Korean Job Discussion Forums

[theatrelily]

So I have been told that I am teaching a special summer camp for gifted students in July, over the summer vacation.

There are twenty students attending over the three days: 4 hours for the first two days and 2 hours on the third.

There is a "modest budget" -although no one will tell me how modest - to work with.

I am putting out a cry for help/ ideas. This is outside the realm of my experience, and I don't really know what to do.

They have asked for a list of my topics/experiments by the end of today or early tomorrow.

Anyone have any suggestions?

I remember doing the "egg" experiment with my Canadian students a while back (build an egg parachute) but I have no other clue what else to do....

If you have any suggestions, they would be greatly, greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[nomad-ish]

a good adaptation on the whole egg parachute thing is having them construct a safety helmet for the egg.

-the baking soda and vinegar rocket (you've probably already thought of that)
-growing sugar crystals in jars (not sure how much time that would take)
-making airplanes... then have a contest after they've designed & made them
-making fog, cyclones in a bottle... haven't tried this but here's a link
http://www.juliantrubin.com/fairprojects/earthsciences/meteorology.html

[mrsquirrel]

Cornstarch

http://www.seed.slb.com/en/scictr/lab/cornstarch/index.htm

[theatrelily]

The suggestions provided above are a great start for my search....

Thanks so much for taking the time to help me out.

I am actually quite interested in doing the cornstarch experiment with the kids myself....

[mrsquirrel]

Cornstarch is ace.

I did it for the new students in Thailand when I taught them science there.

Had a science day during induction week. They couldn't get enough of it.

[Mi Yum mi]

Egg drop.

Go to www.sciencetoymaker.com and use the climbing man. Kids love it.

I've prety much made everything on there for summer/winter camps. Ask me for help if you need some.

[theatrelily]

Mi Yum mi:

Thanks for the link and the offer - both are greatly appreciated.

[ernie]

test the following korean 'scientific' claims:

fan death
kimchi vs. SARS / cancer / global warming / osama bin laden / alien overlords
water vs. vitamins
carrots + cucumbers

[matthews_world]

Coke and Mentos?

I'm sure if you downloaded Mythbusters you could get some ideas off that.

[waynehead]

Just a word to the wise...

Last summer I was told I'd be teaching a summer camp to "advanced" students, and I prepared a lot of complex & interesting activities for the week. Day 1 rolls around and I walk in to greet the students, randomly choose one and ask him something like "What's your name? How're you doing?" His response: "Mwo-yo" and a puzzled look.

Much of the rest of the class was on a similar level.

Just FYI.

[nicholas_chiasson]

I've been teaching the kids to say "I don't understand" instead of "oreo cookie" or whatver it is dumb korean kids say. One of my elementry students asked me 30 times today "What is your name?"

[cbclark4]

Dissolve some toilet paper in a glass of water.

Film yourself sleeping in a closed room with a fan on all night.

[Len8]

Ask the school if you can buy some sodium with their money. If you are really interested buy it yourself. You can really have a blast(sorry about the pun) It's relatively inexpensive. Go to a hospital and ask for some liquid nitrogen. Dry ice is another thing that's cheap. The ballon stores can direct you where to get it.

The you tube has got some amazing stuff easily done with easily bought chemicals. Check their thermite reactions. you can blow up a car if you want.
Iodine and amonium hydroxide makes the sparkling noisy stuff. made some for my kids Chemistry class. One kid put it in his locker and it blew up. just a noise mind you. didn't shatter it.

There is the experiment to electroplate a key with copper using basic things. I will look for a reference, but you could easily use up a weeks worth of lessons having them set everything up.

saw a wicked experiment with fertilizer and water on TV once

[theatrelily]

Wow....there are a lot of great ideas!

I spent most of my day yesterday scrambling to find topics for the classes. Once I handed them in, they told me that they could be changed at any time.

So now that I have some breathing space, I am going to go back through and be a little more selective.


waynehead: Thanks for the 'heads up' about the students' levels...but the twenty students are already registered for the class. I know most of them, and most of them grew up abroad (there's a girl from Germany, one from Saudi Arabia, one from Argentina, a boy from Texas....the class roll is like a UN gathering).

Now, that's not to say that it won't change.....because things at my school never change at the last minute.....

[sargx]

Get some white carnations and put them in different colors of ink. Make some small proximity bombs using MRE heaters. I have trouble thinking of cool experiments that don't involve explosions.