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Stomp Rockets

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Paper Stomp Rockets Make a paper rocket and two different types of launchers. The PVC launcher is from Nasa's POP! Rocket Launcher . The second launcher is handheld using a bicycle inner tube and comes from the Exploratorium's Bottle Blast Off Activity Materials for Paper Rocket: • Construction Paper • Printer paper • Tape • Scissors • Folder or index cards • ½” PVC pipe –12 inches in length • Cotton Balls Materials for Handheld Bicycle Tube Launcher: • Bicycle Inner Tube • ½” PVC pipe –12 inches in length • Duct Tape • Scissors • 2 – liter bottle Optional: PVC Cutter Materials for NASA's Pop! Rocket Launcher • 1 – 5’ length of ½” PVC pipe • 2 – ½” PVC tee connectors • 1 – ½” PVC connector • 2 – ½” PVC caps • Duct Tape • 2 – liter bottle Paper Rocket Instructions:  To ensure the paper rocket is not too tight on the launcher, we r oll printer paper around the 12” PVC pipe and glue or tape it down. Then we take our construction paper and roll it ove

PVC Water Bottle Rocket Launcher Design Components

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Seal and Release Mechanism PLEASE NOTE: PARENTAL SUPERVISION IS REQUIRED. Ensure the safety of children and others while operating this project. Be sure children are old enough to stay out of the way of the bottle rocket and take any other precautions you feel are necessary to keep everyone safe. The Water Bottle Rockets are always a big hit with kids. We have gone through numerous water bottle rocket launcher designs derived from other designs we found and those we created ourselves. The launcher shown in the above image is the easiest, most cost-effective, and most reliable PVC pipe version thus far. The launcher is based on the PVC launcher detailed at Walking Mountains How to Build a Soda Bottle Launcher , with variations on certain components. Design Components Launch Tube Seal   The most varied component of the PVC launchers is the seal between the launch tube and the mouth of the 2-liter bottle. The Walking Mountains Science Center version listed above does not detail what type

Craft Stick Motorized Car

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  Learn about electrical circuits with this simple  motorized car. Materials: • bottle caps or any other items that can be used as wheels • straw • paperclips • Hobby motor • 1 AA battery • Solid core wire (we like telephone wire) • craft stick • tape • a broccoli rubber band, or inner tube cut off • wooden dowel or bamboo skewer Tools: • scissors • wire strippers • hammer • nails • hot glue gun Make a hole in bottle cap by hammering a nail through the middle of the cap.  Push the motor’s axle through the hole.  It should be a tight fit.  If it is not a tight fit hot glue the cap in place. We found that a  3D nail makes the perfect size hole for the axle of the motor we use.      Use scissors to enlarge holes for rear wheels if using a dowel. If using bamboo skewers it is not necessary to enlarge the hole.  Cut dowel to preferred length.  Cut straw an inch smaller than dowel.  Insert do

Salamanders

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Kids found two different kinds of salamanders in the park this week. Arboreal Salamander: Slender Salamander: The text of a handout for young salamander collectors: "These are California Slender Salamanders. They are amphibians . They have no lungs and breathe through their skin. They eat small spiders, beetles, crickets, pill bugs, and snails. They catch their prey by flicking out their sticky tongue. They live in moist places, but NOT in water. Slender Salamanders are common on the coast of California. You can probably find one living in your backyard. Look under logs, rocks, and piles of leaves. They protect themselves by running away or excreting a sticky liquid. If their tail falls off, or is bitten off by a predator, it will grow back."

Tortoise Enclosure

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Sala wanted a pet reptile. He had $40, a dozen reptile care fact sheets, and an obsession to own a reptile. Sala's mother would not let him purchase a reptile until he had a viable home for his pet. He spent a week or so searching the workshop in vain for plexiglass sheets to glue together into a makeshift tank for the ball python of his dreams. No luck. He schemed to make a box out of hardboard and hardware cloth for an iguana. He soon realized that he did not have space in his bedroom for a 6 foot lizard. Then, in a pile of junk dumped on the street near an empty lot he found this: And carried it, almost exclusively by himself, three quarters of a mile and over a pretty impressive hill to the Center. Sala's route carrying the table. There was a pretty heated discussion among some of the kids about what this table had been used for. Sala and I think it is a toy train activity table. He had seen pictures of tortoise tables on the internet . With the table in the w

Cork Reindeer Ornaments

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Snow Globes

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We have been making "snowglobes." The globe is a pint to go container. The snow is shredded polystyrene foam. The snow is lifted into the air by a propeller spun by a 3 volt motor. We can post complete directions if anyone is interested.