Kinetic Moon Sand
Materials
• 4 c. Flour
• 4 oz. Vegetable oil
• Vial of Essential oil
• Small Bag of Mica powder
• Sand Mold
• Glue
• Glow in the Dark Stars
• Galaxy Ball
• Toy Astronauts
• Small Bag of Play Sand
Procedure
1. Empty everything out of the STEM SAK box. Using the glue or some tape (not included), seal the short edges of the bottom of the box. Let the glue dry, or move on to the next step if tape is used.
2. Add the flour and mica powder to the box. Mix together using your hands. Make a well in the middle of the flour, but do not expose the bottom of the box.
3. Next, add the vegetable oil and essential oil to the well. Mix everything thoroughly.
4. Add the glow in the dark stars, galaxy ball, and toy astronauts (all things you would expect to see on the moon!) to the kinetic sand. Use your senses other than sight to find and identify the different objects in the sand with your eyes closed. What else would you expect to find on the moon?
5. Press some kinetic sand into the sand mold to make a shape. How is this sand different from normal sand? Open your bag of play sand to compare. What do you observe?
Science Behind it!
Kinetic sand (and everything around us that we can touch!) is made of matter. Matter exists in 3 different states: solids, liquids, and gases. Each state of matter has unique properties. Solids maintain the same volume (or amount of space they take up) and shape. Liquids maintain their volume but change shape depending on the container that they are in. Kinetic sand is made of liquids AND solids, so it has properties of both! How does kinetic sand behave like a liquid? How does it behave like a solid?
“Kinetic” (like kinetic and potential energy) means energy that something has due to motion. When you use energy to apply a force to the kinetic sand, it changes shape like a liquid, then maintains its shape like a solid, even when removed from the mold or container that was used to shape it.
The kinetic sand that we made resembles some parts of the surface of the moon that are covered in lunar dust. “Lunar” means of the moon. Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left boot prints on the moon when they visited. The boot prints will stay there forever because there is no atmosphere or weather to erase them! Can you shape your moon sand to look like a lunar boot print?