Science Experiments Using Straws and Water

Science experiments are a fun way for kids to learn so many things. That right science projects can make learning fun and interesting. With these experiments for science class, kids can learn that with an ordinary drinking straw they can make the simple straw become an atomizer and a medicine dropper. It can also be a musical instrument such as an oboe or a trombone. You can even use a straw to make a scale.

All About Straws

What is a straw? The dictionary defines it as a stalk or stem of dried, threshed grain, such as wheat rye, oats, or barley. The first drinking straw were cut from stalks of grain. That's how they got their name.

The first paper straw was planted in 1888 by Marvin Chester Stone of Washington D.C. It was rolled by hand from manilla paper and coated with paraffin.

And in this article we are going to see the many ways that science experiments with straws are easy ways to learn.

About Straws

Drinking straws were handmade until 1905, when Stone's company invited the first successful straw making machine.

Today drinking straws are made of paper or plastic and sometimes even glass!

How does a Straw work

Do you think you use a straw to pull liquids up into your mouth? Not so!

You Need:

• a drinking straw
• a glass with water
• an empty glass
  

What To Do:

Put the straw into the glass of water. Hold your finger over the top of the straw and take the straw out of the water. Then place the straw over the empty glass. And then remove your finger the top of the straw.

While your finger covers the top of the straw the water remains in the straw. When you remove your finger the water flows out.

Why Does the Water Flow Out?

Your finger on top of the straw lessens the pressure of the air from above the straw. The greater pressure of air under the straw holds the water inside it.

When you suck through a straw, you are not actually pulling the water up. What you are really doing is removing some of the air inside the straw. This makes the pressure inside the straw lower than the pressure outside. The greater pressure of the outside air then pushes the liquid in the glass up through the straw and into your mouth.

#2

Straw Atomizer

This is the way that a spray in a bottle like a water spray or windex cleaner sprays as well as the way a perfume atomizer works.

What You Will Need

• a straw
• a glass of water
• scissors
  

As you blow through the long section of the straw, s steam of the straw, a stream of air flows over the top of the short section, reducing the pressure at that point. As normal pressure underneath the forces water up into the straw, the moving air blows off in drops. In atomizers and spray cans, you use a pump to blow the air.

What To Do to Make a Straw Atomizer

About one third of the distance from one end of the straw, cut a horizontal slit. Bend the straw at the slit and slip the short section into a glass of water. Make sure you keep the slit about 1/4 inch above the surface of the water.

BLOW HARD through the long section of the straw.

What Happens:

Water enters the straw from the glass and comes out through the slit as a spray!

Drinking Straw Science Project

Click edit above to add content to this empty capsule.

#3

You can make a regular drinking straw into a medicine dropper. Put a straw into a glass of water. Hold it in the straw by covering the top of the straw with your finger. Then bend your finger slightly and raise and lower your fingertip so that the liquid flows out one drop at a time. You may have to experiment with the straw a few times before you get the knack of it, and then you will say that is so easy to do! Science Projects are not only a great learning experiment but they are so much fun!