Eggtastic Science Night
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Description
An egg (Easter themed) night that works towards the science badge and can easily be adapted to suit any pack.
Split over 3 stations
1. Egg Cress Heads - growing cress seeds in an egg shell - experiment growing with limited light and limited water
2. Egg Floaters - work out how much salt is needed to make an egg float in water. Compare to how much sugar is needed to make an egg float and decide whether salt or sugar is heavier
3. Egg Trifle Towers - use plastic straws and marshmallow to build a radio mast a tower strong enough to hold a boiled egg, with the boiled egg being the transmitter. Tallest tower that safely holds the egg wins
Play an egg related game at the end - we chose egg and spoon relays where the cubs have to roll a hard boiled egg using a spoon one length of the hall and back again then pass to the next cub.
Resources
For Egg Cress Heads:
clean egg shells (enough for one each plus some spares)
cotton wool
kitchen roll
cress seeds
water
felt tip pens or paints for decorating egg shells
'egg cups' to keep each egg upright - we are using egg box sections
For Egg Floaters
Hard boiled eggs (2 per group)
Two large containers of water (see through is better)
Two table spoons
Salt
Sugar
Record sheets
For Egg Trifle Towers
Plastic straws
Marshmallows
Ping pong ball or other egg sized (but lighter) object for testing towers during building (optional)
Measuring tape
Prize for winning tower
Game:
Hard boiled egg (1 per group - reuse from Egg floaters)
Table spoons or wooden spoons (1 per group)
Instructions
See attached document for detailed instructions
Set up the three stations and split cubs into groups / sixes
Aim to spend 20 minutes per station and 10 minutes for game - but can be adapted
For Egg Cress Heads - explain the task, ask cubs what things are needed for a plant to grow, explore what might happen if one of these things are not available. Get cubs to decorate egg shells while exploring this. add wet paper towel and damp cotton wool into egg shell and sprinkle cress seeds on top. Set aside. if time show pictures of plants growing with no light and with no water and get cubs to guess what is wrong. Could even grow some with no water and no light and show cubs in another session what happened.
For Egg Floaters - put egg into water and watch it sink, ask cubs why it sinks and explain about density (if they don't know), explore how we could make the water 'heavier' than the egg so that the egg floats. after they have come up with ideas introduce the salt and sugar. Split group into two, one with salt and one with sugar, get cubs to guess how many spoon fulls of their substance they will need to make egg float and each add spoon full one at a time until the egg floats. Get cubs to record how many spoon fulls they needed. Bring both groups back together and compare how many spoon fulls of salt and how many of sugar were required and see if they can work out which one is heavier - salt or sugar.
For Egg Trifle Towers - explain the task to the cubs, they have to compromise between height and strength. explore strong tall objects they are familiar with such as tripods, electricity pylons, Blackpool tower etc. Split into two groups, one building tower and one building the egg holding part. Can use surrogate 'egg' to test design as it is being built. Once towers are built hide from other cubs until end of meeting.
For Egg Relay game, use same groups / sixes and use spoon to roll egg to end of room and back, then swap with next cub and so on, winners are team to do X lengths while keeping their eggs intact.
Tags
- easter
- eggs
- easter games
- experiments
- science
- scientist badge
Badge Links
- Exciting Experiments - Experiments
- Let's Celebrate - Festivals