Science Experiments
November 12, 2022
How Big is a Raindrop Science Experiment

How Big is a Raindrop Science Experiment

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Have your kids ever wondered how big is a rain drop? Here is a really fun science experiment for older kids to use STEM to measure how big a raindrop is.

Kids will be fascinated to learn how big a raindrop is with this STEM Challenge where kids will use a fun science experiment to discover how big a rain dop is.

 

How big is a raindrop?

This science  question is perfect for middle school students who should be stretching their algebraic muscles. With support advanced elementary students might enjoy engineering their own answer or high school students might find it an amusing math warm up.

 

How Big is a Raindrop Science Experiment

To start this challenge, ask your child how big a rain drop is. Let them puzzle and guess for a while before giving them a method. It could be that they’ll develop their own genius way to solve the problem!

If they seem stuck, give them their materials. Again, as a teacher, you don’t want to give them a scrap of information more than they absolutely need.

how to measure a raindrop science experiment for kids

Materials:

  • Container for rain drops- the bucket off of out Learning Resources Balance was perfect
  • Paper cut to the size of the top of the container
If they’re still struggling, you can give in and tell them how to figure it out. 
rain-drop-math-container

How to measure a rain drop

Place the container in the rain, note what time it was when you put the bucket outside.
Hold the paper under the rain for just a few seconds. Write down the number of seconds, and count the rain drops. If there are too many to count, divide the paper into sections count the number in one section and multiply by the number of sections to estimate how many rain drops are on the paper.
Now that you’ve told them how to do it, you can leave them to their work.

How to calculate the size of the raindrop

Of course, you want to be sure you know the answer to your own question, so here is the method I would use to calculate the size of the rain drop.

You know the number of drops that landed in the paper, and how long you held the paper in the rain. You can write this information as a ratio- n drops/x seconds.

rain-drop-stem-math-counting

 

You also know the volume of water in your container and how long it took to collect. Again, write the information as a ratio.-V volume/y minutes.

Use a unit multiplier to change minutes to seconds.

How Big is a Raindrop Science Experiment
Multiply your first ratio by the same number (eg 120n drops/ 120x volume) until the number of seconds on the bottom equals the number of seconds in the second ratio. It’s kind of saying that had you kept counting for as long as the volume collected, you would have gotten the bigger number.
Now you can say that that big number of drops equals the volume of water. To find the volume per single drop, divide the volume by the number of drops.

Extension ideas

To extend this lesson you could find an official size of a raindrop, calculate percentage error and write an explanation of error.
You could also do a painting with water soluble paint then briefly expose it to a rain shower. What volume of water sprinkled the painting?
Move on to the question, (How many veins are in this leaf?)

bubble-wrap-rain-craft-for-spring Looking for flower craft ideas? These beautiful painted flowers craft is perfect for toddler, preschool, kindergarten, first grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade and more. It is a cute, fun, simple to make spring and summer craft for kids. Beautiful summer craft for kids using flowers

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Learn how to make these beautiful chromatography flowers using coffee filters and markers. This is both a fun art project AND a simple science experiments for kids that explores colors while making pretty craft flowers for spring and summer.  This STEAM project is the perfect spring activity for toddler, preschoolers, pre k, kindergarteners, first grade, 2nd grade, and 3rd graders.  jelly bean stem activity  Flower Activity for kids dying flowers

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Check out these outrageously FUN spring science experiments for kids:

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Beth Gorden

Beth Gorden is the creative multi-tasking creator of 123 Homeschool 4 Me. As a busy homeschooling mother of six, she strives to create hands-on learning activities and worksheets that kids will love to make learning FUN! She has created over 1 million pages of printables to help teach kids ABCs, science, English grammar, history, math, and so much more! Beth is also the creator of 2 additional sites with even more educational activities and FREE printables – www.kindergartenworksheetsandgames.com and www.preschoolplayandlearn.com. Beth studied at the University of Northwestern where she got a double major to make her effective at teaching children while making education FUN!

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