Quit Humming! ~ Science Sunday

Question of the Week…

Items we used for this experiment:

~ hands, ears, eyes, noses and mouths

Predictions and Experiment…

Each of the kids made a prediction about what would make a person stop humming: covering his eyes, covering his ears, covering his mouth, or pinching his nose shut. We recorded our guesses {even Kaleb played along with us} and started the experiment.

Kaleb started humming and Daddy came up to him and began trying all of the options {with many giggles}.

The Nutshell Reason…

Air travels up over the vocal chords and comes out through our noses. When the nose is pinched shut, the air is unable to escape {because our mouths are shut and humming} and the air stops traveling over the vocal chords ~ and the humming stops!

After the Experiment…

While the kids drew pictures of what had happened during our experiment, Daddy was busy helping Kaleb draw a picture for his recording sheet. Since he was the one pinching Kaleb’s nose, he made sure to add in {and exaggerate} his muscles…much to the kid’s delight. :)

Resource: How to Do Science Experiments with Children is available from Amazon and you can also check it out {and do some of the experiments} using Google Docs! The experiments use easy-to-find objects and also include record sheets for kids to fill out with their predictions and experiment results. Each experiment also includes teaching tips and explanations…which are rather handy! :)

Don’t forget to check out some other great science ideas at Science Sunday hosted by Ticia at Adventures in Mommydom.