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Getting Curious About... The Science of Kites!
- Gabrielle Fischer Posted On Jul 14, 2017 | STEM
There are actually several bits of physics at play here and, interestingly, they’re the pretty much the same physics that help lift an airplane off of the ground. These are also known as the four forces of flight.
The first, of course, is lift. Basically, the wind blows on your kite – some of it hits the kite directly, some goes over the kite, and some goes under it. The wind that goes underneath helps lift the kite off the ground, just like the wind beneath an airplane’s wings helps lift it off the ground. Sometimes, when there is not enough wind to lift a kite, you need to run with it, creating your own bit of wind behind you.
The flip side of lift is drag (they go together like peas and carrots). Lift is the force that, well, lifts an object up; drag is the pressure of the wind against that object that keeps it aloft. The purpose of aerodynamics is to reduce drag, but a kite is designed to offer just enough lift and drag to get it – and keep it – in the air.
On the way home from the park, roll down the window and have your kidlet point his hand outside, elbow resting on the windowsill, arm at a 90-degree angle. The push he feels on the fingertips of his flat hand is drag. The pressure he feels lifting his hand up and backward is lift.
Weight defines the force of gravity holding your kite to the ground. Kites are generally lightweight so that the wind can easily overcome gravity and lift the kite into the air. Ask your kiddo what she thinks would happen if the kite weighed, say, as much as a puppy.
Thrust is the force that pushes your kite in a forward direction. Thrust is created either by the wind driving the kite forward or by your child pulling the kite forward with the string.
To get your kite into the air, the force of the lift must overcome the force of gravity holding the kite down; to keep it in the air, the force of thrust must be equal to the force of drag.
Although not one of the four forces of flying, directionality is also important when flying a kite. Have your child face the wind and try for lift-off – odds are, the kite will just toss and tumble behind her. Now, have your child turn her back to the wind and watch as the wind rushing at the kite surrounds and lifts it off the ground.
Stability is another key piece of kite flying physics. Point out to your fearless flyers that the kite’s string is attached at three different points on the kite – the center, and both sides, probably near the rear of the kite’s body. This helps keep the kite from flapping, twisting, and turning in the wind. It helps keep the kite stable. The tail of the kite also helps provide stability by keeping the kite in line with the wind. Ask your kiddo what he thinks would happen if the kite were attached at just one point or if it didn’t have a tail.
Lift, drag, thrust, and weight. Stability and directionality. Important physics concepts that are easy to demonstrate with your kite. So what are you waiting for? Let’s go fly a kite, up to the highest heights…
Summertime Tie-Dye Beach Towels!
Let's bid farewell to Summer in style by creating tie-dye beach towels with the help of the color wheel, rainbow order, mixing, and pigment strength. Set up the activity in the comfort of your backyard, and don't forget to grab some gloves and plastic coverings if you aren't on grass.
What you'll need
- Spray Tie Dye Kit
- Duct Tape
- Beach or Bath Towels
- Warm Water
- Twisty Droppers
- Color Wheel
Tie-Dye Beach Towel Materials
This activity works best with the widely available spray tie-dye kits. They dry faster, making the application easier for even the youngest beach-goers.
Grab white beach or bath towels (the fluffier, the more color-absorbent), lots of duct tape, hot water for mixing the tie-dye, and the spray kit.
Lay your towel out on a flat surface, smoothing it out. Spell out your child’s name across the towel using the tape and moving slowly.
Make it a Learning Experience
Keep the color wheel handy as a guide. It is a great visual tool for classifying spectral wavelengths from red to violet.
Depending on the options available in the tie-dye set you’ve purchased, look at your color wheel and separate your bottles into primary, secondary, and tertiary categories.
Next, put on your gloves on a covered surface or grass and mix the tie-dye with the warm water. What colors are made from primary colors? Working from the color wheel, which colors will look best near each other on the towel?
Let the Fun Begin
With those gloves on, let the spraying begin! Be glad you have on gloves! The bottles can get messy fast. If you prefer the traditional route of tie-dying, try using Twisty Droppers! Pigment strength was brought up: how do we intensify the color?
It’s perfectly fine to get spray on the tape. Once the towel is pretty dry, flip it over to spray the backside! Flip back over and allow to dry completely. Wash the towels separately twice, alone in the wash.
The Benefits
- Creativity: Tie-dyeing allows children to express creativity through color and pattern choices. They can experiment with combinations and see how they turn out, encouraging them to think outside the box and develop their artistic skills.
- Fine Motor Skills: This activity involves handling small objects, such as bottles and droppers, which can help children develop fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.
- Science Exploration: Tie-dyeing also teaches children about science concepts like color mixing and pigment strength. They can observe how primary colors combine to create secondary and tertiary colors and experiment with different dye ratios to water to create varying degrees of color intensity.
- Sense of Achievement: Completing a project, such as tie-dyeing a beach towel, can give children a sense of accomplishment and pride in their work. They can use their monogrammed towels as a tangible reminder of their creativity and hard work.
- Bonding Experience: This activity can also be an excellent opportunity for parents and children to bond over a shared creative project, working together to create a unique and personalized item that they can enjoy using for years to come.
Voilà! Monogrammed beach towels created by your color-wheel-savvy children. Enjoy the summer!
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Nuts About Acorns!
Besides the sound of crunching leaves, the pitter-patter of acorns falling onto the sidewalk is another iconic autumn rhythm. We see squirrels run off with them, but what else do we know about this “fruit of the oak tree”? With a bit of help from Learning Resources’ Alphabet Acorns Activity Set, let’s explore the acorn and its many layers.
What is an acorn?
The acorn is indeed a nut and is the fruit of the oak tree. Only oak trees produce acorns. One acorn contains a single seed enclosed in a tough, almost leathery shell. Depending on the species of the oak tree, it can take six to 24 months to mature and drop. There are 90 species of oaks in North America alone.
Why does it fall from the tree?
Oak trees have “boom” and “bust” years in their acorn drop. In a bust year, oak trees produce just enough acorns for wildlife to eat, but it doesn’t allow for any new baby trees. Boom years are called masting, which can happen every three, five, or six years. This is when the oak trees drop a lot more nuts – more than the animals can eat – hoping to make more trees.
Who eats acorns?
Acorns: not just for squirrels. Acorns are some of the most important sustenance for wildlife out there. Deer, chipmunks, wild turkeys, crows, rabbits, opossums, blue jays, quail, raccoons, and wood ducks are all acorn eaters. Can you believe more than 100 vertebrate species feast on that nutty treat?
But keep acorns away from horses – they have been proven toxic!
Can you eat an acorn?
Acorns are high in fats and carbohydrates. They are very bitter and taste woody and earthy. They contain lots of tannins, which can make your insides go haywire or even turn toxic. In a nutshell, it's probably not a great idea to eat acorns all around. But as an interesting side note, there is no scientific evidence that those with a tree nut allergy can react to an acorn by simply holding it!
Fun fall acorn activity
Gather a few acorns as you are out strolling. What color is the outside? Green? Brown? Gently tap a hammer (adults only) to crack one open. What do you see inside? What does it smell like? After exploring a real acorn, it was time to break open Learning Resources’ Alphabet Acorn Activity Set!
Awesome! First, we spill out the little objects and identify what they are. Mission number one is to match the things with the letter sound on the outside of the acorn. Surprise! The acorns themselves open, and you can pop the objects inside. The colors correspond with the letters. Great color and letter recognition activity! Also, on the top of each acorn is the letter in lowercase, which this little one immediately noticed. The next hour was spent opening and closing the Alphabet Acorns, quizzing Mom, and even creating some words.
Happy fall and happy acorn hunting!
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Summer STEM Gardening!
Summer STEM
School is out for the summer - the days are long, daily schedules are relaxed, and parents everywhere are struggling to find activities to keep their kids engaged and entertained! We’ve lived all over the country, so summers have ranged from gorgeously warm to brutally hot and humid. Depending on your climate, this time of year means you are either trying to soak up the sun or escape the crazy heat. Well, today I am sharing one of our favorite STEM activities that can be enjoyed both indoors and out.
I frequently try to provide my daughters with activities that are open-ended. This means that there isn’t really a “beginning” and “end” to the play. There are no desired results and they have the freedom to be as creative as they would like. My girls have always enjoyed various forms of pretend play - usually acting out an occupation or activity that they observe from us, a book, or a show.
Gears Garden Building
I decided to create a fun Summer Garden set up in our living room on an overcast morning using our Gears, Gears, Gears! sets. My youngest can get a little frustrated with the base tiles, so the three of us arranged them together. After that, the girls were free to build the garden of their dreams!
I love these gears because the possibilities are endless. They have been one of the best ways to encourage free play involving STEM. Mainly because they make a great independent quiet time activity. It’s awesome to watch my daughters’ minds work as they try to figure out how to make the entire board of gears and their “flowers” rotate and spin.
Once they felt that their garden was complete, the sun had come out and I moved their garden to a table on our deck. I added in buckets of water, a watering can, small animals and fairies. Adding in the pretend play elements was a huge success and they especially loved getting to water their garden. The gears are great because we can easily use them both indoors and outdoors - to include water play! This activity ended up being a huge success and occupied them for over two hours. We will definitely be adding it into our summer “boredom busters” rotation for the rest of this year.
Save it for later!
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