Ideas for Principle #37

💡 Popcorn kernels - small and hard, but they burst and puff up into big, crackling flakes when they heat up.

A rubber balloon - empty and small, but it grows and inflates the more warm air you blow into it from your lungs.

A mercury thermometer - the liquid inside expands and rises when it's warmer, so you can see the temperature.

Want something small to become big and impressive without effort?!
It's hard to make something grow using physical force alone.

Worth thinking about: what if we use heat to make something expand and grow on its own?

Heat makes many materials expand from the inside - so something small can become big without anyone pushing it at all.

Ready for a challenge? We've prepared some extra challenges for you to try

Try it together. Blow gently on a pinwheel and then blow hard, and check how that affects its speed.

Easy
1. Check together how fast a balloon inflates with long breaths compared to short breaths.
2. Ask your child: what's the smallest thing they know of that grew to become really big?

A bit of a stretch
3. Choose together to calculate, with your help, how much 100 ₪ in savings will be worth in a year.
4. Check together what happens to a popcorn kernel when it heats up, and why it becomes so big.

Challenge for champions
5. Ask your child to design an imaginary device that uses heat to grow or expand.
6. Try together to think about a small investment of time or effort today, and imagine how it could expand into a big result in a few years.