Overview
Description:
"Exploring Size - Scented Balloons" lets visitors use their sense of smell to explore the world on the nanoscale. They learn that we can smell some things that are too small to see, and that a nanometer is a billionth of a meter.
Checklist
Scientist reviewed?
Peer reviewed?
Visitor evaluation?
Permissions
Creative Commons
Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike
Standards
Physical science:
K-4: Properties of objects and materials
5-8: Properties and changes of properties in matter
9-12: Structure and properties of matter
9-12: Structure of atoms
Science and Technology:
K-4: Understanding about science and technology
Science as inquiry:
K-4: Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
Tie balloons down
I found that when doing this activity with a relatively unsupervised group of children, it's very effective to tie all the balloons together in a chain and tie that chain to a table. A 6-foot piece of string, with a balloon every foot, got the students to smell the balloons.
When I just had the balloons loose on the table, the joy of playing with balloons led to lots of active physical play that didn't have anything to do with the learning goal.
(It worked great for most regular museum visitors without modification, but at an afterschool club with only one adult in the room, the string worked wonders.)