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Category: Projects 4 mathematician

5 Minute Puddle

Posted on by Emily Hunt

5 Minute Puddle

You will need

  • Chalk
  • A bowl of water
  • A timer

How to do it

  1. Create a puddle on a sunny outdoor surface by gently spilling water on it.
  2. Draw around the perimeter (outside) of the puddle using chalk.
  3. Start the timer and watch!
  4. Stop the timer after 5 minutes. How much of your puddle is left?

What are we learning

Evaporation is a process that occurs when a liquid changes into a gas. On a warm, sunny day, air molecules move quickly with energy from sunlight, and water molecules in the puddle are warmed by the sun’s heat. When energetic air molecules collide with water molecules on the puddle’s surface, some water molecules receive enough energy to break free from the puddle, becoming water vapour. This reduces the amount of water in the puddle, so it shrinks. You will notice that a puddle with the smallest surface area takes the longest to evaporate. This is because there is less surface area exposed to the air.

Investigate

Create two puddles, one smaller and one bigger, and time them. Which puddle evaporated the fastest, the one with the bigger or smaller perimeter?

Careers associated with this activity

Measure Scavenger Hunt

Posted on by Emily Hunt

 Measure Scavenger Hunt

What different sizes can we find in the natural environment? 

  • A measuring tape or ruler
  • Scavenger hunt list (see example in photo)
  • A pencil or pen
  • A timer
  • A camera (optional))

How to do it

Note: you will need to prepare the scavenger hunt list in advance. Younger children could measure items in cm’s while older children could have a mixture of cm’s and mm’s.

  1. Take a copy of the measure scavenger hunt list and decide on an outdoor area that your hunt will take place in (for example, a garden, park or woodland).
  2. You have 15 minutes to find and photograph an example of each item on the list. You will need to use the measuring tape carefully to make sure you have found an accurate example of each item on the list.
  3. When the time is up, review the findings and count how many items you photographed.

Optional: Make this into a competitive team challenge and see who can find the most items. Alternatively, try going to a different natural environment to see if you can beat your score.

What are we learning

Measuring tapes help us to accurately measure the length and width of different objects. We have been using the metric system, in which length is measured in millimetres (mm), centimetres (cm), metres (m) or kilometres (km). There are ten millimetres in each centimetre. The natural world is full of many different sizes and shapes. Leaves from the same tree or plant can vary in appearance and size. However, they will always roughly correspond to the same basic shape.

Investigate

Choose your favourite leaf or flower from the scavenger hunt and find out what species it is. You could use a nature book to identify it or use an app such as ‘PlantSnap’.

Download & Print Activity

Careers associated with this activity

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