Sensory Science Summer Camp Theme

Using our senses is a huge part of any scientific exploration, so why not take the chance to make a whole summer camp dedicated to the 5 senses. You can even tie in some extra sensory exploration to make this week truly unforgettable. We have challenges that use all 5 basic senses – sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste, while also touching upon other senses like balance and proprioception. This is a great week of learning and growth, while also getting in touch with our own bodies.

Summer Camp Planning Ideas – Sensory Science Theme

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One of the reasons we absolutely LOVE the idea of a summer camp week focused on sensory science is because it not only teaches kids valuable science and STEM skills, but it also helps kids become more grounded in their own bodies. By spending a whole week tapping into their senses and becoming tuned into what their bodies are telling them, they can become more regulated, calmer and more focused. Of all the summer camp weeks, this one is one of our favorites!

Day 1: Sight

Morning Challenges: Depth Perception

Depth perception is a way that your eyes and your brain work together to understand where we are in the space around us. It helps us to figure out how far away things are, how big they are, and where they are in the world.

Did you know that your brain sees something slightly different from each eye and combines those images into the 3-D images that you see? We’re going to try a few challenges that illustrate the phenomenon of depth perception.

Learn how to draw 3D images with our tutorial!

Experiment 1: The Floating Finger

To do this experiment you only need your hands.

How?

Hold your two index fingers in front of your face, about 6–8 inches away pointing toward each other, making sure that you leave an inch or so between your two fingertips. Now, look at something far away beyond your fingers. Make sure you don’t focus on your fingers. Slowly bring your fingertips closer together. You should see a little hotdog finger or ghost fingertips appear between your real fingers.

Why?

Each of your eyes is seeing something just a little bit different. When you focus beyond your fingers your brain wants to combine those two images but it has trouble making sense of the fingers being so close in the image. The ghost finger is your brain trying to make sense of what is going on.

Experiment 2: The Pencil Drop Experiment

To do this experiment you will need a pencil and a small cup.

How?

Set the cup on a table or the floor and hold the pencil straight up and down, about 1–2 feet above the cup. Try to drop the pencil into the cup with both eyes open. Count how many tries it takes for you to get the pencil into the cup. Close one eye and try again. Is it harder or easier to get the pencil into the cup? Try the other eye. Same results? Or different?

Why?

With both eyes open, your brain has more information and has an easier time figuring out the distance between the pencil and the cup and where it needs to be dropped. When you cover one eye, you’re missing half the picture, which makes it harder to aim. This shows how depth perception helps with hand-eye coordination.

Experiment 3: The Hole in Your Hand Illusion

For this you need your hands and a paper tube, you could use a toilet paper tube or make yourself one out of a piece of construction paper.

How?

Hold the paper tube up to your right eye like a telescope but keep both eyes open. Hold your left hand flat beside the tube, with your pinky touching the side of the tube. Look through the tube with your right eye and look at your hand with your left eye. Does it look like there is a hole in your hand?

Why?

Your brain sees the inside of the tube, the other sees your hand. Your brain is blending the pictures together and it makes it seem like there is a hole through your hand. It blends them together and creates a weird illusion that there’s a hole in your palm.

Experiment 4: Forced Perspective

Have you ever seen the pictures where it looks like someone is holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa or touching the top of the Washington Monument? These pictures are making your brain interpret what is seeing in a strange way called forced perspective.

To try to force perspective yourself you need a camera and some campers.

How?

Have one kid hold out their hand and have them close to the camera and have the other campers far enough away that it looks like the kids are standing on the hand. Snap the picture. Then you can show the kids how it looks like they are standing on the hand. Try different experiments with forced perspective, can you make it look like they are picking someone up? Scooping them into a cup? Use your imagination and see what forced perspective you can come up with.

Why?

Your eyes are perceiving the two things that are a distance apart as one image because they are aligned with one another based on their position.

Afternoon Challenges:

Optical Illusion Challenges:

SPF has a ton of really cool optical illusion challenges you can check out here – Optical Illusion Challenges.

Another easy and fun optical illusion is to create penny spinners. A penny spinner will create a cool optical illusion by tricking your brain into seeing movement.

To make a penny spinner you will need, a penny for each child, a 5 inch cardboard circle and a 5 inch circle of plain paper, markers or crayons, a glue stick and a sharp hobby knife (for adults only).

How?

Draw patterns, rainbow lines or swirls on the paper in bright colors. Glue the paper down onto your cardboard circle. Cut a slit in the center of the circle and slip your penny through it. Half the penny should be under the circle as a spinning surface and half on top as a grip to make it spin. When you’re finished – spin away. Campers can observe what happens to their images when they spin the tops. Look at their fellow campers – what do they notice?

Why?

In our example, we drew dots, but when we spin the penny spinner we see swirls and lines. Our brains interpret the spinning motion and we experience something that is not actually there.

A fun twist on this persistence of vision style of optical illusion is to make a simple Thaumatrope. You can learn how with our Thaumatrope tutorial and printables.

Day 2: Sounds All Around!

Morning Challenge: Watching Sound

When people talk about sound travelling and sound waves it can be a hard concept for kids to understand, but this challenge will help them see sound. Sound is caused by vibrations – and we have a fun way to watch those sounds!

What do you need?

A medium or large bowl (plastic or glass), plastic wrap, a rubber band, uncooked rice, colorful sprinkles or even small paper clips, something to make noise with like a metal spoon and pot or music that you can turn up as you observe.

How?

First, stretch a piece of plastic wrap tightly over the top of your bowl to make a tight, flat surface. Use the rubber band to hold it in place. Next, sprinkle a thin layer of your small items over the plastic wrap. Then, set the bowl on a table or other hard surface. Finally make some noise!!! Bang the pan or play some music next to (but not touching) the bowl. You can also try clapping your hands close to it or shouting. Watch your little pieces start to dance around. The sound waves will hit the plastic wrap and cause the movement. So even though sound waves aren’t visible you can see them in action.

Why?

Sound is made by vibrations. When you make the noise it pushes air in waves – think of it like when you toss a stone into water and the ripples move across the surface. The waves travel through the air and hit the plastic wrap, making it vibrate. The rice moves because it’s sitting on top of the vibrating surface. So you can see the sounds! Try all sorts of sounds and see how the vibrations change!

Afternoon Activity: Classic Cup Phones

String phones are a classic kids DIY toy – but beyond that they are a great way to demonstrate how sound can travel!

You will need: Two paper or plastic cups for each team of two, some string (about 10-20 feet long) and a push pin or skewer to poke holes in the cups.

How?

Poke a small hole in the bottom of each cup. Slide your string through the hole and tie it off so it can’t slip back through – then repeat the same thing with the other end of the string and the other cup. Have the campers carefully stretch the string tight between the cups but not touching anything else. One camper will speak into their cup while the other camper listens. Then switch. You can experiment with loose vs. tight string, and different string lengths to see if the sound quality diminishes or improves. See if you can make a three or four way phone. Does it work the same way or do you lose the sound?

Why?

The cup phones demonstrate that sound travels through solids (the string) via vibrations, which is a key concept in understanding how sound works. The cup helps to capture the sound as you speak or listen.

Day 3: Touch

Morning Challenge 1: Thermal Touch Test – How We Sense Temperature

This temperature test is an interesting illustration of how we perceive what we feel. It uses the concepts of nerve response, temperature perception and conduction.

You will need: 3 bowls (one with warm water, one with cold water, one with room temperature water) and a towel to dry your hands.

How?

Place one hand in the cold water and the other in the warm water for 30 seconds. Take both hands out of the water and at the same time put them into the room temperature water. Do your two hands feel the same? They’re in the same water. What differences do you notice? Why do you think that they don’t feel the same?

Why?

Our nerve endings adjust to the temperature they start in so even though both hands are now in room temperature water it still feels warm to one and cool to the other.

Morning Challenge 2: Tactile Art

Take the campers on a nature walk and have them collect some textural items along the way. Ideas, pinecones, moss, small sticks, leaves, flowers. Bring the items back to your camp area and provide each child with scissors, glue and a large piece of cardstock. Then let them create. Some kids will gravitate toward abstract art making a collage of all of their nature finds while others will use the bits and pieces from their finds to create a picture. Whatever the kids do – this touch friendly tactile art is a great option for the kids!

Afternoon Challenge: Proprioception Movement Maze

Proprioception is the ability to feel your body in space and know where you are. Kind of like being able to move around in the dark.

To have the kids test their proprioception – you will need some blindfolds and a kid safe obstacle course.

Have each camper try to navigate their way through the course using only their awareness of where they are in “space” and their sense of touch. It’s fun to watch the different ways each child will navigate this challenge.

For even more tactile fun check SPF’s extensive sensory library for all sorts of amazing slime, oobleck recipes, moon dough and playdough ideas.

Day 4: Smell

Morning Challenge 1: Scented Playdough with Powdered Drink Mixes

Did you know you can make playdough with flavored drink mix to make it a smelly, sensory super fun project for sense of smell!

You will need these materials for each batch – or you can make a big batch of the base dough and have the kids add the drink mix after. 1 cup all purpose flour, ¼ cup salt, 1 packet of unsweetened drink mix(choose any scent/color you like), 2 tsp cream of tartar, 1 tbsp vegetable oil, ¾ cup hot water (adult supervision required), mixing bowl and spoon!

Learn more about Kool-Aid Playdough with our tutorial

How?

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, salt, Kool-Aid (if you are having the kids make the dough, otherwise knead it in at the end) and cream of tartar. Stir to mix the dry ingredients evenly. Add the vegetable oil.

Carefully pour in the hot water (have an adult do this step). Mix it all together with a spoon until it starts to form a dough. Flip it onto a floured surface and knead it until it becomes smooth and stretchy. NOTE: if you’re having the kids mix in the drink mix this is a perfect time to do it, sprinkle on top and knead it in.

This dough is non-toxic but not meant for eating.

Afternoon Challenge – Scratch-n’-Sniff Paint

Making your own scratch-and-sniff paint is a fun and easy way to add a sensory twist to art! The key is to use a strong-smelling, powdery ingredient that gets “trapped” in the paint and then released when scratched.

This is a really fun project that always surprises the kids when they’re finished. To make your scratch and sniff paint you will need small containers or bowls, white school glue, warm water and flavored gelatin powder (think Jello!) some thick paper and some paint brushes

How?

First step is to mix the gelatin and water: you will need 1 teaspoon of gelatin powder and 1 teaspoon of warm water. Stir well until the gelatin mostly dissolves. Then add the glue, 1-2 tablespoons depending on how thick you would like your paint. Mix the two well until it is smooth. Then you can start painting! Let your masterpieces dry completely and then you can gently scratch the surface and you will be able to smell the gelatin!

Why?

The glue holds the scent in, when you scrape it with your nail the scent is released!

Day 5: Taste

We definitely saved the best sensory science until last – who wouldn’t want to go out on a delicious note!

Morning Activity: Ice Cream in a Bag

Ice Cream is such an iconic summer staple. But, did you know you can make your own homemade ice cream with a couple of simple ingredients in under a half an hour start to finish? The process is simple chemistry and a wonderful opportunity to do some tasty kitchen science that will also have your kids moving and grooving and burning energy. Learn how easy it is to make Ice Cream in a Bag with your kids. The good news is you can make regular and dairy free ice cream with this method!

Check out the full instructions and make your own ice cream!!!

Afternoon Activity: States of Matter that Taste Amazing – Root Beer Floats

Did you know that a simple root beer float has solid, liquid and gas all in one delicious treat? It’s true – and we are here to investigate!

Gas: Specifically, Carbon Dioxide Gas: Root beer has carbon dioxide gas, which is why soda is fizzy! . When ice cream is added, the gas quickly escapes from the liquid, creating bubbles.

Nucleation Sites: The rough, porous surface of the ice cream provides many tiny spots (called nucleation sites) where the dissolved carbon dioxide gas can easily form bubbles.

Surface Tension & Foam: The fats and proteins in the ice cream help to stabilize these bubbles, preventing them from popping immediately, and thus creating the thick, frothy foam we love.

Density: We’ll also observe how ice cream floats on top of the root beer, showing that it’s less dense than the soda.

Physical Change: The ice cream melts (changes from solid to liquid) as it sits in the root beer.

You will need clear cups, vanilla ice cream, scoops, and rootbeer.

How?

Place a scoop of vanilla ice cream into each cup. Talk to the kids about how ice cream is a solid. Next talk about the rootbeer and how soda contains carbon dioxide gas which is what makes it fizzy. Root Beer is also a liquid. Have the kids watch closely as you pour the rootbeer over the ice cream. Have them observe the reaction between the ice cream and the rootbeer. What do they notice? Can they see any reactions happening?

Why?

When the root beer hits the cold ice cream, the gas (carbon dioxide) in the soda comes out quickly. This is because Tiny pockets of air in the ice cream give the gas lots of places to escape from the liquid, creating lots of bubbles and as the ice cream melts it mixes with the root beer causing even more foaming and bubbling.

It’s absolutely mesmerizing experiment for the kids and always so much fun to watch their reaction to observing the bubbles and foam and of course getting to taste the results of their experiment – who wouldn’t love learning with root beer floats!! 

Another classic summer activity that is perfect for summer camp, and combines engineering, science and the sense of taste is to build a Solar Oven. Learn how to build a Solar Oven in our step by step guide.

Or, play with science even more and make slurpees!

This Sensory Science Summer Camp provides a hands-on, fun filled week of discovery, where every challenge will have them learning while having a ton of fun!  Every sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste is a scientific marvel and the kids are sure to remember this camp whenever they notice something new with their senses. Happy Camping! 

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