Science –facts are stranger than science-fiction
a) The Great Wall of China is said to be the only man-made object that can be seen from the moon.
b) A bird called albatross can fly all day and not flap its wings once.
c) The smallest cells in the human body’ are 200,000 times smaller than a pin head.
d) The first right and left shoes were made in 1950. Until then shoes had been straight and could be worn on their foot.
e) Most books and lessons on housing tell us that Eskimos live igloos. This is wrong. In the 1920,’s survey showed that about 1 in a 50 Eskimos had never seen an igloo!
f) The starfish is the only sea animal which can be cut up into pieces and each piece grows into another starfish.
g) In proportion to its size and weight, a birds feather in the strongest natural stucture in the world.
h) The king cobra found in Nicobar Islands and parts of South India, builds a nest by scraping together leaves and clay. The nest rises up to afoot from the ground.
1) Flower magic-take a white flower like chrysanthemum. Ask a grown –up to gently cut its stem lengthwise and split it into two as shown. Take two glasses of water. One plain and one with red colored ink mixed in it. Place the flower on the two glasses as shown. In a few hours. It will be half white and half pink.
2) Plant n a plate- ask a grown –up to help cut the top of a carrot. Fill a plate with water. Place you carrot-top in it. You will see a little plant growing out of the carrot-top after a few days.
3) Living soil- the soil is a home to many small animals. Dig out some soil from a garden or any place outside. Spread it on a sheet of white paper are lucky, you may see a few living things in it. Draw their pictures and find out their names.
4) Yummy sandwich- spread butter on a slice of bread. Ask a grown –up to slice a tomato or cucumber, or boil an egg and slice it. Place these on the butter bread. Sprinkle some slat and pepper. Place another buttered slice on top. Your sandwich is ready.
5) Body line- Join sheets of newspaper by pasting the edges together with glue. The length of the sheet must be more than your own height. Spread the sheet on the floor and lie down on it. Ask a friend to draw around the outline of your body over the paper with a chick colored open. Draw the other parts of your body like eyes, nose, ears, fingers, hair etc. color yourself in adding clothes, shoes etc.
6) Lub-a dub- get 3 plastic or metal funnels, 2 pieces of plastic tubes of the same length, another longer piece of plastic tube and a y-shaped tube. First these pieces tightly with one another as shown. Ask a friend to hold two of the funnels of the `stethoscope’ to your ears and place the third on your chest. You will ear your heartbeat which is magnified by the funnels. Count the number of times your heartbeat in a minute.
7) Fixed aid box- paste white over a shoe box. Draw a big red cross on the lid with a sketch pen. Place these things neatly in the box-stainless steel scissors, cotton wool, band –aid, bandage, Vicks lozenges and burnol. You are now ready to help when needed.
8) Toy box- paint a cardboard box on the outside with your favorite colors. Paste the picture part of gold greeting cards, on all the four sides of the box on the outside. Your toy box is ready. Keeps your house clean by putting all your toys in it after have finished playing?
9) She box house- cut out windows and a door in a shoe box. Stick gauze net on the windows. Make a TV antenna with matchsticks or a piece of soft wire. Fix it on the roof. Make a fence with matchsticks. Decorate your house and its garden with colored paper, gravel, shells etc.
10) Home made rainbow- make a 1 cm wide slit on a card paper and fix it with sticky tape to a glass tumbler filled with water. On a sunny day, place a sheet of white paper close to a window and stand the number on it. Sunlight passes through the slit and the water and a patch of colors appear on the white paper, just like a rainbow.
11) Soap bubbles- in a bowl make a strong and thick mixture of soap, water and sugar or mix glycerin in liquid soap and water. Bend a piece of thin wire into a loop. Dip it into the soapy mixture and take it out. Blow gently into the loop which has a thin layer of soapy mixture on it. Bubbles will form and float in the air, rising higher and higher till they burst on their own.
12) Icy heights- half fill glass tumbler with water. Mark the level of water by sticking a thin piece of colored tape on the glass. Place the glass in the freezer of a refrigerator and note the time. After 3 hours, take it out. Did the level go up? It should because ice takes up more space than water. This I s why cold drink bottles kept in the freeze sometimes burst.
13) Moon mobile- joins with glue, the ends of a long thin card to make a circle. Make 8 holes every 4 cm around the lower edges of the circle. On another piece of card, paste silver paper. Draw 7 phases of moon on the other sides of this card and cut them cut with a paper of scissors. For `No moon’, draw a circle on another pieces of card and color it black. Use strings to hang these shapes from the holes in the circle card. Make 4 small holes in the upper edges of the circle card and tie strings to hang the mobile up.