As a Girl Scout, the world of Girl Scouting is a fabulous place for you to learn about yourself and the world around you. What could be better than a day spent outdoors, exploring your environment?

Hot, Hot, Hot! helps you discover the world around you through outdoor experiments. Get ready to get messy!

Girl Scouts is also about spending time with adults who can help you learn and grow, so find an adult partner or older friend to help you read instructions and do activities.

Let’s go outside!

GGeniuseniusGirl Scout

2019

Hot, Hot, Hot!Summer FunSummer is flying by!Give your Girl Scout the summer she’ll remember her entire life --one spent outdoors in the fresh air and sunshine, making new friends.

Send her to camp for a few days, a week or even all summer. And guess what? You can go to! Check out summer camp opportunities at gswise.org Contact customercare@gswise.org or 800-565-4475 with questions.

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Now try this!

• Add small pieces of

the bottle label or

glitter to the water.

• Add food coloring to

the water.

Did you ever wonder what happens when there is a thunderstorm over

the ocean? The wind and rain combine and begin to form something

called a vortex. When this vortex becomes powerful enough, it is called

a hurricane. Follow the directions below to make your own model of a

hurricane using plastic soda bottles.

What you’ll need:

• Two 2-liter bottles

• Cold water

• Scissors

• Duct tape

• Glue

Instructions:

1. Rinse out the bottles and remove caps and as much of the labels

as you can.

2. Fill about three-fourths of the bottle one of the bottles with cold

water; more water will make it harder to create the vortex while

less water will shorten its duration.

3. Flip the second bottle upside down and place it on top of the filled

bottle. Using strong glue, attach the two bottle openings together to

create a watertight seal. Allow the glue to set.

4. Apply duct tape liberally around the connection joint to complete

the seal.

5. Create the vortex by flipping the bottles over and rotating the

top (water-filled) bottle in a rapid clockwise or counterclockwise

direction.

Hurricane in a BottleHurricane in a Bottle

The action of Step 5 creates centripetal force which

pushes the water and air to the outside of the bottle.

Because air is less dense than water, the air gets squeezed

into the middle, causing the vortex to form.

What’s happening?

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What goes up must come down right? Let’s try bending the rules a little with a cup of water that stays inside the glass when held upside down. You might want to practice this outside until you master this trick.

What you’ll need: A drinking glass (glass works better than plastic) Water A piece of cardboard large enough to cover the

opening of the glass

Instructions1. Fill the glass all the way to the top with water.

2. Put the cardboard over the mouth of the glass, making sure that no air bubbles enter the glass as you hold onto the cardboard.

3. Turn the glass upside down (over a sink or outside).

4. Take away the hand holding the cardboard.

Experience Gravity Free WaterExperience Gravity Free Water

What’s happening?If all goes according to plan then the cardboard and water should stay put. Even though the cup of water is upside down the water stays in place, defying gravity! So why is this happening? With no air inside the glass, the air pressure from outside the glass is greater than the pressure of the water inside the glass. The extra air pressure manages to hold the cardboard in place, keeping you dry and your water where it should be, inside the glass.

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If you want to stay cool in the summer, do you think wearing light colored clothes or dark color clothes would be better?

Experiment with light, color, heat and some water to find out.

What you’ll need: 2 identical drinking glasses or jars Water Thermometer 2 elastic bands White paper Black paper

Instructions:1. Wrap the white paper around one of the glasses using an

elastic band to hold it on.

2. Do the same with the black paper and the other glass.

3. Fill the glasses with the exact same amount of water.

4. Leave the glasses out in the sun for a couple of hours.

5. Measure and record the temperature in each of the glasses.

What’s happening?Dark surfaces absorb more light and heat than lighter ones. After measuring the temperatures of the water, the glass with the black paper around it should be hotter than the other. Lighter surfaces reflect, or keep away, light and heat. That’s why people wear lighter colored clothes in the summer, it keeps them cooler.

What Absorbs More Heat?What Absorbs More Heat?

Circle your prediction below.

Light colored clothes

Dark colored clothes

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Plant some seeds and follow the growth of the seedlings as they sprout from the soil. Learn how to take proper care of them with just the right amount of light, heat and water.

What you’ll need: Fresh seeds. Good choices for this experiment are pumpkin seeds,

sunflower seeds, lima beans or pinto beans Good quality soil from your yard or potting soil from a garden store A container to hold the soil and your seeds Water Light and heat

Instructions:1. Fill the container with soil.

2. Plant the seeds inside the soil.

3. Place the container somewhere warm and near, but not directly in, the sunlight.

4. Keep the soil moist by watering it everyday (be careful not to use too much water, the soil should be moist, not soaked).

5. Record your observations as the seeds germinate and seedlings begin to sprout from the seeds.

What’s happening?Hopefully after a week of looking after them, your seedlings will be on their way to becoming healthy plants. Scientists call this process germination but you can call it growth. All seeds need water and oxygen to grow but the other conditions can differ. Many seeds grow only where it’s hot while others grow in the mountains where it is cold. Some seeds need lots of light to grow while others need very little. To help you out most seed packets list the proper growing requirements in the instructions.

My Observations:

Now try this!

Compare the growth rates of different types of seeds. Do lima beans grow faster than sunflower seeds?

You can also see how different conditions, such as light or temperature, affect their growth. Make sure to write or draw a picture of your observations.

Plant Seeds and Watch Them GrowPlant Seeds and Watch Them Grow

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What you’ll need:• A glass of water (about three quarters full)• White paper• A sunny day or a flashlight

Instructions:1. If it’s a sunny day, take the glass of water and stand near a window.

If it’s a cloudy day, shine a flashlight through the glass of water. 2. Hold the glass of water above the paper and watch as the light

passes through the glass of water and forms a rainbow of colors on your sheet of paper.

3. Try holding the glass of water at different heights and angles to see if it has a different effect.

What’s happening? Rainbows form in the sky when sunlight refracts or bends as it passes through raindrops. Light acts in the same way when it passes through your glass of water. The light refracts, separating it into the colors red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

You have probably seen a rainbow in the sky but they can form in many different places. Have you seen a rainbow in a water fountain or in the mist of a waterfall? How about on the back of a CD?

List all the places you find rainbows over the summer.

Fill an ice cube tray with water and add a drop of your favorite shades of food coloring in each rectangle. We used: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. Place the tray in the freezer overnight. Once frozen place into a glass and enjoy your glass of rainbow water.

Now try this!

Experiment with the cubes. What happens when you use only the blue and green cubes? How about the red and blue?

Make Your Own RainbowMake Your Own Rainbow

Rainbow Rainbow WaterWater

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Grab your favorite adult and have fun making this boat that floats! What you’ll need:

Juice box Piece of paper or old envelope Bamboo skewer (about six inches long with a pointy end) Tape Crayons or markers

Instructions:1. Drink a juice box and then tape the hole from the straw shut. Lay

the juice box longest side down on a paper towel. The side with the hole will be the back of your boat.

2. Draw a pattern for the sail on the piece of paper and cut it out. (Using an envelope works great for this.)

3. Tape the sail to the skewer by folding it in half and taping the edges together. Make sure it sticks to the skewer.

4. Ask an adult to poke the skewer sail through the juice box about one inch from the front of the boat. The sail will be on top of the boat and about two inches of the skewer will stick out of the bottom.

5. Go outside and set the boat sailing in a pool or bucket.

Now try this!

Does the shape of the sail matter?

Are there other recyclables you can use to make a boat?

How can you make the boat go faster?

Do you think two sails would work better than one? Why or why not?

What’s happening?The wind fills the sail and pushes the boat forward, the same way that a heavy wind from behind pushes a person forward when they are walking.

Write or draw a picture of what happened to the right.

Construct a Wind-Powered BoatConstruct a Wind-Powered Boat

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What’s happening?

Grass needs sun to produce food and keep it green. Since the fabric blocked the sun the grass was not able to produce food so it started to turn brown. Don’t worry, when you clean up the supplies from this activity, the grass will get healthy again in a few weeks.

All plants use sunlight to produce food and oxygen. The scientific term for that process is photosynthesis.

Can you use the sun to make a picture in the grass?

What you’ll need: Fabric

Scissors

5 bamboo skewers

A patch of grass that will NOT be walked upon (This is important as stepping on the bamboo skewers could cause injury.)

Instructions:1. Cut a shape out of the fabric such as a heart or a star.

2. Lay the fabric flat on the grass.

3. Use the bamboo skewers to pin each point of the star to the ground.

4. Wait several days.

5. Remove the fabric. Can you see the shape in the grass?

Now try this!

Cut pieces of fabric into the shape of letters and spell your name!

Leave a hula hoop in the grass and see how long it takes for the grass underneath it to change color.

Making Pictures in the GrassMaking Pictures in the Grass

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Shadows are sneaky things: they run ahead of you, jump behind you and sometimes even disappear completely! Even Peter Pan had trouble catching his shadow.

Your shadow changes size and shape during the day and then runs and hides when it gets dark, unless you’re near a light. So, what exactly makes your shadowy twin dance around all day? Let’s play detective and find out why that sneaky shadow never stays in one place for long.

What you’ll need: Large tarp Chalk Friend

Instructions:1. Place a large tarp on the ground. For the best results, try to start

your project in the morning on a nice sunny day.2. Ask a friend to stand on the tarp and face the sun.3. Use your chalk to trace, or outline, your friend’s shoes as she

stands on the tarp.4. Next, trace your friend’s shadow on the tarp.5. Use the space provided to the right to write your observations such

as:a. What time is it? b. Is your friend’s shadow big or small? c. Is it stretched out or squashed short?d. Is the sun rising, high in the sky, or setting?

6. Repeat steps 3-5 every few hours throughout the day. Make sure your friend faces the same direction every time you trace her shadow by making sure her feet line up with the chalk outline you made before.

7. Make your last shadow outline when the sun starts to set.8. Once you’re finished, take a look at your tarp. Did the shadows

move and change shape the way you were expecting?

What’s happening? As the sun moves around in the sky, our shadows move around too. When the sun is near the horizon, the line where the sky and the land meet, our bodies block more light. The more light we block, the bigger the shadow. But when the sun is high above us, the light is only shining down on our heads. Our heads don’t take up much room, so our shadows are very small at this time of the day.

Your shadow will be the biggest and the longest after the sun rises and before the sun sets. Your shadow will be the smallest in the middle of the day. It might even disappear!

Observation 1Time of day you traced your friend’s shadow

Observation 2Time of day you traced your friend’s shadow

Observation 3Time of day you traced your friend’s shadow

Shadow ScienceShadow Science

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Instructions:1. On a sunny day sometime around midday, grab your bucket and

an adult and head outside.

2. Take a minute to observe and record what the weather is like. How sunny is it? Is it warm or cool? How windy is it? Does the air feel dry or humid? If you can find out the temperature, humidity, pressure and so on, write that down too.

3. Now pour the bucket of water out on the concrete so that it makes a puddle. Quickly draw an outline around the puddle with the sidewalk chalk.

4. Wait five minutes and then look at the puddle. It should be smaller than it was five minutes ago. Trace its edges with the chalk again.

5. Keep doing this every five minutes until the puddle is completely gone or until an hour has gone by, whichever comes first. You should have a maximum of 13 puddle outlines, each smaller than the last.

6. Take a picture of your chalk outlines.

7. On a day when the weather is noticeably different from the first day (but not wet out or too cold for comfort), repeat steps 1-5. Try to use the same spot and take a picture from the same angle.

8. Then do it again on yet another day when the weather is different - hotter, windier, cloudier. You’ll want at least three sets of observations, but do it as many times as you’d like!

9. Now put all of your observations and your pictures together.

What’s happening? The weather changes how fast or slow the puddle evaporates (or disappears). You should see that on some days there was more space between the puddle outlines—on those days, the water evaporated faster. On other days there should be less space between the outlines because the water evaporated more slowly.

How do weather conditions affect how fast a puddle evaporates? Does water evaporate faster on a cooler or warmer day? Spend a few hours outside doing this experiment to find out.

What is evaporation? Evaporation is when something, like the sun, heats up water and makes it disappear into the air. If you’ve ever seen your parents boil water, the steam coming off of the pan is water evaporating into the air.

What you’ll need:

• Paper and pencil• Large cup or small bucket

of water• Large, flat area of bare

concrete• Stick of sidewalk chalk• Timer or watch• A few days with differing

weather conditions• Camera

Day 1 WeatherWhat time is it?

What is the temperature?

Is it sunny or cloudy?

Does it feel dry or humid?

Is it windy?

Day 2 WeatherWhat time is it?

What is the temperature?

Is it sunny or cloudy?

Does it feel dry or humid?

Is it windy?

Day 3 WeatherWhat time is it?

What is the temperature?

Is it sunny or cloudy?

Does it feel dry or humid?

Is it windy?

Use your information from your chart and pictures to answer these questions:

On what day did the puddle disappear the fastest? (The lines were the farthest apart.)

On what day did the puddle disappear the slowest? (The lines were the closest together.) Did hotter weather make the puddle disappear faster or slower?

Did the wind change how fast the puddle disappeared?

Did the time of day make a difference?

Disappearing ActDisappearing Act

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The soil below the earth’s surface is home to many living things. Some insects live underground for all or part of their life cycles. Some larger animals, such as moles and earthworms, live underground all the time. Others, such as the prairie dog, spend part of their time on the surface and part in a burrow they dig below ground.

Why do you think animals choose to live in the dirt? What do you think are some of the advantages of living below ground? Doing this experiment will help you answer these questions and more.

This experiment will help show you the difference between:

• The air above the ground. Scientists call that the air temperature.

• The air on the surface of the ground. Scientists call that the surface temperature.

• The air below the ground. Scientists call that the underground temperature.

What you’ll need: An adult helper and

permission to dig small holes in a few spots in the ground

Small shovel or trowel

Ruler

Craft sticks and marker

Digital instant-read thermometer

Instructions:Prepare the sites for your experiment:

1. With an adult, select your sites with care, and don’t dig holes where people might step into them.

2. Choose one spot to dig that is in the full sun and another that is in a shaded spot.

3. At each site you want to study, dig a small hole or “burrow” in the ground. Don’t dig straight down, dig at an angle, like this:

4. Mark your sites by writing a name for each on a craft stick and pushing it into the ground near the burrow.

My Sunny Spot

Date Time Air Temperature

SurfaceTemperature

UndergroundTemperature

Morning

Noon

Night

My Shady Spot

Date Time Air Temperature

SurfaceTemperature

UndergroundTemperature

Morning

Noon

Night

How Hot Is It?How Hot Is It?

What’s happening? The information you placed in the charts is what scientists call data. Let’s use that data to see what you discovered about air, surface and underground temperature.

Where was the temperature the coolest; the air, surface or underground?

When was the air temperature the hottest; morning, noon or night?

Did the underground temperature differ etween your sunny spot and your shady spot?

Did your experiment help you answer the questions we asked earlier?Why do you think animals choose to live in the dirt?

What do you think are some of the advantages of living below ground?

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