expose a child to both process art & science all together. Scientists, mathematicians, engineers & artists all use the same critical thinking skills to find new & innovative solutions. Through the process of experimenting, exploring, & creating with STEAM the child is using creative & critical thinking skills. There is limitless learning, benefits, & creativity going on throughout this whole process. They became innovative as it encourages the children to think outside the box while instilling wonder and curiosity throughout the whole process. The more opportunities & exposure to STEAM invitations such as this instills innovation within them, which provides for a stronger cognitive foundation that will support them to adulthood in all aspects of their life.
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