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We're back with another science experiment...BabyBear and I went through Steve Spangler's Sick Science posts on YouTube and this one was by far her favorite. Of course we had to adventure to the store first as we did not have the bottle topper needed to pull this off ...Somehow I don't think BabyBear or JrBear were too upset having to go out and come home with treats...never a bad thing in their books.
For today's good time you will need the following items to get started: 1 Water Bottle Pop Top Glue Gun Straight Pin CD 1 Light Weight Balloon 1 -8.5 x 3 inch Strip of Cardstock
Now is the time to plug in your glue gun so that it can heat up while you poke a few holes with the straight pin into the pop top very close to its center.
With your holes in place and glue gun up to temperature, it is now time to line the bottom edge of the Pop Top with hot glue and stick it to the very center of your CD. Make sure to press it down hard so that it attaches tightly to the CD, as you will be putting on and taking off your balloon multiple times and you don't want it coming loose.
Take your Cardstock strip and on each end make a slit 3/4 of the way down...running your scissors along the 3 inch direction...and keeping in mind that your slits need to be started on opposite sides, so that you can turn your strip into a tube by attaching each end.
Now the fun can begin...blow up your balloon to full size
...and twist the end tight to keep the air inside while you attach the balloon end to the lid on your CD. At this point you will need to wrap your strip around the base of the balloon and Pop Top...the paper helps to stabilize the balloon and keep it upright.
Time to untwist the balloon and watch your hovercraft glide across the floor. The smoother the surface the better the movement...and we found the lighter weight the balloon is also made a difference. The motion of the hovercraft reminded me of the discs movement on an air hockey table. In fact you can play pass with it until all the air comes out of your balloon and you get to start again...
So much fun once we got it all figured out:
We also had some fun following behind it and blowing on it to help it move faster along the floor...we did try a hand held folding fan but it created too much wind and caused the balloon to rock and tip the CD up and down...have fun, experiment to see what works and what doesn't to help your hovercraft move across the floor...it adds to the element of learning.
Now Go Be Creative... and create a DIY hovercraft for the little Bear in your life and have fun learning at the same time.
