This past weekend, a lot of New Hampshire saw its first big snow storm. But maybe where you are, you only got a couple of inches of snow or at this point it’s all turned to ice. So let’s celebrate the first big winter weather event with some indoor snow science activities!

Have you ever brought apple slices to school for lunch? When you packed them in your lunchbox, they were white on the inside, but by lunchtime, all the slices have turned brown. It doesn’t change the taste, but it certainly doesn’t look as appetizing. So what happened? Today, let’s talk about why sliced fruit turns brown and then experiment with ways to prevent that browning!

There’s nothing like a homemade loaf of bread—the crispy crust, the soft interior, and the bouncy texture—but what is it that makes bread so good? Well, as we’ve learned in our previous installments of Kitchen Chemistry, it’s a hefty dose of science! Today, let’s explore the science of bread!

Learn what each ingredient adds to the recipe, and then try making our own loaf of bread, in a tasty application of science that would make a great addition to your Thanksgiving table!

To take part in science, you might think that you need to study for a long time, earn a degree or two, and spend years running experiments and research projects. But science is for more than just the experts—it’s for everyone! In fact, volunteers who may not have specialized backgrounds or trainings help make a lot of career scientists’ projects possible. This group effort between professional and amateur scientists to advance research in all sorts of fields is called citizen science.

Since the turn of the twentieth century, audiences have been amazed by the technical and artistic marvel that is motion pictures. The very first movies were live-action, but it wasn’t long until artists started bringing their drawings to life in animated shorts and films.

Let’s learn about why we see animation, how computer science plays a big part in some of your favorite movies, and how to make our own Victorian animation device, a zoetrope!

Back in March, we talked a little about the history of pi and saw an interesting way to calculate the mathematical constant with Buffon’s Needle Problem. Today, let’s return to everyone’s favorite irrational number with an autumnal twist—using pumpkins to explore pi!

Here in New England, autumn is a favorite season for many for a variety of reasons: the cool, crisp weather, the abundance of fall produce like apples and pumpkins (and the tasty treats made with those!), and the beautiful changing leaves. But with the changing of the seasons comes the question of why we see this change at all. So today, let’s explore why the leaves change color in the fall. Then, once we know the “why,” let’s save a little bit of fall by making fall leaf pigment prints!

If you live near the Atlantic coast in North America, then you know that summer is both a lovely time to spend by the shore and holds the possibility for some dangerous storms. In the North Atlantic, hurricane season is June 1 through November 30, with activity peaking between August and October. Nearly all tropical storms in the Atlantic area occur during this window, which very nearly lines up with the summer season (June 20-September 22). So why is that?

Let’s learn all about hurricane season and then capture a storm in a bottle by making a hurricane in a jar!

As we get ready for the start of summer, you might be thinking about how this June compares with last June or a June from years in the past- maybe it feels warmer or colder, greener or full of more colors, wetter or drier. Maybe the baby robins in a nest near your house are getting ready to fly or the beans in your garden have just barely sprouted, and you’re wondering if that is happening earlier or later than last year. If you are thinking about wildlife and plants, then you are thinking about phenology- the study of events in plant and animal life cycles and how they change with the seasons and years.

We’re spending this week looking at planets! Today, we’ll learn a little about the development of models of the solar system and Kepler’s Laws of Planetary Motion, and then we’ll simulate how planets move around the Sun by making our own gravity well.

We’re spending this week looking at planets, so let’s get to the heart of the matter: planet cores. Although there are common elements in all of the planet cores in our solar system (we think...), there is a lot of variety out there, too. And a planet’s internal structure has a big impact on what happens around the planet, too.

This week we’re looking at different aspects of flight and ways that we can explore those at home.

Like most animals, birds have evolved so that their bodies match their behavior—flying birds have hollow bones and light beaks, rather than heavy, bony jaws, to reduce weight, powerful wing muscles to create thrust in flight, and lightweight, smooth feathers to reduce drag. But birds come in all shapes and sizes, and each species of flying bird has specific adaptations for the type of flight they do most.

Today, learn about how different wing shapes affect how a bird flies and then make a flapping bird puppet to simulate how a bird’s wings move through the air!

Parachutes are important because they create drag on a falling object. All object fall to the ground at the same rate. If a human jumped out of an airplane without a parachute, they would hit the ground at too fast a rate to survive. Parachutes collect the air as the person falls to create more drag and slow the person down as they head towards the ground. In this activity you will make your own parachute and test your design to see if it falls safely to the ground.

This week we’re looking at different aspects of flight and ways that we can explore those at home. We’ll start with lift and how air flow helps things like planes get off the ground.

You may have watched a bird flying across an open area and noticed that sometimes the bird flaps its wings and other times it glides with wings stretched out. The flapping helps the bird move forward faster, while the gliding tends to involve more motion up and down in the air column. Airplanes use the same method for flying- engines move the plane forward while the wings influence movement up and down. So, how does a plane get off the ground?

This week we’re learning all about life in space, and today we’re talking about one of NASA’s projects aboard the International Space Station: the High Definition Earth Viewing system. Learn about the goals of this experiment, watch it’s live stream, and then try your hand at identifying locations on Earth by how the seen from an astronaut’s point of view!

What are some of the challenges of living in space that astronauts face each time they leave Earth? And what technologies can help make things easier? This week we’re focusing on what it’s like to live in space and some of the problem-solving needed to help us embrace life out there.

You may have heard about astronauts baking cookies in space for the first time earlier this year- that was a very big deal because of the number of challenges those cookies had to overcome. Engineers and scientists worked together to address obstacles related to both zero gravity and living within a confined space.

Last week we talked about the role of pollinators and their importance to plants- now we’ll take a look at how one group of pollinators, bees, sees the world across the spectrum. You can even make your own UV light to help you see what they see!

This week’s Distance Learning offerings are focusing on optics, light, and the electromagnetic spectrum.

It took scientists a really long time to calculate the speed of light—up until 1676 when Danish astronomer Ole Rømer provided the first calculation, scientists weren’t even sure if the speed of light was a finite number. But a few hundred years later, we can calculate the speed of light using not much more than a microwave oven, a bar of chocolate, and a ruler. Let’s try it for ourselves!

This week’s Distance Learning theme is optics, light, and the electromagnetic spectrum. In this activity, you will learn how water seems to bend light by taking the shortest path through water. First we will learn a little bit more about how light does this, and then we will test it out on our own!