What's New!

STEM: Evaporation Art

Take and Makes for this project will be available at area PPLD libraries starting this Friday, August 13, 2021. Watch this project at https://youtu.be/zGzv7SBx9Iw

Supplies and Directions:

Materials Included:

4 washable markers
A pipette
A paintbrush
White paper

Materials You Provide:

A few crayons of different colors
A small glass of water
A cookie sheet or other flat board or tray
Some scotch tape

Use some scotch tape to tape the corners of a piece of the white paper to a cookie tray or other flat board. This will help to keep your paper from blowing away.
Find a sunny spot in a window or a place outside to set your tray. It should be a spot where the sun will shine on your paper for several hours. Use the pipette to make a puddle of water in the middle of the paper. Make the puddle big enough so that the water almost reaches the sides of the paper. Use a crayon to draw around the shape of the puddle. Be careful to draw around the water, not through it.
Wait an hour or so and check on your puddle. Did the puddle shrink? Did it change shape? Use a different color crayon to draw around the puddle’s new shape.
After another hour or so, check again. Each time you check, your puddle will be smaller and you will need to draw a new line with a different color crayon around the new shape. This process will take some time – at least a few hours - so you can do other things while you wait.
After your puddle is completely dry, you should see rings of different color crayon shapes on your paper. Use the markers to color in between the crayon shapes. You can do this any way you want. Then wet the paintbrush in your glass of water and brush over the marker colors you made on the paper to spread the colors. It will look like a watercolor painting! The water won’t stick to the places where the crayon is, so you will still be able to see the original shapes.

You and the power of the sun have teamed up to make some beautiful Evaporation Art!

Here’s the science behind the project:

Evaporation happens when water, a liquid, turns into vapor, a gas, and rises up. You’ve seen what happens to a puddle after a rainstorm. Does the water stay there forever? No. The heat of the sun causes the water to turn into a vapor. It evaporates, and the puddle disappears. The same thing happens in our project. The little puddle you create will evaporate and shrink when exposed to the heat of the sun until it is gone.

Teens & Tweens: Bam! Pow! Magnets

Take and Makes for this project will be available at area libraries beginning, Friday, August 6, 2021. Be sure to check out Free Comic Book Day on Saturday, August 14!

Materials and Instructions:

Scissors (you provide)
Bam! and Pow! icons (found on PDF below)
Epoxy sticker (clear & round)
Magnet with adhesive sticker

Cut out a “Bam!” or “Pow!” icon found in the PDF linked below. There are two of each icon on this sheet in case you make a mistake! Or, cut out a 1" circle and decorate it.
Place your icon face up on the table. Take the backing off the clear plastic epoxy sticker and press the sticky side to the top of the colorful side of the icon. You want to be able to see the icon through the sticker. If there is a piece of plastic on the non-sticky side of the epoxy sticker, peel it off and discard.
If the magnet has a separate adhesive sticker, peel the paper backing off one side of the double-sided adhesive sticker and attach to the magnet. If the adhesive sticker is already attached, skip this step.
Remove the backing from the sticker attached to the magnet and stick the magnet to the back of the paper circle.
Congrats you have a magnet! Repeat for the second magnet.

Octopus Dance Party

Come dance under the sea with us! Twirl, jump, and jam out with family and friends as we celebrate our underwater friends - you might even see an octopus!

Costumes and dressing up are encouraged.

East Library*