Sunprints
Supplies:
Sunprint specially-treated photo paper,
Ordered from www.lawrencehallofscience.org
Acrylic sheet that comes with the Sunprint paper | leaves, flowers,
items from nature
Large piece of cardboard | Large tub with water | Newspaper
Here's a fun activity to show kids about the power of
sunlight. Sunlight is not only crucial for plants to live and grow, but it
helps make a really neat garden art project, too!
You will need to pre-order photo-sensitive Sunprint
paper, which has been specially treated with chemicals so that it will do the
magic trick that the kids will see when they do this experiment.
First, let them gather pretty things from nature,
enough to make a collage. Tell them what a collage is - a collection of objects
that, grouped together, make a pretty scene. They might get several of the same
thing, like these dandelions, or maybe one big thing, like a big leaf, or maybe
all different kinds of leaves and grasses with different shapes. It works best
to collect things that lay pretty flat, so advise students to avoid things that
are round.
Now, working inside, one student at a time, place a
piece of Sunprint paper on the cardboard, with the blue side up, and arrange the
items from nature into a collage on the paper. When you are happy with how it
looks, carefully smash the clear acrylic sheet on top of the collage so that
the items won't shift or blow away.
Now go outside to a very sunny spot, with no shade at
all, and set your Sunprint collage down on the ground. Watch your watch -
expose your collage to the sun until the paper turns almost white. It should
take anywhere from 1 to 5 minutes, depending on how strong the sunlight is.
Don't go longer than 5 minutes, or you might over-expose your picture.
Now quickly go back inside, dump off the collage
items and the cardboard and acrylic sheet, and place the Sunprint paper only
into a tub of clear water. Leave it in there for about one minute.
Take it out and lay it flat on newspaper until it is
dry. How do you like your Sunprint?
