Blowing Bubbles adds art to STEM

I am very excited about this lesson. I saw something similar to it last year but I did not have enough background knowledge to implement this. One thing that others might find useful when th... See More

I am very excited about this lesson. I saw something similar to it last year but I did not have enough background knowledge to implement this. One thing that others might find useful when they do this is, soak some Garbanzo Beans/Chickpeas the night before the activity. When students create other shapes to find the different planes, they can use toothpicks and the Garbanzo Beans to be the vertices. What I like about using them is that once they dry, the 3D shape is very sturdy. I love the art aspect of adding food coloring to the bubble solution and then as the bubbles pop you can see some colorful designs on the light colored bulletin board paper or construction paper.

Bubbles Make Math Come Alive

My middle school students enjoyed this bubble lab. Many had been struggling in their Geometry classes with angles, edges and vertices. My Math counterpart and I decided we would do this la... See More

My middle school students enjoyed this bubble lab. Many had been struggling in their Geometry classes with angles, edges and vertices. My Math counterpart and I decided we would do this lab together, she introducing the Math, I the Science. Eventually the students got to the place where the Math made sense and they could predict the number of diagonals and angles before they even tested their wands. We extended this lab to include different concentrations of soap to see if there was a difference in the length of time the bubbles lasted, if there was a difference in the color intensity and length you could see it, and size of the bubbles able to be blown. The questions that accompany the lab caused the students to think about the bubbles, color, angles and measurement and shapes in ways they had never thought of before.