A herbarium is a collection of plants that have been flattened, dried and stuck onto paper,

used for studying and classifying different plants. This is a great way to learn about botany.

On each sheet of paper, with each species of plant, you will have a herbarium card which
will have the following information about each plant.

Herbarium Card;

·         Scientific name

·         Common name

·         Family

·         Location

·         Collector

·         Collection date

Additionally you can add on any other general observations you may have noticed.

While arranging a herbarium together, it should be in the order of an approved and well
known system of classification. Such as, in order of Family. 
Its usefulness

·         It can be used as a source of knowledge about the regional and local flora of a
country.

·         It makes plants easy to identify, while being accurate.

·         It is used by taxonomists to identify new species, along with providing material for
them to do research.

·         Since the species have been dried and preserved, then they can be used for a long
time.

The plural of herbarium is herbaria.

Different types of Herbaria.

Herbaria of medicinal plants - This type of herbaria includes the specimen of plants having
medicinal importance/medicinal properties.

Herbaria of weeds - These herbaria contain weeds of cultivated fields & waste places.

Regional herbaria - Herbaria of a particular region or place.  

How to make a herbarium

Materials needed;

Freshly picked plants and flowers  

News paper

Textbooks

A lard hardback book with no lines

Clear tape or glue

Paintbrush

Pen

Tweezers 

Newspaper

Method
From the plants or flowers collected, break them into small parts to make an individual
plant instead of having a cluster of the plant. This would give you a better result in the
process of pressing the plant.

Place the individual species on a sheet of newspaper in a way that the leaves do not overlap,
then cover it with another sheet of newspaper, and place it within two heavy books or it can
even be placed under a bed to flatten the plant.  

Leave the plants flattened for about a week, with no peeking! If there is still moisture in the
plants after a week then replace the newspaper and leave the plants for another week.

Once the plants have dried and are flattened, carefully remove them from the newspaper
using your fingers or a tweezers. Be gentle because the plants will be very delicate!

Arrange the plant species in a big hard back book. Once the plant is arranged properly, dip
the paintbrush in the glue and carefully paint behind each specimen and press it down into
the page of the hardback book. Tape can be used as well, if glue is not available.

The last step is to fill out a herbarium card, or just write the information from the card
directly into the book.

It is best to keep your specimens out of direct sunlight. 

Okay our next experiment has to do with something called electromagnets. But before we
get to electromagnets we need to talk about magnets. 

Does anyone know what a magnet is?

A magnet is any material or object that produces a magnetic field. 

Now you must be asking yourselves, what exactly is a magnetic field? Well, a magnetic
field is an invisible region of space that surrounds a magnet. It explains how the magnetic
forces around that magnet act.
Graphic showing the magnetic field around a bar magnet

This kind of magnet is known as a bag magnet, which makes sense because it does look
like a bar, it has a rectangular shape.

Those black lines that you see are called the magnetic field lines, they show how the
magnetic field behaves. Each line has an arrowhead on it which indicates the direction in
which each line is going. You can imagine each line coming out of the “N” and going into
the “S”. 

How many lines can you see coming out of the “N”?

There are 11 lines in this graphic, but what if I told you that in fact, there are countless
magnetic field lines? Of course it would be tedious, or quite frankly impossible to draw
them all, so we just draw a few of the lines to get an idea of what is going on.

Now, let’s talk about the “N” and “S” that you guys see. 

Does anyone want to take a guess as to what they mean? 

(Hint: Think of Antarctica)

The “N” stands for the north pole and the “S” stands for the south pole. All magnets have
these two poles, and they are opposing. 

Video about magnetism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXCeuSiTOug

Magnetism and electricity are forces generated by the movement of electrons. They are
electromagnetic forces – moving electrically charged particles produce magnetic forces,
and moving magnets produce electric forces.
You will need
A large iron nail (about 3 inches)
About 3 feet of THIN COATED copper wire
A fresh D size battery
Some paper clips or other small magnetic objects
What to do
1. Leave about 8 inches of wire loose at one end and wrap most of the rest of the wire
around the nail. Try not to overlap the wires.
2. Cut the wire (if needed) so that there is about another 8 inches loose at the other end too.
3. Now remove about an inch of the plastic coating from both ends of the wire and attach
the one wire to one end of a battery and the other wire to the other end of the battery. See
picture below. (It is best to tape the wires to the battery – be careful though, the wire could
get very hot!)
4. Now you have an ELECTROMAGNET! Put the point of the nail near a few paper clips
and it should pick them up!
NOTE: Making an electromagnet uses up the battery somewhat quickly which is why the
battery may get warm, so disconnect the wires when you are done exploring.
How does it work?
Most magnets, like the ones on many refrigerators, cannot be turned off, they are called
permanent magnets. Magnets like the one you made that can be turned on and off, are
called ELECTROMAGNETS. They run on electricity and are only magnetic when the
electricity is flowing. The electricity flowing through the wire arranges the molecules in the
nail so that they are attracted to certain metals. NEVER get the wires of the electromagnet
near at household outlet! Be safe – have fun!

Balloon car (the science behind the balloon powered car)

Many forms of energy exist such as light, heat, sound and motion, but they all fall into two
basic categories:

 Potential energy 
  Kinetic energy 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqV5L66EP2E (change video)

What is potential energy? 

Potential energy is the stored energy an object has because of its position or state. Eg. A
bicycle on top of a hill, a book held over your head, and a stretched spring all have potential
energy stored because of their position. 

What is kinetic energy? 

Kinetic energy is the energy an object has due to its motion. A pen falling from a table or a
person walking are all examples of kinetic energy. As long as an object is moving at the
same velocity, it will maintain the same kinetic energy. However if the person decides to
speed up their walk that changes the kinetic energy. 

A force is anything that can change the state of motion of an object, like a push or a pull.
We use force in our everyday lives when we push a letter on the computer keyboard or
when we kick a ball. Forces are everywhere. 

To give you a better description of a force we can look its direction and strength. For
example when you kick a ball you are exerting force in a specific direction. That is the
direction the ball will travel. Also, the harder you kick the ball the stronger the force you
place on it and the farther it will go. 

A song about kinetic and potential energy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=St2q6oGO6xo

Laws of Motion 

A scientist named Isaac Newton came up with three Laws of Motion to describe how things
move scientifically.

1. The first law says that any object in motion will continue to move in the same direction
and speed unless something stops it . That means if you kick a ball it will fly forever unless
some sort of force acts on it. As strange as this may sound, it's true. When you kick a ball,
forces start to act on it immediately. These include resistance or friction from the air and
gravity. Gravity pulls the ball down to the ground and the air resistance slows it down. 
2. The second law states that the greater the mass of an object, the more force it will take to
accelerate the object. This also means that the harder you kick a ball the farther it will go.

3. The third law states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This
means that there are always two forces that are the same. In the example where you kicked
the ball there is the force of your foot on the ball, but there is also the same amount of force
that the ball puts on your foot. This force is in the exact opposite direction.

Experiment making Balloon Powered Car

 Plastic bottle
 Four plastic bottle caps
 Wooden skewer
 Two straws
 Balloon
 Tape
 Scissors or sharp knife (Have an adult use or supervise your use of this tool.)

Preparation

 Cut one of the straws in half.

 Tape both pieces of the straw to one side of the water bottle.

 Cut the wooden skewer in half and push each piece through one of the straws. These
will form your axles. (Have an adult help.)

 Have an adult help use the scissors to poke a “+”-shaped hole directly in the center
of each plastic bottle cap.

 Press each bottle cap onto the ends of the wooden skewers. These will form your
wheels.

Concept behind the Balloon Powered Car 

The concept behind the Balloon-Powered Race Car Science Experiment is pretty simple.
When you blow up a balloon, set your racer down and then let it go, the escaping air from
the balloon rushes out of the straw. This is your car’s propulsion system. The principle at
work is Newton’s Third Law of Motion. This law states that for every action, there is an
equal but opposite reaction. In the case of the balloon-powered race car, the action is the air
rushing from the straw and pushing against the air behind the car. The reaction is the air
behind the car pushing against the car with the same force, causing the forward movement
of the car.

The potential energy of the car is stored in the expanding elastic material of the balloon. As
the balloon fills with air, it adds more potential energy — or stored energy. As the air flows
from the balloon, the energy changes to kinetic energy (or the energy of motion). The
moving balloon-powered car uses kinetic energy. 

If you aim your car down a ramp from the top of the ramp, just lifting it up into that
position adds potential energy, thanks to gravity. Upon release, the potential energy
converts to kinetic energy and the car goes until there’s not enough energy to move it
anymore.