Team Science

What's better than blowing things up and out? How about finding ways to do it as a team? We realize this sounds dangerous, but as we headed into day two of our 4-H Bio-tech Day camp we our Bladen County Ambassadors had it all under control. To start with any good science experiment it is always good to have a few basic definitions and a good set of instructions. 4-H Bio-tech II the Sequel Day Camp is a cooperative effort between Bladen, Hoke and Robeson County 4-H programs. Each day we meet to focus on one science area, today we focused on different types of sciences and forces and did we ever have fun. The entire day was lead by the Bladen County Ambassadors. this is a group of teens who have taken various types of classes to help promote 4-H. They serve as role models of what 4-H has to offer and often take on added responsibilities. Today they took on 30 youth and chemical and physical sciences and more forces than we can even mention. The neat thing was that each science activity we did also doubled as a team working exercise, and allowed everyone to get to know each other and accidentally gain those life skills that we love in 4-H.

We started out breaking up into teams that meant youth from each county were on each team. this gave everyone a chance to work with someone new and use their strengths to better the team effort. Each team, based on their performance for each activity were awarded points with the winning team receiving a prize.

The activities started with testing gravitational forces. What better way to do that than with some balloons and a little space outside. The youth came up with a variety of scenarios to change the rate and direction of falling balloons, however as they learned gravity won this experiment.

Our next activity also involved gravity but was a bit sweeter. The youth started with an Oreo cookie on their forehead and try to move it without using and hands, feet, arms or legs. In other words with the movement of their heads an facial muscles they have to move the Oreo down their face to their mouth where they get to enjoy the sweet treat if they make it. Once again, even though some realized the sweet treat, they realized gravity is tough if not impossible to beat.

Our next activity was a force of nature, or toilet paper to be more precise. Each team received a full roll of toilet paper, got in a circle setting the roll of toilet paper on end. The rules of this activity say the person may unroll the toilet paper using one hand and arm. When the move was made they went to town with any movement they could think of. Some were large and animated, others quiet and small. The first team to finish received the points and everyone learned about centrifugal force.

Our next activity was also forceful as our youth tried to toss a bottle that was one third full of water onto a table. the goal was not only to get it to land on the table but to also have it stand upright when it landed. It's all about weights and leverage and finding out that no one in the group actually had very good aim. This lead us to the next activity that also involved leverage. One team member had to put a piece of dry spaghetti into their mouths and thread sewer pipe pasta on the spaghetti without using their hands. they had to keep going until all the spaghetti was full. Looks tough? According to our youth it is tougher than it looks primarily because everything slides.

Next it was time to make things slide with our own air. No we were not talking things away, we actually were blowing them away. Our ambassadors set up a row of plastic cups and with an inflated balloon the teams would try to blow off as many cups as possible in a minute. The trick was to blow the balloon up as fast as possible, and keep blowing the cups off until the minute was up. What our youth learned was that small spurts of air can be just as effective as a big wind, and generate more energy.

It was time to take a lunch break after all of that fun. So we did another chemical reaction experiment at lunch. Digesting a whole bunch of Mrs. Penny's incredible pizza. That is the kind of experiment we like to try over and over again.

After that experiment it was time to head back to all the hands on official fun. We started back by conducting the 2009 4-H National Science Experiment. This experiment involved a chemical reaction and blowing stuff up (got your attention didn't we?). Each team combined sugar, yeast and warm water in a soda bottle and capped it with a balloon. We placed the bottles outside and while we waited we headed around the building to recreate another well known explosion. On the other side of the building were two liter bottles of caffeine free diet coke, coke, sprite, orange crush, ginger ale, and diet coke. Wearing safety goggles our youth took an unnamed, but well known candy, and dropped it in each one. As the candy hit the soda they ran back and we visually determined which one had the highest explosion. Just for your information diet coke, and coke were the top two contenders. After we ran back to our bottles, only to find that the balloons on top of our bottles with the strange mixture had actually started inflating. It turns out that the chemical reaction in the bottle created a gas, or bio fuel that was filling the balloons.

After creating our own bio fuel we did something a little more practical. We explored what makes baby's diapers so absorbent. The team each received a plastic cup and a secret substance. This substance is the same one found in baby's diapers. The teams added water to the cups and a mysterious gel like substance was created that was really fun to turn upside down and poke and prod at. No water leaked out of the cup, the substance mysteriously absorbed all of the liquid. It was so cool!

Now you might think that was enough for one day but you would be oh so wrong. It was time to work with the force again. Our teams competed in what might be termed a back to school competition. The youth were given two pencils and had to toss them off the back of their hands and catch them in the same hand. If they were successful their pencils would be increased by one and they would continue until they couldn't catch anymore. Gravity, leverage, and no absorbency all played a roll in this fun experiment.

After a little back to school fun we had one last experiment, to help build on everything we had learned. Using candy and dried pasta we had to develop a tower that could stand on its own for at least 30 seconds. Each team had three minutes to make the tallest and sturdiest structure they could. When it was all done the team with the tallest structure won the points. However the Bladen county 4-H Agent determined that the team scores were so close that everyone deserved a taste of the grand prize, ice cream sundaes.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's fun as we head to Raleigh for IMAX movies, the N.C. State Dinning Hall for Lunch and then off to Science house. We'll let you know how it all goes tomorrow, just stay tuned to the blog to see what this 4-H group is up to.