Teaching children to follow directions sometimes is a chore, but when you use science activities, they learn quickly if they do not follow directions, the experiment will be a flop.  When science is taught, the participants think that it is magic and are always so attentive.  This was proven at  STEM  and 4-H camp this  year.  I taught science to my 4-H campers and they responded with excitement.

Lesson one: Air power.  Balloons were  put  in a bottle  for the members to blow up.  Girls  had pink and yellow balloons, boys had blue and red balloons.  Little did they know that the girls bottles had holes punched in them to let the air out so the balloon would blow up, but the boys still had air in the bottle with no holes.  The girls  immediately blew up their balloon inside the bottle but the boys (no matter how hard they  tried) could not blow up their balloon. (The boys did not stop trying.. they could not let the girls be better than them--fun to watch) A great lesson, although you cannot see air, it does take up space.

Balloon powered cars are  always a hit.  The members  are the engineers and  after given the materials they are to engineer their car.  Several would test run and  then  go back and redo their car.  They really took time and  worked hard to get the car that would go the farthest.  Some realized that the wheels were touching the post card, that the straw was straight up and needed to be even, the balloon was back to far so it touched the ground, and many other observation sent them back to reengineer.

Lesson Two:  Paper airplanes.  The members were given paper and instructions for 15 different airplanes.  Each member studied the instructions and made their airplane.  Then they launched their planes to see which one went the farthest.  The plane with the longest body and sharpest nose was the winner.  We discussed the reasons that caused the others to nose dive.

Store bought toys was used to explain different types of  power.  Wind power made a difference in the way these two toys flew.

Lesson Three: Since we was at camp on the Fourth of July, I thought explosions would be good projects.  Acid plus Base Equals Gas   When you put an Alka Seltzer into  a film container with water and place the lid on quickly, gas forms and  does not want to be trapped in this  container so it flips it's lid and escapes.  The members learned about acids, bases, and gases (carbon dioxide).

Pop Rocks candy is a good  illustration for acid and base makes a  gas inside the mouth.  Most had never had Pop Rocks and was very  surprised at the sound and feeling that occurred inside their mouth.

Whether it is teaching chemistry, physics, or engineering, the magic is always there and the children  are ready to make it work.  I collaborated with Camp Kysoc and taught 8 days at the STEM camp and then the very next week went to 4-H camp.  The participants love science and are always so attentive in learning so many different areas of science.