Seven Fun Science Experiments about Air You Can Do at Home, Part 6

NOTE: it is always good to wear safety glasses when doing any science experiment.

CAN CRUSHER: SUPPLIES: A hot plate or stove, a pop can that is empty, a large bowl of ice water, tongs.  THIS EXPERIMENT IS ALSO DONE WITH PARENT SUPERVISION. Put about ¹/₂ inch of water in the bottom of the can and heat the can until the water inside is boiling. Boil for one minute. Using the tongs, quickly invert the can into the cold water. It will implode in seconds.

Submitted by S. Jeppesen

Youth Services Librarian

Hunter Library (Salt Lake County Library Services)

Seven Fun Science Experiments about Air You Can Do at Home, Part 5

NOTE: it is always good to wear safety glasses when doing any science experiment.

POWER STRAW: SUPPLIES: A potato and a drinking straw. Cut the straw in half. Hold your thumb firmly over the end of the straw and stab the other end into the potato. Now try it without holding the end of the straw. Think about how much strength the air inside the straw gives it.

Submitted by S. Jeppesen

Youth Services Librarian

Hunter Library (Salt Lake County Library Services)

Seven Fun Science Experiments about Air You Can Do at Home, Part 4

NOTE: it is always good to wear safety glasses when doing any science experiment.

PING PONG BALL BALANCING ACT: SUPPLIES: A hair dryer and a ping pong ball and cotton ball. Turn the hair dryer on and hold it so it blows straight up. Gently place the ping pong ball on end and see how long it will float in the air. See how far you can tilt the dryer before it falls off. Now try the cotton ball. What happens? How does the smooth shape of the ball help it stay in place? This experiment explores aerodynamics.

Submitted by S. Jeppesen

Youth Services Librarian

Hunter Library (Salt Lake County Library Services)

Seven Fun Science Experiments about Air You Can Do at Home, Part 3

NOTE: it is always good to wear safety glasses when doing any science experiment.

GET VACUUMED PACKED!: Warning- do not do this without adult supervision. SUPPLIES: A tank vacuum and a large garbage or leaf bag. Get a volunteer to put their legs inside the leaf bag and pull it up around their body as high as it will go. Have the volunteer pull the bag tightly around his body with no leaks and sit on a chair or on the floor. Insert the hose in the bag, having the volunteer or another person hold it tightly. The hose should be by the person’s stomach and away from the plastic or clothing that will stop the suction.

 Turn the vacuum on. Watch the plastic tighten around  the person’s body. Once the plastic is really tight, the person won’t even be able to move their legs! Of course, never put the bag on someone’s head. This creates a powerful suction- if done right, you can hardly move!

Submitted by S. Jeppesen

Youth Services Librarian

Hunter Library (Salt Lake County Library Services)

Seven Fun Science Experiments about Air You Can Do at Home, Part 2

NOTE: it is always good to wear safety glasses when doing any science experiment.

TANK VACUUM SHOOTER: SUPPLIES: A tank vacuum, duct tape, a long tube of cardboard like a gift wrap core and a short piece of cardboard tube about 6 inches long, a piece of cardboard about 4” square, a light ball or tube that will fit inside the long tube. Using an X-acto knife, scissors or serrated knife, cut a pattern of pizza slices as shown 5 inches from one end:   

Do not make the cuts too big- just enough to fold them outward and slip the short piece of tube inside. Tape this securely so it doesn’t leak air. If this short tube won’t fit over the end of the tank vacuum hose, use another tube or cardboard to join the two.  Attach the shooter to the vacuum as shown, turn it on, and place the  card on the far end. Bring the ball or tube up to the long end. The ball will be sucked through the tube, and shoot out the other end. Of course, don’t point this at anyone. It doesn’t come out too fast, but it could still hurt up close.

Submitted by S. Jeppesen

Youth Services Librarian

Hunter Library (Salt Lake County Library Services)

Seven Fun Science Experiments about Air You Can Do at Home, Part 1

NOTE: it is always good to wear safety glasses when doing any science experiment.

HOVER CRAFT: SUPPLIES: an old CD or DVD, a hot glue gun, a balloon (the bigger the better), a cap from a liquid detergent bottle. Hot glue the detergent cap over the hole on the CD, using a lot of glue. Once firmly set, be sure the top of the cap is closed. Blow up the balloon and stretch the end over the cap. Gently open the cap just a little and give it a push on a hard surface! This is great for teaching kids about properties of air and friction.            

                                         

Submitted by S. Jeppesen

Youth Services Librarian

Hunter Library (Salt Lake County Library Services)

Using Teen Volunteers at Teen Programs

The annual Harry Potter Yule Ball is always a really fun event. Salt Lake County Library Services hosts around 1500 teens every year—mostly Potterheads, teens who live and breathe the Harry Potter fandom. But there are also a number of teens who have little or no knowledge of Harry Potter who show up to dance, make crafts, play games, and have a great time with their friends.

This year we had a unique group of teens attend the Yule Ball: teen volunteers. Not just any teen volunteers. These Jr High and High School students were fully invested in the event from the earliest planning stages. They created decorations, helped direct crowds, and even staged a Death-eater flashmob. For Alle, Stephanie, Lyssa, Avalon, and Lauren, being at the Yule Ball meant more than just spending a night out—it was a chance to see their ideas and hard work come to life. Spring Lavallee, the teen librarian from Magna Library, directed them.

Lyssa described the amount of work that went into volunteering for the Yule Ball: “We had three or four meeting starting in November, December, and January.” Teen volunteers committed to about 10 hours of unpaid work per person, over 50 hours for the entire group. During the pre-event meetings, they discussed which decorations they wanted to make, eventually committing to designing and creating a 7 foot tall “Flue Network” fireplace, the entrance to the Diagon Alley part of the ball. The teens researched materials and construction, and eventually built their creation, which took 4 hours total to put together. They also built 20 giant 3D snowflakes, hanging decorations for the dance itself.

Stephanie’s favorite part, though, was participating in the Death-eater flash mob. At precisely 9 pm, the Death-eater mark appeared on screen in the ballroom and the music switched to an eerie, spooky soundtrack. A group of Death-eaters (5 teen volunteers, several disguised librarians, and a few volunteer cosplayers) then attacked the crowd, pointing their wands and shouting curses. Luckily, the brawl only lasted a few, tense minutes.  Cosplayers from the Order of the Phoenix (including Mad Eye Moody and Remus Lupin) cornered the Death-eaters, forced them to surrender, and marched them from the ballroom. The teen volunteers were an integral part of this spectacle, planning the choreography and working closely with the Harry Potter cosplay group, Rocky Mountain Muggles, to accomplish the flashmob. The other teens surrounded the flash mob, shouting “Fight, fight!” and cheered when the Death-eaters were captured. Moody and Lupin were routinely congratulated on their catch for the rest of the night.

The teen volunteers also helped at the event, directing crowds through the Diagon Alley, taking pictures, and cleaning up afterward. Alle summed up the experience: “It was really fun. I got to know some great  new people. Everyone was really nice.” For the teen volunteers, the Yule Ball was as much a social experience as it was a volunteer opportunity. The group got to know new people, outside their regular neighborhood and school circles. They built relationships based on mutual interests, trust, and dependability. And in the end, the Yule Ball was about more than just living their fandom for one night; it was a hard-earned dream come true!

Thank you to the 2015 Yule Ball teen volunteers Alle, Stephanie, Lyssa, Avalon, and Lauren, and to those teens volunteers who could not make it the night of the ball, Carlos, Gordon, Andrea, and Taylor!

 

Submitted by S. Lavallee

Teen Librarian

Magna Library (Salt Lake County Library Services)

Some iPad Apps to Use with Teens

Are you looking for some fun program ideas to use iPads? Here's a simple one I've used a few times with teens, and they have loved it!

 

A really fun and FREE app is Cartoon Creator. You can take pictures with the ipad and then insert those pictures in a cartoon format. You can add speech bubbles, kanji, and even dancing Psy from "Gangman Style." This is a great app for any program, but my anime club teens particularly enjoyed it. 

Once you take the pictures with Cartoon Creator you can leave them there, or input them into a free video maker and make a movie with those images. I used Animoto. After taking the pictures in Cartoon Creator, you upload them to your photo gallery on the iPad. From the photo gallery you can import the images into Animoto and make a short video.

 

The teens really enjoyed watching their videos come to life and we had fun watching them all together. The teens were able to pick up quickly on how to use the apps and I have had requests from my anime club to do it again!

Submitted by
C. Rogers
Senior Librarian
Kearns Library (Salt Lake County Library Services)

12 Days of Christmas Advent Calendar

In December we made 12 Days of Christmas Advent Calendar. 

I picked up cupcake tins from The Dollar Store, which was a little pricey since each teen got 2, six-cup tins. Other supplies included: thick colored card stock, craft paper, preprinted numbers, sticky magnet roll that was cut into square pieces, scissors, thick ribbon, and glue sticks. I made circle patterns of two sizes, one for the card stock, one slightly smaller for the craft paper, that the teens traced onto the craft paper. 

Magnets were glued on the back that then attached to the tin to hide prizes inside. I supplied candy and small prizes to fill in their advent calendar. The teens had a lot of fun! I scheduled an hour for this activity, but it took many of them longer to cut out all the circles. 

Submitted by 

B. Goodman

Teen Librarian

Herriman Library (Salt Lake County Library Services)

Minigolf Madness in the Library

For Teen Read Month last fall, the South Jordan Library hosted an after hours minigolf event for middle and high schoolers. 

The teens who came got into teams of 2-5 people and each team created a hole using library items, such as book ends, discarded magazines; and household and recycled items, such as paper plates, cardboard tubes, duct tape, and more. 

After each team created a hole, the teens played through the course, rotating around to all 9 holes so they got a chance to see how creative the other teams were. They also found out that playing the holes was, in some ways, even harder than building them!

The program was fairly inexpensive--the main cost was the duct tape--and the golf clubs were loaned by a local golf course for the night. The lumber that you see pictured was donated by Home Depot, who even cut it down to size for us. Hooray for community partnerships!

I didn't invent this idea of playing minigolf in the library. I do, however, know a good idea when I see one on Pinterest! From the time I repinned the picture of another library's minigolf program, I knew it would be a really fun thing that I would implement before the year was out. When I started planning, I realized it would take me forever to set up a whole golf course myself, so the idea of having the kids actually build it during the program was born from a need to make it easier on me (and realistically realizing that it would be hard even for a large crew of helpers to set up a whole golf course between closing and the start of the program). My amazing Teen Advisory Board teens helped with the set up and take down, which also made a difference. As it turned out, the building was probably the most fun part and is really a STEM activity, measuring, fitting, checking angles, and testing to see if your concept worked, just to name a few.

Submitted by L. Renshaw

Teen Librarian

South Jordan Library (Salt Lake County Library Services)