blubber experiment video

Make blubber gloves

Learn about polar animals' adaptations with this experiment!

Extremely cold climates are full of life. What kind of adaptations do polar animals have to allow them to thrive in these environments? Learn about one survival tool with this experiment from the Nat Geo Kids book  Try This! Extreme . 

Assemble a blubber glove by filling a plastic bag three-quarters full with shortening.

Put on your nitrile gloves and insert your hands in two plastic bags: one filled with the shortening and the other empty. Zip the bags as closed as possible and then get someone to help you tape the bags closed around your wrists.

Place your covered hands in the icy water for as long as you can stand. Which hand stays warmer?

Repeat the experiment with different insulating materials, like the packing peanuts, cotton balls, and feathers. Which material keeps your hand the warmest?

WHAT TO EXPECT

Some of the materials placed in the bag around the subject’s hand will prevent cold from reaching her hand better than others.

WHAT'S GOING ON

Fat—even a vegetable-based fat like shortening—insulates animals from cold. So the shortening provides a decent substitute for blubber, the layer of fat that seals , whales , walrus , polar bears , and other marine animals in polar climates have under their skin.

Other materials, such as foam, keep drinks warm because they don’t conduct heat, so the heat doesn’t escape through the sides and bottom of the cup.

By the way, the bucket full of icy water is similar to the temperature and texture of the water around ice floes—where animals like seals and whales tend to live.

Try This! Extreme Text Copyright © 2017 Karen Romano Young

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Polar Bear Blubber Experiment

How do polar bears stay warm with those freezing temperatures, icy water, and relentless wind in the Arctic? What keeps a polar bear warm when its natural habitat is so harsh? This simple but classic polar bear blubber experiment will help kids feel and see what keeps those big guys (and gals) warm! Simple winter science experiments help to shape kids’ minds!

HOW DO POLAR BEARS STAY WARM?

POLAR BEAR BLUBBER EXPERIMENT

To start this experiment, you need to ask your kids a few questions and get them thinking Ask your kids how they think polar bears stay warm when swimming around in the icy arctic water. What about them keeps them warm if they don’t wear clothes like us. Why don’t polar bears start to freeze in the water? Hint: there’s a thick layer of fat included! Brrr…

YOU WILL NEED THE FOLLOWING:

• Large container or bowl
• Lots of ice cubes
• Vegetable shortening
• Two plastic baggies (Ziplock Bags)
• Food Coloring (optional)

HOW TO SET UP YOUR BLUBBER EXPERIMENT

Before you begin, you may want to pair this lesson with the scientific method . You can use this with younger and older students with simple alterations that you can read about here .

Check below for another option to extend the learning or to lessen the mess!

STEP 1. First, you need to fill a large bowl with a good amount of ice and water. Add blue food coloring if desired.

STEP 2. Next, have your kid place his/her hand briefly in the water. It’s cold! There’s no need to linger in the water for safety.

STEP 3. Now, for the messy part, fill one plastic bag with shortening.

STEP 4. Have your kids place one hand in another bag and the other hand inside the blubber/fat-filled bag. Seal the tops with duct tape so water can’t get into the bags. Make sure to move the fat around, so it covers your hand completely.

NOTE: For a less messy version, see below!

Fun Fact: Polar Bears have 4″ thick layers of blubber to keep them toasty and store nutrients when there isn’t much food available.

STEP 5. Put the bag-covered hands in the freezing water. What do they notice? Does the water feel less cold or not?

ALTERNATE BLUBBER GLOVE

You can use two gloves with vegetable shortening for a less messy way. For a less messy version, go ahead and cover the outside of one bag with shortening, place that bag inside another bag, and seal everything tightly! This way, your hand stays clean inside the bag, and the shortening is sandwiched between two bags.

This also allows older students to test different kinds of insulators because of the sandwich method. What else can be used between the two layers of bags? This turns it into a true science experiment for kids in older grades. Make sure to write out a hypothesis before getting started. Read up on the scientific method here.

• Cotton Balls
• Packing Peanuts

If your kids haven’t already guessed what keeps polar bears warm, they will have a better idea once they make their own polar bear blubber glove! Blubber or a thick layer of fat keeps them warm. Polar bears are warm-blooded mammals like us! What the heck are they doing in the Arctic?

The blubber also stores nutrients needed for survival in this harsh climate. Learn more about the Arctic with Biomes of the World !

Of course, polar bears aren’t covered in cooking lard like Crisco, but they have their own kind of lard called blubber that helps out. The fat molecules in shortening work in a similar way to that of blubber! However, several special adaptations work together for maximum heat retention.

POLAR BEAR ADAPTATIONS

Polar bears use a combination of fur and blubber to keep warm. Thick fur and thick fat keep these warm-blooded mammals warm in temperatures up to -50 degrees! That’s pretty cold.

They have two types of fur. These bears have long, oily, hollow hairs that help keep water away but also help trap heat. The second type of fur consists of short insulating hairs. These hairs keep heat close to the skin.

Oh, and did you know these magnificent creatures with whitish fur, actually have black skin? This also helps to keep polar bears warm by absorbing the sun’s rays.

Some adaptations include small ears, so the ears don’t get too cold, “sticky” pads for gripping ice, and 42 very sharp teeth for catching their dinner!

POLAR BEAR By Candace Fleming ad Eric Rohman is an excellent addition to your winter theme library. It’s a fantastic mix of non-fiction storytelling filled with engaging text and plenty of good information! (Amazon Affiliate Link) You can also pair this with the research sheet I added at the end of the article.

ARE POLAR BEARS BUOYANT?

What’s under the black skin? The blubber, of course! The blubber is a thick layer below the skin that can be up to 4.5 inches thick! WOW! It now only helps them stay warm, but it also helps to keep them afloat. You can check out this simple buoyancy science experiment to learn more about that!

Blubber is stored up fat. It creates a cozy blanket for the polar bear when combined with different types of fur. It also has another useful property in that it can help provide life-sustaining energy when food sources are scarce. Blubber is important to the life of a polar bear!

ALSO CHECK OUT: How Do Whales Stay Warm?

WINTER SCIENCE ACTIVITY

The winter season is a terrific time to explore different science concepts and keep the excitement of science alive! Learning about animals and animal habitats is always a favorite of young kids. Use this science experiment with small groups in the classroom or with several kids at home!

So next time you want to share something fun with the kids or if you are exploring an arctic unit, break out this polar bear blubber experiment . We will share a few more fun facts with you about how polar bears keep warm, and this winter science activity is a great hands-on way for kids to feel it as well.

You may also want to make a polar bear puppet or a paper plate polar bear craft !

Read below the activity for a bit of science behind the chilly fun, and see how polar bears brave the elements in style. Oh, and make sure your kids know that polar bears and penguins don’t hang out together!

Learn what role polar bears have in the food chain .

FREE Printable Winter STEM Guide

More fun and easy winter science activities can be found here.

MORE FUN ICY ACTIVITIES

• Pingback: Winter Snow Storm In a Jar Science Activity for Kids
• Pingback: International Polar Bear Day – TeachersFirst Blog

Is there something we can use as a substitute for shortening? Because our schools is remote learning parents have to have any supplies we need available in their homes. I worry this may not be a pantry staple for all our families.

Hmm, butter is not going to be as good and may be more wasteful than picking up a tub of sshortening. Other than that maybe someone else has a good idea and can reply to you!

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Blubber Experiment

Blubber Experiment Video Clip

Teacher: Ariana, this is -- inside here is shortening. It's kind of like the blubber on a polar bear. If a polar bear is in ice water and if your hand's in here covered with the blubber, what do you predict will happen? What do you think will happen? Do you think your hand will be cold, or will it be warm?

Ariana: Warm.

Teacher: Warm? Let's try and see.

Girl: My hand was cold!

Teacher: Let's try and see. Ariana predicted that it would be warm, her hand will be warm. And make sure we cover it, because we want to make sure to protect it. Are you ready? Put your hand in there.

Girl: Is it cold?

Teacher: Let's put your other hand on the other side so you can feel without the blubber and with the blubber.

Girl: Cold?

Teacher: Which hand feels colder?

Ariana: This one.

Teacher: That hand. How come that hand feels colder?

Ariana: It doesn't have the blubber.

Teacher: You're right, it doesn't have the blubber. Right.

Girl: I got my hand sticky.

Teacher: If this was a polar bear right here, would he be warm? If that was a polar bear there without blubber, would he be warm?

Ariana: No.

Teacher: Then he couldn't survive in the cold, could he? This one could, right?

Ariana: Yes.

Teacher: Good job. So what you predicted is that your hand will be warm, and it was. Right?

Girl: I want to try again.

View this short video clip, which is part of the STEAM 15-Minute In-service Suite. Watch children and adults engage in a STEAM activity.

Resource Type: Video

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Last updated by Linda Kamp on December 10, 2022 • 3 Comments

Arctic Animal Adaptations: Blubber Science Experiment for Kids

In this post, I’ll show you a simple and fun blubber science experiment for kids as they learn about arctic animal adaptations. It’s easy to do in the classroom and demonstrates how arctic animals adapt to their environment.

Arctic Animal Adaptations

When teaching second graders about habitats and ecosystems, we spend a bit of time learning about adaptations; ways plants and animals adapt to their habitats to survive. This simple blubber experiment demonstrates how arctic animals stay warm in their icy water habitats.

Blubber is a thick layer of fat just under the skin of all marine mammals. It covers the entire bodies of animals like polar bears and penguins, whales, seals, and walruses. These mammals have adapted to live in cold waters. They survive because their blubber acts like insulation, trapping their body heat in.

The science behind it is pretty simple: The further the blood is from the skin’s surface, the less body heat is lost. Blubber creates a thick, protective layer, much like a blanket,  that provides a barrier between the animals’ blood and the surface of its skin.

Blubber Science Experiment for Kids

This activity is really a demonstration. It recreates the layer of fat that keeps an animal warm. During the demonstration, students compare the cold they can feel with and without wearing a “blubber glove”.

To get started, you will need a few inexpensive items that are readily available at any grocery store.

Blubber science experiment & lab sheet source: Habitat s Science Unit

Materials per small group of students:

• 3 gallon size Ziploc bags
• 1 can of shortening
• large cup of ice
• large bowl or bin
• metal spoon for scooping shortening
• student lab sheet

Prepping the glove:

I recommend preparing the blubber glove ahead of time using the following steps.

1. Fill a gallon zipper bag about 2/3 full of shortening.

2. Place your had inside a second, empty zipper bag and carefully push it into the bag with the shortening.

3. Holding the top edges of both bags, roll the top edges of both bags over about an inch.

4. Tape down the fold with duct tape to seal the shortening inside between the two bags forming a “glove”.

5. With your hand inside the glove, press and smooth the shortening to distribute it as evenly as possible around the center bag. The inner bag should be surrounded by shortening.

Demonstrating the Adaptation

Conduct the test by first having students describe on their lab sheet how the materials are used to replicate blubber. Once students finish, they start by placing their hand inside the bowl of ice water.

Next, students place their hand inside the blubber glove and into the ice water again.

Students compare what they feel and document it on their lab sheet. Lastly, students explain in writing on their lab sheets how the shortening insulated their hand from the cold temperature of the water comparing it to the way blubber keeps an arctic animal warm.

This blubber science experiment video by Steve Spangler science gives a visual on how to prep your glove.

CLICK HERE   for an in-depth, ready to use unit on Habitats and Ecosystems for second grade.

This comprehensive, 3-week unit includes a 7-lesson teaching PowerPoint, experiments, science journal, and much more.

Click here to see the entire 2nd grade series.

I hope you’ll try this simple blubber science experiment for kids as your students learn about habitats and arctic animal adaptations. Be sure to pin this post for later so you have it when you plan!

Find more high engagement science activities for kids in these posts:

Hands-On Properties of Matter Activities & Experiments

Habitats Activities for Second Grade Scientists

Milk & Cookies and the Scientific Method

Happy teaching!

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May 22 at 10:25 pm

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Arctic Animals Blubber Experiment

• arctic animals , STEM , printable

Looking for a fun way to teach your students how animals stay warm in such cold temperatures? Try this hands-on STEM arctic animals blubber experiment. Only a few ingredients are needed for this easy activity that your preschool, kindergarten, or first-grade class will love! Then, make sure to grab the FREE printable at the bottom for science and writing extensions.

Check Out These Related Articles:

• Arctic Animals Virtual Field Trip
• Videos about Arctic Animals
• All the STEM Experiments

This Activity Goes Well With This Simply Kinder Resource:

So how DO arctic animals stay warm?

A simple way to explain blubber to students is to say that it’s the fat inside the animals’ bodies, the layer right under the skin. Polar bears, whales, penguins, seals, walruses, and more all have this extra layer, which traps their body heat inside. It’s kind of like covering up with a blanket to stay warm. Here is a great video that’s kindergarten appropriate you can start with:

Want to introduce the topic with even more information on arctic animals? Be sure to grab these Research Reports now! Start here and then move on to science experiments to really seal in the learning!

Blubber Experiment:

Now that you’ve explained it, it’s time to let your students experience this concept for themselves with the arctic animal’s blubber experiment! Crisco shortening is an excellent fat that works as an insulator. When your student’s hand is covered with the insulator, they can’t feel the cold water! Keep reading for everything you need and then grab the freebie at the bottom.

• Crisco (or any store brand shortening)
• Three-gallon-sized baggies
• Large bowl of ice water
• Spatula or spoon to scoop the Crisco

Steps for the Arctic Animals Blubber Experiment:

You can choose to do this whole group and have one student at a time come up to your desk to try, split it into small groups with several sets, or have each student have their own individual baggie of Crisco. Teacher tip: to contain the mess, avoid spilled water, and keep the cost low; we would recommend passing out the free printable first so students can be working on it while you call them up individually.

• Fill a bowl with cold water, and add enough ice to keep it chilly.
• Scoop Crisco into a gallon-sized baggie to fill it about halfway.
• Have the student place an empty baggie on their hand and submerge that hand into the icy water. Teacher: “Is your hand cold?” Student: “YES!”
• Then place the baggie with Crisco over top of the empty baggie. Spread the shortening around so that it covers the whole outside of a student’s hand.
• Invite them to submerge their hand in the icy water again. Teacher: “How does your hand feel now? Now let’s go write down our observations!”

Spoiler alert: their hand won’t feel cold! WHAT?!? Prepare to watch their amazement! The shortening works just like the blubber of an arctic animal. So cool!

Free Printable

We’ve created the BEST printables for you to accompany this activity. Differentiated options in a science worksheet allow the students to think about a question, make a prediction, and then figure out the conclusion. You can choose to have them write their answers, or circle them.

If you need an extension or work for early finishers, the writing prompt with space for a picture is a great way to continue the thoughts on arctic animals. Best news? THEY’RE FREE!!!

Grab It Now:

Enter your information below and the Simply Kinder Freebie Fairy will send that right over to your inbox. Already a subscriber? No worries! You can still unlock it here, too. Or if you’re a member of Simply Kinder +, you can download it instantly here !

We would LOVE to see your experiment results. Make sure you tag #simplykinder if you share any photos on  Instagram . Or tell us in a post on our  Simply Kinder Teacher Group  Facebook Page.

This post was written by Johanna, an experienced early elementary teacher who loves learning about new teaching ideas for preschool, kindergarten, and first grade!

With Unmatched Printables & Engaging Classroom Ideas, Simply Kinder is your TRUSTED TEAMMATE.

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Science Fun

Polar Bear Blubber

• 2 gallon sized zipper lock bags
• 4 tablespoons of shortening
• ice (crushed/cubed)
• 1 gallon bucket

Instructions:

• Fill bucket halfway with the cold water.
• Add enough ice to make water chilly.
• Add 4 tablespoons of shortening in one of the ziploc bags.
• Put empty ziploc bag inside of the ziploc bag with shortening in it. Put your hand in the empty ziploc bag, this way your hand stays clean during the experiment.
• With other hand spread shortening all over the outside of the inner bag.
• Now fold the top of the inner ziploc bag over the top of the outer ziploc bag. Now the shortening is stuck between the two bags. To make sure the shortening stays secure duct tape this fold.
• Finally, stick your hand in to the into your new blubber glove and dip it into the bucket of ice cold water.

VIDEO COMING SOON BUT YOU CAN STILL ENJOY THESE AWESOME EXPERIMENTS!

How it Works:

Shortening is a fat just like blubber is, and fat acts like an insulator. An insulator stops energy from flowing the way that it usually does, from things that are hot to things that are not. So the body heat that polar bears create is trying to flow from the body to the outside chilly temperatures, but because of the flubber, it stops it from escaping.

Extra Experiments:

• Try to use other types of insulators such as butter, cotton balls, or sand. Which one works as the best insulator?
• Try using one hand in the glove and the other had in the water. Make observations using touch describe how it feels.
• Try using room temperature water or water that is 100 degrees Fahrenheit (Be careful with hot water when you are testing it). Does the glove work in these situations?

EXPLORE TONS OF FUN AND EASY SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS!

SUBSCRIBE AND NEVER MISS A NEW SCIENCE FUN VIDEO!

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Kid World Citizen

Activities that help young minds go global

The Classic Blubber Experiment, to Learn about Arctic Adaptations

February 11, 2013 by kidworldcitizen 4 Comments

The Classic Blubber Experiment

The scientific method:.

• Ask a Question
• Do Background Research
• Come up with a Hypothesis (Educated Guess!)
• Test your Hypothesis in an Experiment
• Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion
• Communicate Your Results (from ScienceBuddies )

1. Ask a Question:

How can animals survive in the extreme temperature of the Arctic and Antarctica regions?

2. Do Background Research:

There are many animals that spend time in the frigid waters of the Arctic and around Antarctica that have a special layer of fat called “ blubber :” whales (narwhals, belugas, orcas etc), seals, sea lions, elephant seals, walruses, polar bears, and even baby penguins. The blubber is right under the skin, and acts as an insulator . This means it holds in the warm-blooded mammals’ body heat, even when they are swimming in icy cold water as low as 40°.  Read about blubber and more in the National Park Service’s excellent article that details specific arctic animals and their adaptations to the extreme weather.

Blubber is a layer of fat. If we try to mimic the layer of fat that arctic animals have, could we protect our hands from freezing snow?

3. Come Up with a Hypothesis:

We think that our homemade blubber ( Crisco shortening !) will protect us from the cold temperatures from the snow. We think we can keep our bare hand on the snow for 1 minute and our hand protected in the blubber for 2 minutes in the snow.

4. T est your Hypothesis

To see if blubber would work for us, and insulate our heat, we replicated the classic blubber experiment. We scooped a bunch of Crisco into a baggie, and then put another baggie inside for our hand (to “protect” your hand from the greasiness- though feel free to just put your hand right in the shortening!). Smoosh and spread around the Crisco so you have a nice layer of blubber- fat- surrounding your hand. I have seen it where people use ziploc bags, and connect them so that no Crisco escapes- and I would recommend that if you are doing it with 20 wiggly preschoolers:).

Place your 2 hands (one protected, the other bare) on snow, or in a bucket of ice. Using a timer, see how long each hand can last in the cold temperatures. Here’s our chart:

5. Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion

All of the kids could have stayed outside longer with the blubber mitten, if only we were dressed for the cold:). So in conclusion: blubber works!!! Of course, the blubber only protects the part of your body it is touching! My kids said “ it’s perfectly warm! ” “ I can’t feel the snow at all, ” “ We should make snowsuits out of this! ”

6. Communicate Your Results

We reported back to our family that blubber really helps animals stay warm when the weather is freezing cold. Everyone wanted blubber mittens when we played in the snow that week:).

Extension Activity:

Here is an excellent activity from National Geographic on Arctic Adaptations that includes a video and worksheet. It suggests that it’s appropriate for grades 6-8, but younger children can most definitely do the activity with their parents.

If you’ve got cold weather this time of year, make your own blubber mitten and see if you can break our records!:)

By Category

February 14, 2013 at 1:24 am

I love this Becky! I’m pinning it to try in our homeschool. Too bad we’ll have to use a bucket of ice instead of real snow – It looks like you guys had a lot of fun!

February 15, 2013 at 10:09 am

Love this – what a fab idea to make a difficult concept ‘real’ for young children. Thanks so much for adding this to the outdoor play party this week.

February 17, 2013 at 6:18 am

Thanks! Great science experiment to take advantage of the snow if you have it! Otherwise use a big bucket of ice!:)

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Blubber Glove

Learn about insulation and how seals and whales are protected from freezing water.

Print this Experiment

The animals of the Arctic and Antarctic circles spend their lives surviving subfreezing air temperatures and frigid water. Their secret is blubber, a thick layer of body fat that comprises up to 50% of some marine mammals. Is there any way for humans to replicate this cold-weather adaptation? With the Blubber Glove experiment, you’ll test a blubber substitute on a small scale and see what it’s like to take a dip in cold water without turning into a human popsicle.

Experiment Videos

Here's What You'll Need

Two large zipper lock bags (your hand should be able to fit inside), ice (crushed/cubes), let's try it.

Fill a one or two gallon bucket half full with cold water. Add a bunch (scientific measurement) of ice. This ice bath will be a great representation of the near-freezing waters of the polar regions.

Since you aren’t a seal, walrus, or whale, you don’t have blubber. You need to find a suitable blubber substitute. Fill a zipper lock bag (make sure the bag is big enough to fit your whole hand inside) with three or four heaping spoonfuls of shortening.

Put your hand inside a second zipper lock bag of the same size as the first and push it into the shortening-filled zipper lock bag.

Spread the shortening around the zipper lock bags until the inner bag is mostly covered.

Fold the top of the inner zipper lock bag over the top of the outer zipper lock bag, keeping the shortening between the two. Duct tape the fold in place so that the shortening does not come out of the bag.

Now you have a blubber-filled glove, ready to test the frigid waters of the bucket you filled earlier. Stick your hand in the glove and dip your blubber-gloved hand into the icy water. Crazy… your hand doesn’t get cold in the water!

How Does It Work

Uses for shortening: making cookies, frying chicken, melting chocolate, insulating a Blubber Glove?!? How does a cooking ingredient double as a perfect insulator? Easy. Shortening is a fat, just like blubber, and is great for thermoregulation. That means fat keeps heat in and cold out. Fats work well as insulators because of their high density and low thermal conductivity relative to water. Despite being submerged in incredibly cold water, fats can maintain a constant temperature. Blubber, in particular, requires very little blood supply, allowing more blood to be circulated to skin surfaces that are more directly exposed to the frigid temperatures. Using the Blubber Glove, your hand isn’t directly exposed to the water, so the fat takes the full brunt of the cold, just as blubber insulates animals in Arctic and Antarctic waters.

Take It Further

Try using other materials following the same steps as before to find out which insulator you think works best.

Some possible insulators to try might include:

• Cotton balls
• Starch peanuts
• Dirt or sand …pretty much anything that you can fit between two zipper lock bags.

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Explore Blubber

How do whales, polar bears or even penguins stay warm? The ocean can be a chilly place, but there are many mammals who call it home! How do some of our favorite mammals live in such cold conditions? It has to do with something called blubber. While you and I don’t need much of it to survive, creatures like polar bears, whales, seals, and penguins definitely do! Test out how blubber works as an insulator.

What you need:

• 4 ziplock sandwich bags
• Thermometer (optional)
• Vegetable shortening

What you do:

1. Fill a large bowl with ice and cold water.

2. Turn a ziplock bag inside out, place the bag on your hand, and use a spatula to cover both sides of the bag in vegetable shortening.

3. Place the shortening coated bag inside another bag and seal.

4. Turn a clean bag inside out, place it inside another clean bag and seal.

5. Place one hand in each bag and place your hands in the ice water

6. Which hand gets cold faster? Observe how your hands feel and then use a thermometer to check the actual temperature inside each bag.

What should happen?

The fat molecules in the shortening act like an insulator, just like the blubber. Insulation slows the transfer of heat, keeping the whale warm in very low temperatures. Other animals that use this feature are the polar bear, penguin, and seal! To make this into a true science experiment, let’s test some variables!

First, you want to make sure to test the temperature with a plain bag on your hand. That will be your control!

What are other kinds of insulators could you test?  Choose a few other materials to observe and record the temperature within the bags.

What variables will you keep the same?  Make sure to test the temperature within each bag at the same length of time after being covered in ice.  What about the amount of ice?  Make sure to have the same amount of ice in each bowl.

source: https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/blubber-experiment/

More Experiments

Northern Virginia Science Center Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that operates the Children's Science Center Lab at Fair Oaks Mall and STEM programs traveling to schools and other community venues across the region. The Foundation is also developing the Northern Virginia Science Center in Dulles, VA, a world-class, interactive regional science center for families, students and learners of all ages made possible through a pivotal public-private partnership. Learn more about our mission today at childsci.org and our vision for the future at novasci.org.

Plan Your Experience

Events & programs, get involved.

Blubber Experiment

Brrr! Your preschooler will love diving into this fun science experiment with you to learn how animals in cold places stay warm without a jacket! This experiment is done with common household items.

It’s crazy to think that mammals such as whales, seals, and others live in such cold conditions such as the Arctic and Antarctica and don’t freeze! But how? BLUBBER! This is such a fun conversation starter with your preschooler. This is an experiment so take some time to discuss how they think these animals stay warm and what exactly blubber is before you dive in.

Pre-experiment Questions

• How do animals survive in cold weather areas?
• What do you do when it’s cold outside? What do you wear?
• What happens if you go outside when it is cold without a coat?
• Where do you think blubber is located on an animal?
• What is blubber made out of?

You can also watch this quick video before you do the experiment to further explain and understand how blubber works.

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My Pre-K Box is an educational subscription box for preschoolers filled to the brim with learning activities for math and literacy skills! Each box is based on a different theme and is focused on play-based learning. Your kids will love exploring new activities each month while practicing kindergarten readiness skills!

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The Blubber Experiment

• bowl of ice water
• 4 quart sized baggies
• crisco 
• spatula 

Step 1 Place a plastic bag over one of your preschooler’s hands. Ask them to place their hand in the ice water.

Step 2 Ask your child to describe what they feel.

Step 3 Place some Crisco using the spatula on the outside of the bag.

Step 4 Place that bag inside of a clean bag so when you submerge it into the water, the Crisco doesn’t come off.

Step 5 Have your child place their hand in the water again. Ask them what they feel this time and then ask them to let you know when it starts to get cold.

Step 6 Ask your child what might happen if you add more Crisco? Try the experiment again with more Crisco. 

You can repeat this experiment as many times as you’d like, taking time to predict what will happen if you add more crisco to the baggie.

Reflection Questions

• Do you think animals with more blubber stay warmer longer than those that don’t?
• Why might a whale need more blubber than a seal?
• How does blubber work?

Let's Connect!

We absolutely LOVE seeing your preschoolers learning through play! Be sure to share your photos and videos of your Blubber Experiment and share them with us on Facebook and Instagram !

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• What Is Cinema?

Nickel Boys Is a Bold Experiment in Perspective

The new film Nickel Boys , opening the New York Film Festival on September 27 after a debut in Telluride, is an adaptation of Colson Whitehead ’s Pultizer-winning novel, a fictionalized account of a real Florida-panhandle reform school whose staff, for decades, abused and in some cases murdered its charges—particularly the Black boys sent there ostensibly for rehabilitation. It is sorrowful, damning subject matter, of the sort that might merit sprawling cinematic treatment.

But director RaMell Ross , a photographer turned documentarian now making his scripted feature debut, takes an entirely different tack in approaching this hefty material. His film is shot mostly in first-person perspective; as an unlucky teenager, Elwood ( Ethan Herisse ), finds himself dragged into this swampy hell, we watch what unfolds through his eyes. Peripheral vision is limited. Ross tunnels into the heart of a helpless tragedy in narrow framing; we understand the forces bearing down on Elwood, but we rarely see them in full.

Nickel Boys is the most formally inventive of its fall-movie-season brethren, a bold swing of a literary adaptation that mostly earns its gimmick. Though really, gimmick is a cheap word for what Ross is doing. The nervy technical conceit of Nickel Boys has an instructive purpose; it is not mere “look what I can do” grandstanding. Ross has designed his film as a plunge into the visceral realities of racism in America, with no outside framing offering even a hint of escape.

It’s a tough film, rigorous in its intent. But Ross does allow for grace, comfort, quotidian beauty. The opening stretches of his film show us Elwood’s pre-incarceration life in all its precarious potential: he’s a promising student, doted on by the grandmother who raised him ( Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor ), in puppy-dog love with a girlfriend, grasping in happy amazement at a future rushing toward him. It’s the mid-1960s in Florida and Elwood is a young Black man, so he is certainly faced with daunting obstacles. But he has, out of both passion and principled intellect, decided to stand on the front lines of the struggle he shares with so many. This is an engaged, determined kid, a portrait crafted in flickering mosaic.

Even if Elwood were on a less noble track, though, that would in no way justify the harsh punishment he receives when he unwittingly hitches a ride in a stolen car, is picked up by the police, and is remanded to Nickel Academy. Ross is careful to insist that no child, of any background, deserves such routine dehumanization. But yes: we are meant to particularly mourn for the future stolen from Elwood, who followed all the rules and was nonetheless relegated to brutal subjugation. Nickel Boys is a stark reflection of our country’s gruesome record; even after emancipation, Black men routinely found themselves dragged into a kind of slavery different only in name.

Ross has made a busy collage of a film, jumping between evocative image and plot with a swiftness that sometimes leaves the audience on the outside. We are not really left to sit in any one particular experience—either of joy or confinement—long enough for it to fully seep in. Ross’s stuttering poetry is more considered than simply stylish, but is not quite as emotionally enveloping as more traditional narrative might be.

Ross does not hew strictly to his central device. The film breaks away from Elwood’s gaze on occasion to show us that of his fellow prisoner Turner (the remarkable Brandon Wilson ), a more rebellious free-spirit than his quiet and cowed friend. Stitched together, Elwood and Turner’s perspectives create an intimate picture of ragged and wary optimism. Deliverance must be possible, and yet it cannot be assumed.

The details of Elwood and Turner’s hardship are sometimes directly confronted. More often than not, though, they are only alluded to. Ross insightfully, shrewdly renders how such a nightmare might be processed, especially by someone so young and naive as Elwood. The danger is close by, but life also must plug along. It is only in hindsight, maybe, that the scope of what happened—to Elwood, to everyone—can truly be grasped. Ross makes room for that recollection, drifting into the future (shooting from behind actor Daveed Diggs ’s head) to show what adulthood looks like for men struggling to reclaim the humanity robbed of them as teenagers.

Nickel Boys closes in walloping fashion: a final series of sensory flashes serves as heartbreaking coda. One wonders how much more might be felt had Ross laid things out more linearly, had he taken the time to truly delve into particular moments, to flesh out the dimensions of Elwood and Turner’s daily life.

Still, Ross’s elegant, thorough re-creation of time and place is plenty effective as is. And anyway, is witnessing explicit trauma really any more valuable than what Ross chooses to show us? Nickel Boys is perhaps a rebuke to the idea that violence must be plainly stated in order to be understood. Here, it is palpably present in every negative space. What Ross instead affords these young men is the dignity of a point of view, drawing the viewer into the bracing immediacy of mind and body. Nickel Boys is an arduous—and also humane and lovely—trek in another’s shoes. It’s an immersion into two lives that evokes the histories of countless more.

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Richard Lawson

Chief critic.