“The scientific theory I like best is that the rings of Saturn are composed entirely of lost airline luggage.” Mark Russell
Science is the career of having fun while making discoveries that not only change lives, but also change the way we think in life. Children are great explorers of the world and what better opportunity to explore that world, than through science. Some of the greatest discoveries have come from the smallest of experiments. Grow your child’s imagination and you could be raising the next Einstein or Newton! As Benjamin Franklin said, "An investment in knowledge pays the best interest."
Who you gonna' call? Ghostbusters! I found myself humming this song the whole time we did this experiment. Please tell me that you remember that movie!
For a little Science on a Tuesday Teaching, we decided to make some slime. Since I had that theme song running through my mind, I we decided to make our slime green. I we wanted it to look just like the slime that was put on Bill Murray's character, Venkman.
Supplies:
1 tsp Borax
1 cup warm water
4 oz Elmer's White School Glue
1/2 cup water
Food Coloring (we used neon green gel)
Put one cup of warm water in a bowl, add the Borax and stir until dissolved. Set this aside.
Pour the glue into a bowl. Add the 1/2 cup water and stir.
Add the food coloring and mix until you get the desired color.
Once that is mixed well, pour in the Borax/water mix. It will start to set up immediately. Use a spoon to stir it around and then get your hands in there.
At first it will be very wet and slimy but as you mix with your hands, it will dry out some and become more of a solid.
We loved playing with this and did numerous activities with it. The slime will take on any shape, so we used our sand molds, bowls and other things to put the slime into. Next, we would dump it out on the table and see how long it would take to flatten back out.
We also wanted to see how far across the table we could stretch it, without the slime ripping.
Have fun. We loved ours and have made numerous batches since then.
This is a great experiment. We have made chocolate milk and strawberry milk, but this time I decided to make plastic milk.
Supplies:
One cup of Milk
4 teaspoons of white vinegar
Glass measuring cup
spoon
strainer
Pour the milk into the glass measring cup and heat it in the microwave. You want the milk hot, but not boiling. We warmed it for two minutes in our microwave. Once it is hot, add the 4 teaspoons of vinegar and stir well for one minute.
Pour the milk through the strainer and into the sink. You will now see blobs of milk in your strainer. Let the blobs cool off and then rinse them with water while pressing them together.
I will tell you that I found it gross while stirring and straining but I love the texture of the completed project. Prior to that, it just reminded me of curdled milk.
Did you make plastic? Not exactly, since plastic is a bit more complicated. We made Casein. This is a by product of the protein in the milk coming in contact with the acid in the vinegar. The protein will not mix with the acid so instead, it forms blobs.
I recently read an interesting article from Science Daily. It discussed whether infants trust and imitate everyone or whether they learn not to trust people that are "unreliable". The general basis of the experiment is that they tested children in the age group of 13-16 months. They then paired the infants up with an adult. All of the adults opened a box and acted surprised and excited with the contents. The difference is that some boxes contained toys, others contained just air. The babies then were allowed to open the boxes.
When the testers then tried to turn on light switches with their foreheads, a much smaller (about half) percentage of the "tricked" infants tried to imitate the behaviour.
This is an interesting experiment but I wish the testers had gone further. I know my son at that age would imitate us, regardless of tricking him or not. Did they test the infants with adults that they were familiar with? Will an infant that is with a warm and loving person over a standard tester still use these instincts? I think there are several factors to take into consideration. I have no doubt that infants can learn more than science realizes and that they have an instinct for trust. I just wish the reporters have given us more real clues.
Parents and teacher - what are your thoughts on infants and trust?
I was recently looking around on the Internet and was impressed to find so many activities discussing landforms.
It was amazing to see how detailed and beautiful some of the activities were. When I was in school, you just looked at a topographical map, but that is no longer the case.
Look at some of these great projects.
The Kennedy Korral Blog made these amazing edible landforms. Looks like Jello and a cake?
Here is another edible landforms project from Moments with Maisie. This is amazing! It has brownies, marshmallow supreme mountains, chocolate chip cookie island and so much more!
I found this salt dough landforms project on Secular Homeschool and think it is a great alternative if you want to keep your work around a bit longer.
Take your studies to the next level! Make learning fun and engaging and kids will absorb more knowledge!
Cold weather is here and as much as I already miss summer, I love snowmen. Real snowmen or fake snowmen, I love them all.
Enjoy some of the great snowmen that I found online.
First, we have The Frugal Teacher with a great expiriment documenting the lifecycle of a snowman! I think this is an amazing idea and as soon as I can clear out some space in my freezer, we are doing this.
The Idea Room made the cutest snowmen out of powdered sugar donuts. This would be adorable on the table when the kids wake up. Imagine how excited they would be, especially if school was called for a snow day too!
This is Olympia, the world's tallest snow woman. She was built in Bethel, Maine, she is 122 feet and 1 inch tall and was built in 2008. When they built Olympia, they beat thier own record of tallest snowman. They had built one in 1999 that had previously held the record. Olymia's eyelashes are skis, her lipstick mouth is made of tires that are painted red, her arms are actual trees and her scarf is 100 feet long.
Do you know what these are? They are bread ties that have been painted to look like snowmen. Get all the details at Crafts by Amanda.
Now, I love a big snowman, but there is nothing cuter than a snowman in miniature. These are from Martha Stewart and are 8 - 12 inches tall. We usually make mini snowmen to sit on the garden wall in our yard. They look cute all lined up and each scarf is a different color.
Do your kids enjoy science? Would they be interested in helping out the Entomologists at Cornell? This is your opportunity to contribute to a real scientific study and teach your children the impact that all people have. In the past 20 years the number of native species ladybugs has been declining rapidly and the non-native species are becoming more abundant. The rare species are the two spotted and the nine spotted ladybugs. The shift has occurred as people have imported ladybugs for bio control. There was such demand for ladybugs that they have now shifted in nature and the Asian species are more common that the natives. The researchers at Cornell are working hard to figure out the drastic change and what must be done to get the ladybug system back into balance. Please help out by going to their website. The Lost Ladybug Project is an important bit of research being done shoulder to shoulder with children, parents, and scientists.
Ladybug History
Some believe that ladybugs were given their name in Europe after the red robes of the Virgin Mary ("Our Lady") or because farmers believed they were sent to them by "Our Lady" to save the farms from the "ravages of pests". They were originally called "The Beetles of Our Lady" and that was eventually shortened to "Lady Beetles", which they are commonly called now.
Ladybugs are predators and a gardener's best friend. They feast on primarily aphids. Even in the larval stage they will consume aphids and other soft body insects such as mites and white flies. All of the insects consumed by ladybugs are considered pests in gardens. If you find ladybugs in your garden you can rest assured that they are eating these pests and you will not have to resort to chemical use.
Ladybugs hibernate in the winter and they prefer to hibernate in groups. They will frequently get under the siding of a home and sleep away the winter. During hibernation they will consume their own body fat to survive. Have you ever found a ladybug in your home? Often times they will be hibernating the warmth inside your home will awaken them, They then travel towards the heat and right into your home. Sadly many of the ladybugs that wake up mid-winter and go into our homes will not survive. Ladybugs need humidity to survive and to stay hydrated. Most homes are very dry in the winter causing the ladybugs to dehydrate.
When ladybugs are frightened they will leave a small yellow substance in their wake. This is not a waste matter, instead it is their blood. When they are frightened they will pull in their legs and pretend to be dead. To keep up the look of death they will release a bit of blood from their legs by way of "reflex bleeding". Many of their predators find it to be foul smelling and will not consume them.
The Lost Ladybug Project is a great way to get involved in science and the website is a wealth of information. There is a teaching section with lesson plans,identification tools, and so much more. Get involved in Science!
This past Friday we celebrated Neil Armstrong's birthday and my son had so much fun that we decided to learn some more about space.
We made a constellation book to start. I let him make the constellation in any shape that he wanted and then we connected the dots. For this project you will need black construction paper, star stickers and white crayon.
Fold the paper in half, fourths and eighths and cut apart the pieces. Now let them put on the stickers in any design they want.
We also spent that evening outside looking at stars. When we came inside, we talked about the Big Dipper, Little Dipper and the North Star. I forgot to take pictures, be we arranged glow in the dark stars on his walls in the patterns.
Next we worked on the planets in our solar system. We started by doing a couple pages of water color paintings in a variety of colors. Once they had dried, we drew 8 lines with chalk on a piece of black construction paper. We reviewed the planets and the order in which the were from the sun. We talked about how big and hot the sun is and that the planets in order are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. I let me son pick out the colors of each planet and I cut out the shapes from our watercolor paintings. We then glued each planet on a chalk line on our paper. It made me sad to not include Pluto as a planet but no need to confuse him.
The last project that we did was discuss the phases of the moon. We used Oreo cookies as the moon and layed them out on a paper plate. A regular cookie went on the top as the New Moon. Two cookies were pulled apart and half of the cream filling removed from each one. These were each put on teh sides to signify the first quarter moon and the last quarter moon. The full moon was represented by a cookie split in half and the cream filling left intact.
Have fun and get out and explore! Since we had so much fun with this activity, it may continue into another week.
August the 5th is Neil Armstrong's birthday, so at my house that means: "Space Party"! This year's party is a little bittersweet. After 30 years and 135 shuttle launches, the Space Program has been shut down. The shuttles are going to be on display in Virginia, New York, California and Florida. It would make a great trip for kids to see the actual shuttles that NASA has used for the last 30 years!
Shutting down NASA's Space Shuttle Program does not mean the end of astronauts or space exploration, it will just be different. If you grew up watching the space shuttles though, it is a sad occurrence.
Back to Neil Armstrong's birthday though! We celebrated it last year also and you can see those activities here. Last year's post also has some facts about that first walk upon the surface of the moon.
This year we did new activities. The first one is "Permanent Footprints". If you read last year's post then you know that the footprints that Neil Armstrong made on the moon in 1969 are still there! There is no wind or rain on the moon so footprints last forever. We talked about how to make permanent footprints on Earth and then we tried a few different activities to see what would last forever.
1) Step in water and make footprints. It is very hot here so these footprints lasted less than 5 minutes.
2) Paint our footprints. Since my son knows that I still have all of the hand and foot print activities that he has ever made (they are too adorable to get rid of), he knows that these are permanent to our family. We looked back at some of his footprint crafts and measured his current foot against them to see the growth.
3) We took Model Magic clay and made footprints. He loved doing this and we discussed how we had previously used it to make fossils.
Next we made a Rocket. This was lots of fun! We used a sheet of construction paper to make our rocket.
Fold the paper in half long ways and cut it into two even pieces.
With one piece of paper, trace a circle on one end and fins on the other end (I ended up not using the fins I had cut because they were to big for my rocket.).
Take the top of of your film canister and set the top aside. Roll the paper around your film canister, leaving the open end at the bottom edge of the paper. Tape the paper around the canister to stay.
Now tape your fins on, if you choose to use them.
Now fold your circle into a cone and tape it on.
Congrats, you just built a rocket! Now turn the rocket over and fill the canister about halfway with water. Cut an antacid tablet (like alka-seltzer) in half and drop a half in the water. Put on the top quickly and set on a steady surface. Look for it to fly!
Since I could not get a good picture of the explosion, we took a video instead!
You may have a popcorn popper in your house but do you have a marshmallow popper? I can not help you build the popcorn popper but I can assist with the marshmallow popper. This idea comes from Real Simple Magazine and equals cheap and fun entertainment!
Supplies:
Disposable cup
Scissors
Balloon
Rubber Band
Marshmallows
Use your scissors to cut the bottom off of your cup. I then put a strip of tape around that bottom as it was a but jagged and I did not want to risk my son getting hurt or the balloon getting ripped.
Stretch your balloon a few times and then tie up the end. You are not going to be blowing the balloon up. Once you have tied it off, cut the balloon about two inches below your knot. You are only keeping the knotted end.
Stretch the knotted end over the bottom of your cup, covering the tape. Now use your rubber band around stretch it around the balloon edges to keep it on the cup.
To use the popper you will put a marshmallow inside the cup and then pull down on the balloon knot.
Once you get accurate with your marshmallow popper, make some targets on the ground and make a game out of it. We used rope to lay out circles and assigned a point value to each circle.
This past Friday (July 15th) was Gummy Worm Day! My son's teacher was so kind and invited me into the classroom to do a special segment on worms/gummy worms. I had so much fun and I think the kids enjoyed it too. I am sorry I do not have action pictures of the kids participating in the activities but I did not want to put a bunch of kid's pictures on here with out parent approval first.
First, I purchased 2 inch petri dishes for the whole class. Once I received them, I washed and sanitized them well to make them food ready. I then laid a small gummy worm in each dish and made blueberry gelatin to surround them. Each child then had a gummy worm snack to eat. They really enjoyed this, as how often does anyone eat anything out of a petri dish?
Next we played a game of "Pick Up Worms". I cut up several pipe cleaners/chenille stems into a variety of sizes and we used tweezers or ice tongs to pick them up. This was much like the game my son and I played picking up snakes, I just renamed it. To make it a bit more of a challenge, I put the "worms" in a container filled partway with colored rice.
We also played a rousing game of "Worm in the Apple". All of the kids stood in a line with their legs spread. They were the apples. The child at the end of the line was the worm and had to crawl and wiggle through every one's legs. When he reached the front, he also became an apple and the new last person was the worm until everyone had a chance to be the worm.
I also made up a little sheet for everyone to measure their worm. For this, they used a gummy worm. I taped a seamstress' measuring tape down to the table and we measured each worm a couple of ways. First we just laid the worm down and measured it. Next, we stretched it out as far as we could without breaking it and measured it. This turned into a discussion of elasticity and how even though we stretched the worms, they went right back to their original shape. In addition to measuring the worms in inches, we also had a pre-made measuring stick of "unifix cubes". The kids wrote each measurement on their sheet and at the bottom of the sheet was a box to draw a picture of their worms.
The last activity was probably one of the favorites. I actually bought a container of night crawlers. I put a few in larger petri dishes and gave the children magnifying glasses to investigate them. We wrote down all of the words that they used to explain and describe the worms. In the beginning several kids were hesitant to touch the worms but by the end everyone was letting worms hag out in their hands. At the end of the experiment, we went outside and released the night crawlers into the garden that they have. The classroom is growing tomatoes and marigolds. We explained how the night crawlers would crawl around in the soil and make it loose and easy for the roots of the plants to go down deep and allow the plants to grow happy.
We recently read another of our books in the Life Cycle Series that I purchased. This time we read
Green Snake (Life Cycles) by David M. Schwartz. I still highly recommend this Life Cycle series. We love that there are actual photographs in the books instead of just illustrations.
After reading the book we decided to do a few activities.
First we talked about how most snake species lay eggs instead of giving live birth. We also discussed how snake eggs are not hard like a bird egg. They are more leathery feeling and have some give to them.
We then did an experiment to see how they feel. Since I do not care for snakes and have no desire to go on a snake hunt, we used a chicken egg. I hard boiled two regular chicken eggs. Once they were ready, I put one in the refrigerator and the other I put in a bowl and covered it with white vinegar. We let the eggs sit in their respective spots for 24 hours then we pulled them out to look at them again.
The egg that had been in the refrigerator looked and felt exactly the same as it had when we put it in there. The egg in the vinegar though, had taken on a new consistency. Instead of the shell being hard, it was more flexible. We could squeeze the shell without it cracking and it actually bent in under the pressure of our fingers. My son was fascinated by this.
Why this works: The eggshells are made of calcium carbonate and when the acid of the vinegar touches the calcium it causes a chemical reaction, which you witness with the bubbles coming from the egg in vinegar. The reaction will continue with the calcium turning into carbon dioxide (the bubbles) until the calcium is used up (about 24 hours). Now that you have this soft shelled egg, what do you do with it? Well, you can extend the experiment by leaving the same egg out on a table over night. The next day the eggshell will be hard again. The reason is that it stole the carbon dioxide that we breath out of the air.
The next thing we did was an exercise for fine motor skill development. I cut up numerous pipe cleaners/chenille stems into a variety of sizes and put them in a container. My son had to use tweezers to pick up the "snakes". Once he picked them up, he used the tweezers to sort them a few different ways: by color and by size. He loved doing this and was quite adept at using the tweezers.
Once we had sorted the "snakes" we graphed them a few ways: Longest to shortest, color wise and then how many of each color we had.
We did the old standby experiment this week of Ivory Soap in the microwave. If you have not done this experiment yet, run don't walk to the nearest store and buy a few bars of Ivory Soap.
Take your bar of Ivory and cut it in half or thirds. Lay a piece of the soap on a paper plate and put it in the microwave for 45 seconds. You will be amazed at the results! The bar starts to expand and grow. It literally looks like a mountain of soap. When you look at it, it looks soft and squishy but looks can be deceiving. It is still hard just like a bar of soap.
This only works with Ivory soap but it will be beneficial to have another type of soap available to test also.
How it works:
When Ivory is manufactured they whip plenty of air into it. It is the only soap that floats in water. It does not float as well now as originally due to Proctor and Gamble changing the formula somewhat and adding glycerin to the mixture to keep it from dissolving so quickly. Back to the point though, when you heat up the soap it begins to soften and the air and water inside the soap will also heat up. When the water in the soap heats up, it vaporizes and when the air heats up, it expands causing the bar of soap to expand into a foam mass.
When you cut the bar of Ivory, look closely at the cut sides. Do you see bubbles or pockets of air in the soap? You would think you would since I just told you it contains lots of air but since the air is whipped into the soap during manufacturing you do not actually see the bubbles or air pockets.
The foam mass of soap that is now out of the microwave has not changed at all chemically. You can still wet it and build a lather. You can use it for a bath or shower. The only change is in the physical appearance. If you tried other bars of soap in the microwave you will see that they just begin to melt instead of expanding.
