WonderWorks: Drip, Drop

Eye droppers, turkey basters and bulb syringes all work on the same principle--a tricky one for kids to conquer!

Today's Topic: Drip, Drop
Supplies:
eye droppers
turkey basters
bulb syringes
bowls of water
plastic or styrofoam egg cartons, small paper cups, bowls, other small containers to drip into
towels (or do this one outdoors)

Book:
   Rain! / Ashman, Linda

update 3/2017: Newer book that would work great as the elephant sucks all the water in the bathtub up through her trunk, then squirts it back out. --


Get out of my bath! / Teckentrup, Britta



 What Kids Do: 
Whenever I plan these "technology" (all tools are technology!) classes, I'm always a little bit afraid that two minutes into it, all the kids will look at me and say, "Really?  This is the whole class?  Meh, I'm done."  Once again, my fears proved to be unfounded.  They all loved this simple activity.  The goal?  Move water from one container to another using one of the tools provided.

I was thrilled that we also got to bring in some learning from last week's "bubble science" class when I pointed out that if you squeeze the bulb while the nozzle is underwater you get.... bubbles!  Hooray for building on previous lessons!

Several of the kids got a bit impatient with the bulbs and chose to further their water learning by practicing scooping skills.

And one clever student, realizing that the tabletops were overflowing with water, set a bucket below the table to catch the drips (way smarter than my solution of running to try to grab towels--this way the water can be immediately re-used and no energy is used to dry towels!).  That, my friends, is an engineering (problem-solving) skill in action!

Hindsight Tip:  There will be water dumping.  Just be prepared.  I'd considered adding food coloring to the water to add a color-mixing element to the lesson and I am sooooo glad I didn't.  The carpet was still damp the next day, but at least it didn't stain anyone's pants during storytime!

 Variations to try: 

--simple syringes (needleless ones, like the kind you administer kids medicine with) might also be fun to add to the mix even though the mechanics are slightly different, the goal and part of the technique (stick the open end in water, get the water to go into the tube, squeeze the water out when and where you want it to go) is the same.