Did you know that volcanoes are just a bunch of lava?

Lava refers both to molten rock expelled by a volcano during an eruption and the resulting rock after solidification and cooling. Volcanoes form after the eruption of molten lava cools and leaves a raised platform, after repeated eruptions the volcano gets bigger and bigger. We find lava and volcanoes endlessly interesting here at ACM, we even have a featured volcano in our current exhibit Dinosaurs: Land of Fire and Ice.

So what’s happening in this experiment? First of all, the oil floats on top of the water because it is lighter (less dense) than the water. Since the salt is heavier (or more dense) than oil, it sinks down into the water and takes some oil with it, but then the salt dissolves and the oil heads back to the top.

The lava in the cup is demonstrating something you might learn in chemistry class: density. Density refers to mass per unit volume of an object. Most objects have a fixed density, however temperature sometimes can affect this. For example, as lava cools it becomes harder and more dense, neat huh?

If you like this experiment, then you should check out the Museum on Sunday, October 9th, where you can get your hands on your own chemistry activities in honor of National Chemistry Week!

The Gravity Well here at The Austin Children’s Museum teaches us about energy. When the coin drops lower into the well some of its gravitational potential energy is converted into kinetic energy. As the coin drops down it has higher velocity. Also, the coin goes around in smaller circles the lower it gets. So you can see how the coin completes orbits much faster near the center of the well, just like a planet would orbiting around the sun!

Make your own gravity well:

What you need:

• large piece of paper
• pencil
• ruler
• scissors
• various balls
• tape
• paper tube

Experiment with balls or marbles of all shapes and sizes and send us your results. Do the heavier ones travel faster? What about the smaller ones?

Send us your pics of your homemade gravity wells!

Pam has led Science Sundays for almost five years in addition to working with TSD elementary and high school for four years. This Sunday she will bring everyone together for a lot of learning, ASL and fun activities with the biggest and most entertaining molecules in the lab: Polymers!

Polymers are fun to make!

To learn more about polymers, check out the Polymer Science Learning Center.  For some easy, at-home activities check out this flubber experiment, or this activity using milk to make polymers.

To brush-up on your ASL, visit Handspeak for the ASL alphabet as well as watch ACM’s own Josh Clements demonstrate how to greet one another and say Science in sign language:

Join us for Snakes, Slime, and Science on Sunday, July 10th, 3 – 5pm.

*Liberal Arts and Science Academy

Cooking With Math is a half-day camp being held this week at the museum and the kids get the chance to work with food and numbers. Every day the kids get to make two recipes while developing their math skills.

Today they read the book

and learned all about making Mouse Cookies.

If you’d like to learn how to make these delicious cookies check out our recipe

You can also see the kids enjoying their Trail Mix Energy Snack where they mixed 5 animal crackers, 6 pretzels, 7 mini marshmallows, 8 goldfish, 9 raisins, and 10 pieces of popcorn into a zip-lock baggie.

At the Museum we like to experiment with food. Vicki Cobb has written a fantastic book called Science Experiments You Can Eat. The book includes recipes along side explanations about the science behind the ingredients and their reactions to each other. One recipe teaches us how to make biscuits out of sour milk and another about how syrups are solutions that don’t crystallize.

Let us know if you make delicious Mouse Cookies or some Trail Mix Energy Snack. If you’d like to spend some time with math and cooking please sign up for our next Cooking With Math camp here!