sun tea

Summer Science Fun and Learning Outside with Tea

Summer fun and learning can be a cup of tea and this outside science is tasty for both kids and grownups.

making sun tea for science outsideWhen another day dawned bright and sunny, I asked Big Sister if we should make some iced tea. She thought this was a great idea and offered to help. I asked what she though we needed to use and, of course, said ice cubes and tea. Since we didn’t have any left-over or fresh tea to cool off with ice cubes, we needed to make some. Using a big, old glass jar, I filled it almost full of water and popped in a tea bag. Then I carried it out to the deck and put it on a table in the sun. Both she and Little Sister wondered how that would make tea and we checked it a few times early in the morning, but it still looked just like water. Then we got busy and “forgot” about it.

sun-teaLater that afternoon, I remembered our tea and this time when we checked the jar was filled with tea! To make sure it was tea we poured a little into tumblers and drank it. While the liquid tasted like tea, it was warm. Where did the warm come from? I used cold water in the morning. Big Sister thought it was warm from the sun. Sure enough, the big glass jar felt warm. The sun had made our tea. When we popped in the ice cubes, it got cold like iced tea.

This was very basic, nevertheless, it was science. The warm sun had caused a change. The change didn’t happen right away, it took some time. The kids had learned that change can happen slowly and that the sun warms water. Although they knew this from having their kiddy-pool out in the sun to warm up the water, that same learning was now connected to another experience. Could that learning and fun be counted as two for tea?