Early Years Science: Air

Air is all around us, but we hardly ever notice it. We can't see it, but we can see what it does. Children will be aware of air when it moves - as they play outside on a windy day, when they blow bubbles, and when they make a noise with a whistle or a trumpet. Looking carefully at the effects of moving air is a good way of building up children's experience of how air behaves.

What do I need to know?

Use the background information below to inform your planning and help you support young children's scientific learning - it is not intended that children in the Foundation Stage are taught these facts.

What is air?

Air is the name we give to the mixture of different gases which make up the Earth's atmosphere. Most of the air is made up of the gases nitrogen and oxygen. Oxygen makes up 21 per cent of the air around us and is essential for all living things. When we breathe in, air goes into our lungs. Here, oxygen is taken out of the air and passes into our blood stream. This oxygen then circulates around our body and helps to keep us alive.

Air and water

The air around us contains water vapour. We can feel and see this water vapour on a misty or foggy day or early in the morning when the dew forms.

When there is a lot of water vapour in the air, it may fall as rain. If it is very cold, the vapour falls as snow or hail.

Indoors, we notice water vapour when it forms condensation on the inside of a window or on the mirror in the bathroom.

Wind

Wind is a current of air moving across the ground. It is a source of energy and can make things move as it pushes on them. We can feel this push when we are outside on a windy day. The bigger the surface the air pushes against, the greater the force. You can experience this on a windy day if you undo your coat, hold on to the sides and spread your arms out.

We make use of wind as a source of energy in windmills and in wind turbines. In a wind turbine, the blades are blown round by the wind and their movement is converted into electricity by a generator.

Falling through the air

When things fall through the air they are pulled downwards by the force of gravity. As they fall there is friction between the object and the surrounding air. This friction is called air resistance.

An object attached to a parachute will fall more slowly because of the air resistance between the inside and outside surfaces of the parachute and the surrounding air. The same thing happens when a paper spinner or a sycamore or ash seed falls to the ground.

Pneumatics

Making things move using air is called pneumatics. You can experience pneumatics by squeezing the bulb on a plastic pipette or an empty washing-up liquid bottle, and feeling the jet of air which comes out.

This jet of air can be used to make ripples on the surface of a bowl of water or to change the shape of a drop of paint on a piece of paper.

Blowing down a straw has a similar effect, and if you blow into bubble mixture you can see the air trapped inside the bubbles that form.

Investigating

Windmills and streamers

What you need: A selection of plastic, fabric or wood windmills of different sizes; different types of material to make into streamers, such as tissue paper, sugar paper, bubble plastic, tinfoil, voile, muslin, ribbon, canvas, heavy cotton; an open space visible from the setting to position the windmill, and a post or tree to attach the streamers to.

What to do

• With the children, look at the different types of windmill and help them explore what these are made of.

• Ask questions such as: Are all the windmills the same shape? What happens to the windmill when the wind blows? Which windmill do you think might spin the fastest? Why? Do you think you could make a windmill? What shape would it be? What could you use to make it?

• Discuss where would be a good place to position the windmills outside so you can see them spinning.

• Set up the windmills and watch what happens when the wind blows. Ask: Which one is the best? (This is a good opportunity to have a discussion with the children about what 'best' means - the biggest? the fastest? the most colourful?) Streamers: What to do

• Help the children to make a selection of streamers from different fabrics. Talk about the properties of the different materials. Ask questions such as: Which ones are light and which ones are heavy? Which do you think will be strong and which will tear easily when the wind blows? Which ones do you think might get damaged if it rains?

• Set up the streamers outside in a position where they can easily be seen from the setting.

• On a regular basis through the coming week, draw the children's attention to what is happening to the streamers. Ask: Are they hanging down vertically or blowing out horizontally? Do they always blow out in the same direction? Which material makes the best streamer? What happens when it rains?

• You can help the children to make streamers to play with outside by stapling four lengths of paper to the end of a straw. Ask: What happens to the streamers when you run around? Does it make a difference what sort of paper you use? Do long streamers work better than short streamers?

Pneumatic toy

What you need: the mechanism for each pneumatic toy will need a short length of plastic tubing and two 10ml plastic syringes.

What to do

• Look at the plastic syringes with the children. Help them to find out what happens when you pull the plunger back and then push it in again. Ask: Can you feel the jet of air?

• Help the children to attach the plastic tubing to the end of the syringe - this should make a tight fit over the nozzle.

• Squeeze the plunger on the syringe again. Ask: Where is the jet of air coming from now? Could you make something move with this jet of air?

• To complete the pneumatic mechanism, you now need to help the children to attach the other syringe to the tube.

Do this in stages.

1 Push the plunger down on the syringe that is already attached.

2 Pull out the plunger completely on the second syringe.

3 Attach the second syringe to the open end of the tubing.

4 Fit the plunger in and squeeze it gently downwards.

• Ask: What happens to the plunger on the syringe on the other end?

• You could try using this pneumatic mechanism to make a simple pop-up toy, or to operate the tip-up mechanism on a model tipper truck.

Vocabulary to introduce

air wind blow push pull force

windmill spin streamer

light heavy pneumatic

tubing syringe plunger

Linda Thornton and Pat Brunton are education consultants with a special interest in science and technology for young children. They can be contacted at www.alcassociates.co.uk.