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In-Class Activities - Hands-on classroom projects and experiments

Explain to students that ideas for alternative fuel sources can be found in the most unlikely of places–even in their kitchen cabinets.

Experiment number One: Raising Raisins

Goal

Make your own raisin jet packs using "alternative fuel."

Explain to students that ideas for alternative fuel sources can be found in the most unlikely of places–even in their kitchen cupboards or bathroom medicine cabinets.

What You Need

  • One large, clear jar or drinking glass
  • Water
  • 6 tablespoons of vinegar
  • 4.5 tablespoons of baking soda
  • Spoon
  • At least 10 raisins

What You Do

  1. Fill the jar or glass halfway with water.
  2. Stir in the vinegar and baking soda.
  3. One at a time, add the raisins.
  4. Watch as the raisins rise to the surface, sink, and then rise again.
  5. Ask students: "What is the alternative fuel that's bringing the raisins to the surface?"

Why Your Raisins Bounce

For about an hour, your raisins will go up and down, riding their "jet packs" to the surface again and again. Why? When you stirred together the vinegar and baking soda, you created bubbles of carbon dioxide–like the ones found in carbonated water or soda.

These bubbles get "hooked" on the raisins like little jet packs and push them to the surface. Once there, the bubbles are released and the raisins sink–at least until the next bubbles bring them back to the surface.

Experiment number One: Fuel in the Cupboard

Goal

Through this experiment dealing with surface tension, show how a vehicle's design affects its movement.

What You Need

  • Large bowl
  • Water
  • Index cards (colorful ones are best)
  • Dishwashing liquid
  • Scissors
  • Colored pencils (optional)

What You Do

  1. Tell students that they are going to create their own aqua cars. Have them design and cut out their own vehicles from the index cards.
  2. Put a small drop of the dishwashing liquid on one fingertip.
  3. Place a vehicle at one end of the bowl.
  4. Dip your finger with the dishwashing liquid just behind the vehicle.
  5. It should “drive” quickly across the bowl.
  6. To repeat the experiment with other vehicles, you must use fresh water.

Why the Vehicle Moves

Ask the class to identify the “fuel” that is moving the vehicle through the water.

Explain that the water in the bowl has surface tension. The dishwashing liquid weakens the surface tension behind the vehicle. The stronger tension in front of the vehicle pulls it forward.

Thinking Beyond

  • Ask students to consider why some vehicles move more quickly than others.
  • Design a triangle-shaped vehicle and place it with the pointy end facing away from the edge of the bowl. This design should move even more quickly than the others. Why?
  • How could this kind of movement and design be translated to vehicles we drive on the road?

Experiment number One: Fuel in the Cupboard

Goal

Students will create their own door hangers filled with eco-reminders.

What You Need

  • Construction paper for each student
  • Markers or crayons
  • Scissors

What You Do

  1. Think of a door hanger–like the kind you see in hotels that request privacy or ask for a visit from housekeeping.
  2. Create a door hanger pattern for your students to trace on their pieces of construction paper. This pattern can be as simple as cutting a four-inch slit from the edge of the top of the paper and then cutting a circle that can fit around a doorknob where the slit ends.
  3. Have students cut out their door hangers.
  4. Now, using their “Fuel of the Future” student guides and the “Moving into the Future” classroom poster as starting points, ask them to brainstorm five different things they think everyone should do to help the environment.
  5. Ask them to write those five things on their door hangers.
  6. Explain that they should keep these door hangers on their bedroom or refrigerator doors at home–or take them when they visit friends or relatives–as a fun reminder of ways they can make a difference.

Experiment number One: Fuel in the Cupboard

Goal

Create a school-wide contest to promote energy conservation.

Background

Most people know that turning off the lights when you leave a room is a great way to conserve energy. But unfortunately not everyone does it.

The faculty at New York City’s Nightingale-Bamford School realized that students spreading this conservation tip to other students in their own words would be a great way to help the message stick.

The school’s Faculty Environmental Committee came up with the idea for a contest. According to Lois Strell, the school’s librarian and member of the committee: “We are holding a contest for kindergarten through 12th graders. We’re looking for the best graphic design to hang up so people remember to turn off all lights. Some of them are mighty cute. Once we choose the design, they'll be stuck up next to all the light switches and anything else we can turn on or off.”

What You Can Do

  • Follow Nightingale-Bamford’s example and host your own class or school-wide contest.
  • Check with your principal to see if you can get full backing and involvement of the school.
  • Don’t worry about a fancy, expensive prize. Keep it simple. For example, the grand prize could be that the winner’s design is chosen as the graphic that will be put up around the school to help other students remember to turn off the lights and equipment that requires electricity.
  • If your class or school feels more strongly about another environmental or conservation issue, by all means focus the contest on that issue.