DIY Thermometer
We have had some hot summer days and the girls have been enjoying their time outside. Although it’s summer, we always try to get some learning in. The hot days gave us a perfect opportunity to talk about temperature and how it works. Even though we had a lesson about temperature and thermometers during the school year, it is always a great refresher to have a fun-filled summer activity. So, for this one, I decided to have the girls make their own Diy Homemade thermometers. It was a last minute project, so all of our supplies were found laying around the house.
What you will need
Water bottle (A little less than half full)
Straws (Clear straws are best, however I didn’t have any)
Rubbing alcohol
Red food coloring (Really any color will work)
Modeling Clay (We didn’t have any, so I used the kids Play dough)
The first thing that I want to point out is that, using the play dough was EXTREMELY nerve racking. If you plan ahead, I would definitely recommend modeling clay. It is important that you get a really good seal to keep all the air out. It was tough to achieve this with the playdough, however like I said, we were working with what we had. And eventually we were able to get a pretty good seal.
First…
After I gathered all of our supplies, I poked a hole through the tops of the water bottles. Our water bottle tops were pretty thin, so I just used a pair of scissors. You want to be careful though. Make as small a hole as possible, to help with keeping the air in. You just want to make sure the hole is big enough to get the straw through.
Next…
I had the girls put their straws through the tops of the water bottles and add food coloring to the bottles. I suggested red, in order to mimic the color of a thermometer, however my two youngest wanted to use different colors for this part.
Then…
We added an equal amount of alcohol to our water. I eyeballed this. You don’t have to be super accurate, just make sure it’s as equal as you can make it. I used rigid lines on the water bottle as a guide.
Finally…
We screwed the top back on the water bottle, making sure that the straw did not touch the bottom of the bottle. This is the part that took some time for us as well, because we had to make sure the playdough had a really good seal.
THEN IT WAS TIME FOR THE EXPERIMENT!
Once our thermometers were assembled and ready to go, it was time to test them to see if they worked! I heated up some hot water on the stove, and poured it into a bowl. We then placed our thermometers into the bowls. It took a couple of minutes, but as the liquid inside of the water bottle started to heat up, the water mixture started to climb up the straw. I also had the girls mark with a permanent marker how high the water climbed up the straw, so we could measure the change.
*** If you don’t see the water start to climb the straw check to make sure there is a tight seal and no air is escaping.
Next, I had the girls add ice cubes to the bowl of water. After the liquid started to cool, the liquid started to make its way back down the straw.
The girls notated the change from when the liquid heated up to when it cooled down. It was a really good representation for them on how a thermometer measures temperature change. A perfect experiment for a hot sunny day!
