How do Polar Bears Stay Warm?
Have you ever wondered how Polar Bears stay warm when they live in the cold snow? This fun snow animal experiement will help you understand!
Materials Needed
How do Polar Bears Stay Warm?
Difficulty Level: Medium
Time Needed: 15 minutes
Best done: Indoors or Outdoors
Mess Level:Medium
Materials Needed
-
Large Bowl (or plastic bin)
-
Water
-
Shortening
-
Ice Cubes
-
Three Zipper Bags
Time to Experiment!
-
Let children experiment with sticking their hands in the cold water-ask them how does it feel?
-
Question how they keep their hands warm when it’s cold outside-then ask how they think polar bears do it. There’s a good chance that many of them will say with fur-which is part of the reason but it is also due to the blubber (i.e., fat) on the polar bear.
-
Then:
-
Turn one small bag inside out, place it on the child’s hand and cover it in shortening-really cover it!
-
Place the shortening covered bag into a clean Ziploc bag (so you don’t get shortening in the water).
-
Put both hands in the water at the same time and see which one stays warmer!
-
-
Give the simple explanation that polar bears (and many other arctic animals) have a bunch of blubber-like the shortening and that keeps them warm when it’s really cold outside!