Sunlight & shade · Kindergarten engineering
Design a shade to keep an ice cube from melting!
A shade blocks sunlight and keeps things cooler.
The best shade blocks the most sunlight, and covers what you want to keep cool.
Standard: K-PS3-2*. Children use tools and materials to design and build a structure (like an umbrella, canopy or tent) that reduces the warming effect of sunlight on an area.
What your child does: sees an umbrella slow an ice cube's melting; builds clear-plastic, paper and cardboard roofs next to an ice cube with no roof (a fair test); compares how big each cube stays; then improves a design when a low, sideways sun makes a small roof's shadow miss the ice.
Talk about it: "Why did the cardboard work best?" · "Why didn't the clear roof help?" · "Where do people build shade?" (porches, bus stops, tents, sun hats)
Try it for real: put ice cubes on plates outside on a sunny day. Prop up roofs of clear wrap, paper and cardboard on blocks or cups, leave one cube uncovered, and check them every 10 minutes.
*Next Generation Science Standards and NGSS are registered trademarks of WestEd. Neither WestEd nor the lead states and partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards were involved in the production of this product, and do not endorse it.