With Valentine’s Day looming, we hear an awful lot about hearts in a figurative sense. In this month’s Let’s Discover!, we’ll listen to our hearts in the literal sense — by making stethoscopes.

 

Materials:

All you will need are a balloon, a pop bottle (2L or smaller) and some scissors.

 

Instructions

1. Cut the bottom off of your bottle around where it stops getting wider and recycle for disposal. Keep the funnel-shaped top.

2. Cut the mouth off of your balloon.

3. Stretch the remaining balloon over the wide opening of your funnel.

 

Helpful Tips

Two things are essential: making sure the balloon will stretch tightly over the bottle (trim them both to fit one another) and making sure your bottle’s edge is smooth, so as not to tear the balloon (fine sandpaper or a nail file will smooth out rough edges).

 

Use Your Stethoscope

By putting your ear to the small opening of the pop bottle (now the only opening of your stethoscope) and placing the balloon end on someone’s chest, you will be able to hear their heartbeat. The quiet noises your heart makes inside of your chest are picked up all along the balloon, which transfers these vibrations into the air all along its surface, which then focus in toward your ear at the small opening. Of course, you can also hear a heartbeat directly — simply place your ear on the left side of someone’s chest and listen closely.

 

For a video tutorial of this activity check out the Discovery Centre’s you tube channel here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=288tJxAEq94&feature=youtu.be

 

 

 

Hey HRM Parents, the Discovery Centre is hosting an adult-themed Valentine’s Day event, Discover Love. Geared specifically to adults 19 years of age and older, this love-laced evening will be held 6PM-9PM, Friday, February 14, at the Discovery Centre. Enjoy an evening under the planetarium stars, learn all things wine from glass to grape with a tasting and trivia presented by Avondale wine. Hear from special guest-speakers, sample decadent Choco Café chocolates and indulge in ice cream you make yourself with liquid nitrogen. With a chance to win several door prizes including a Savour Food & Wine package from the Delta Halifax, Discover Love, is sure to be a fun, interactive and unique way to spend your Valentine’s Day. Tickets are $10. To purchase contact Erica Hamm at: ehamm@discoverycentre.ns.ca, or call: 902.492.4422 ext 221.