Category: Experiment

marshmallow smiley

1/19/2013

Materials needed

• A Straw
• A Mirror
• Modelling Clay
• A Nail (adult supervision)
• A Hammer (adult supervision)
• A Clear Glass Jar with a metal screw lid
• Marshmallows (use large - not miniature)

Instructions

1. With adult supervision - Using a hammer and nail, make a small whole (the size of the straw) in the middle of the metal lid.
2. Place the straw in the lid and form a clay ring (air tight seal) around the straw and lid (about an inch from the bottom of the straw).
3. Screw the lid on the jar and place the short end of the straw through the lid. The clay should keep the straw from falling in. Make sure that no air can pass through the hole around the straw.
4. Take your marshmallow and draw a face on both flat sides.
5. Open the lid and drop the marshmallow in and screw the lid on tightly.
6. Hold your mirror to where you can see the marshmallow in the bottom of the jar.
7. Now suck the air out of the jar making sure there are no leaks in the clay or lid.

What happens when you stop sucking on the straw? The marshmallow is not a solid object. It has many air pockets like a sponge. By sucking the air out of the jar you decrease the pressure inside the jar which causes the marshmallow to decrease in size, becoming a solid. When you release the straw from your mouth the air rushes back into the marshmallow allowing it to return to its normal size.

Taken from Kids Science experiments

Star Cookies

12/17/2012

Got this recipe out of an old Clubhouse Jr. magazine. It was supposed to be for Easter cookies with a cross, but well...it's Christmas so we did a star instead. :)

Ingredients/Instructions

Mix these together ingredients together. I used a fork.
1/2 cup softened butter
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla

add 1 egg (again used a fork)

Separate bowl, mix these together
2 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Then mix the dry into the butter mix.
It will be somewhat crumbly.

Divide in half.
Put half in the fridge in covered bowl.

To the remaining half, add in
3 tbsp unsweetened cocooa
2 tbsp miniature chocolate chips. We didn't have miniature ones so we put our regular sized ones into a chopper and diced them up tiny.
2 tbsp milk.
Mix well.
Put covered into the fridge for about 15 minutes.

Now the fun part

Take two cookie cutters. one larger, one smaller. We used a heart and a star.

Roll out whichever colour you like.   If you need to add some water to the mix to make it workable do that.   All I would do is dip my fingers in water, grab some dough and knead it in my hands. Doesn't take much to make it less crumbly.

Roll it to about 1/4 inch. use the large cookie cutter. Then use the smaller cutter inside.

Transfer to cookie sheet.   Do a bunch of them. Set the smaller pieces aside for now.

THEN take the other colour, do the same thing BUT take the smaller pieces and put them inside the previously cut big pieces.

Place on cookie sheet, cook for about 12 minutes in 375 oven.

The lad thought this part of was fun. :)

I think it'd be neat to do this as green and red cookies but I don't know how to do that so I didn't. :)

But even better was this part. :)

We decided to conduct an experiment on what happens if you mix the two colours together. We got a few blocks of colour and layers. :) We thought that was pretty neat, though we thought we'd get more blocks of colour.

I love his creativity

12/6/2012

My son makes me smile.
Indeed he does. :)

yesterday we did an experiment involving air pressure, a bag, and some tomatoes.

We had fun doing it.

I asked him, so...what do you think that this could be useful for? What can you use the pressure of air in a bag to do? We talked about lifting books. I told him how air bags can be used to lift cows that can't get up on their own (which of course led to a whole other discussion). And then we got onto the subject of hovercrafts and how they use air.

Well... INSPIRE A boys' imagination that did!

MOMMY!!!!! I can build a boat for my angry birds and pigs!!!!!

Go for it. :)

He worked quite hard at it, came up with lots of ideas and finally decided to use dad's hand fan, a cereal box and lots and lots of tape.

Human Body and experiments

11/2/2012

Human Body

Today we worked a bit more on learning about the heart. We labeled it, and then did some experiments on figuring out how our pulse changes with how we exercise. It was a bit of a battle as the lad wanted to really just do his own thing today. BUT we persevered - by talking about the parts of the heart and what they do. And then doing some experiments I got somewhere on the web but can't recall where. Opening and shutting a hand to see how often we could do it in one minute and realizing how tiring it is. Finding our pulse, making a homemade stethoscope, exercising and counting our pulse and such like.

It was worth it when suddenly he said.... "If i have no pulse mom, does that mean my heart isn't working"? My response was .. "You got it buddy. No pulse, no heartbeat". He grinned and all was good. :)

Candy Experiments

One of my facebook links sent me over to this Candy Experiment. So.. since we had candy we thought we'd try it. We were MOST interested in trying the M&M's one - we wanted to see the M float. BUT.. well... Here's what happened in that one:

We did experiment with a whole variety of candies though.   We chose identical candies and put one in hot and one in cold.

The one that simply amazed both of us was the fizzy ones.   We were astonished at the sheer amount of bubbles that came shooting out the fizzy when it was placed in hot water. Like the M&M it disappeared in no time flat.    The fizzy when put into cold water bubbled slowly and over time hollowed out in the middle. The lad thought this quite interesting and BEGGED to eat it.

The one that disgusted us...the gobstoppers.   MOST candies..the water tasted sweet or at least sort of like the candy. Gobstoppers...just...ICK...and hence forth I have NO desire to EVER eat one again.

Halloween Candy when placed in hot water exuded this white waxy film (looked icky but the lad said... MMMM). AND caramels dissolved fairly quickly BUT left this sticky spot behind on the cup that took a couple doses of oil to get off. Smeared all over the cup.

Rolo pops on a stick...dissolved slowly in cold water, fairly fast in hot but the rolo part didn't dissolve. the lad put it in his mouth and immediately spit it out. YUCK! It was a very pale colour which made me wonder if the hot water sucked the colour/flavour out?

Anyways, some pics. They might be a bit jumbled, I'll try to comment.

Our Reading

Today we learned about some Chinese explorers. Mostly about Zheng He. He sailed all over the place, mostly to Africa, bringing back animals and other goods to show the emperor. He used a compass to get around.

SO.. we made a compass!

we read part of "the trail of the meat". This was a very long chapter and comes from Jack London's call of the wild. The lad was intrigued but said...haven't we read this before? and yes, I had started, a while back, to read this book to him in the car. Good to remember.

Today we learned about the Desert Tortoise and The Turkey Vulture. The lad is quite familiar with the turkey vulture and found it interesting that it doesn't nest in a tree. But mom.. they fly up high! they should use a tree, it's safer.

The Star and the Lily. This Indian folk tale made the lad snort. Mom...that's just not true! Did they really believe that?

Physical Education

We went out for a walk. The lad thought it behooved him to complain for a fair while since just walking is "boring". But he found some sticks and life seemed much better after that. Boys and sticks...makes life so much better. :)

The Rest of our Homeschooling Day

10/2/2012

Before we had our breakthrough the lad and I continued working on our paper mache earth and moon. We did get sidetracked a bit though.

Being sidetracked

On the plastic sheet I put down we had some mould growing. Now don't be getting all bent out of shape, I'm not THAT bad of a housekeeper. :)

This was mould growing on the leftover glue from the paper mache.

We got out the magnifying glasses and gave the mould a good look over. We turned it over, we examined it carefully. We discovered that where it connected with the sheet it was red, then it was black/blue/green and on top it was white.

What is it growing from mom?

Well.. take a closer look lad. Can you find more mould and see where it's coming from???

After some careful looking I got the excited shout of THE GLUE mom!!!

We decided to conduct an experiment.

We know that mould like wet/damp environments. We learned this last year.

So we put some red/dark mould into a test tube with water. We put some white mould into some water. We put some mould into a test tube that was dry. and then the lad asked.. what if we bury it mom? I don't know, sounds like a good experiment to me says I.

Math, Measurements and Geometry.

You might wonder what jars have to do with math and measurements.

Did you know that ALL these jars are sold as quart jars?   Did you know that 4 cups equals one quart?   Well let me tell you that these jars aren't all quart jars.

Some are CLOSE, but to me close isn't really accurate (and neither to the lad).    The wide mouth and the fatter of the mason jars are actual quart jars. The thinner mason jar is 3 3/4 cups, the one with the yellow line is JUST barely 3 cups.   So NOT all quart jars are quart jars. :)   It's good to know these things when one eats fruit at night and just ASSUMES that they are all equal (and counts calories). :)   The lad thoroughly enjoyed this project and then started to learn about displacement.

He dropped in marbles, flour and a variety of other objects and learned what they "measured" by how much water they removed from the container.    Good learning done here. :)

The world

We continued our efforts with making a paper mache earth and moon. We learned (after we popped the moon balloon that we need to put another layer or two on it). But a more fascinating aspect to the lad was the strange crick/crackling sound as the balloon released from the paper mache. that is INTERESTING mom! :)

We double-checked the remembering of vertices and edges, and what different geometric shapes are called (and no, I don't always get them right either). We learned about Tiplacs today and then practiced a variety of ways of organizing geometric shapes.

Our reading

Today it was all about African Arms. "mom, do you think we could make one of those (pointing to a weapon I couldn't pronounce). "Iklwa". I don't know how to say that. I just said... you never now, we might be able to. "just pretend though right mom?"
Of course said I... we don't want to hurt anyone.

"The Mines" a story about a miner who followed some goblins. The lad continued question was.. are the goblins good or bad?

'tom sawyer and church". want to make a lad laugh? read this chapter to them. Guaranteed laughter. :) That picture of the dog running out of the church with a beetle hanging off it's backside inspired ART! Mom, look here? See the bugs? see how they are helping the good guys chase the bad guys away??

Makes me smile.

The Hellbender and the Snowshoe Hare. Did you know the snowshoe hare sometimes eats Carrion? Total shocker to us too. We also learned what the word Varying means. The Hellbender lives in the USA and is an aquatic salamander without gills. it is wrinkly to help it absorb oxygen from the water (or so it is thought).

Egg Experiment Final

7/1/2012

This experiment took a full week to complete.

We took our egg out of the jar today. It was a bit of a challenge as it was wedged in there. The lad was quite nervous about it and wouldn't help me with it, so I surprised him by using a straw to break the suction seal and the egg just slid out nicely. It grew more than I anticipated based on the pics I had seen. As you can see it is quite large.

The lad asked: why did it get so big mommy?
I was smart and said.. why do you think it did?
He said.... cause some of the vinegar went inside the egg?
My response was: precisely. Smart thinking lad.

CAN I BOUNCE IT????

Sure you can bounce it.
What if it breaks mommy?
well...that's why we're using the bowl.

We learned it bounces really well up until about 12 inches and then well.. it goes splat and gooshes. The bowl didn't quite catch it all and that bothered the lad. I helped with the clean up. But first we checked everything out really well. The membrane was quite thin. The egg white wasn't clear, it was cloudy. it did NOT smell like a rotten egg, it had quite the vinegary smell to it. The white felt different than a regular egg, BUT the liquid the gooshed out didn't feel or smell like vinegar so that had the lad stumped.

ANYONE with an explanation why that would be???

Ladybugs

6/27/2012

Today we learned about ladybugs. we started with this video called the lifecycle of the ladybug. We then went from there to watch a variety of other videos on them. we continued our study be reading this book which was suggested to me by another homeschooler. Excellent book at showing how God created animals to work together to create balance in the garden. it is NOT a Christian book, but the balance shown in it can be explained to show how God made the world in a way that works together. :)

ladybugs come in a cloth bag that you keep in the fridge. They need to be released within a month. We've done two releases now, and we're letting the rest of them go today.

I thought it was excellent timing on God's part when I was considering doing a study on Ladybugs (which we use for aphids control in our garden) that Schoolexpress sent me a free unit study on them. I am part of their email group and every Sunday they send me a new study unit.

picture of differently coloured ladybugs, courtesy of the lad. :) They are on a currant bush.

as we did this unit we kept popping outside to release our lady bugs. We purchased them for $20 from Ontario Growers which is located in London. We released some last week and all the aphids are gone off the current bushes which I think is WAY COOL. So now we are releasing them near the tomatoes and the rose bushes. Gotta get rid of the aphids.

Is it a permanent solution? No...but it's a helpful not have to do all this manual spraying method that not only benefits me but will benefit my neighbours as well.

released ladybugs

We didn't get everything done, but there's always Friday. :)

Before I forget, an update on our egg experiment.

see the large bubbles around it? most of the shell is completely gone now.

Bouncing Egg Day Two

6/26/2012

A continuation of yesterday's egg experiments.

Today we checked out the eggs. We noted that the egg in vinegar was softer and that it was covered in foam. it was still floating.

When we changed the vinegar covering the egg, the egg sank again.

the bleach egg...

good egg on left, bad egg on right

we decided to crack the bleach egg today and compare it to a regular egg.

Note:

the shell turned yellow. Normal egg is white.
it stank "like vinegar mommy!"
the yolk changed its' shape.
the solid part is bigger in the regular egg mommy! and see the liquidy part is bigger in the bad egg!
the yolk is more "UP" in the good egg mommy.

close up of the "bad" egg shell

Bouncing Egg Experiment

6/25/2012

Day one of experiment.

A while back I was sent the bouncy egg experiment. That linked to this page and here's another page with additional information.

Ingredients needed.
1 egg
1 glass somewhat bigger than egg
vinegar

Place egg in glass.
Ask what you think might happen if you add vinegar.
"I don't know" was the response
Add vinegar, reminding son NOT to overfill the glass.
Get observations
"it sunk"
"it has bubbles".

My son being who he is asked..."Can we try it with bleach?"
Sure we can do that.
So we tried it with bleach.
"It floats"
"it doesn't have bubbles".

I have NO idea as to why bleach makes an egg float. Do you?

20 minutes later "MOMMY come see!!!" I went to see "mom!!! It floats!!!" Why do you think it does that? HE had to think on this and dad said...what does it have all around it? "BUBBLES!!!" What do you think the bubbles do? "make it float."

Forward>>

marshmallow smiley

Materials needed

Instructions

Star Cookies

Ingredients/Instructions

Now the fun part

I love his creativity

Human Body and experiments

Human Body

Candy Experiments

Our Reading

Physical Education

The Rest of our Homeschooling Day

Being sidetracked

Math, Measurements and Geometry.

The world

Our reading

Egg Experiment Final

Ladybugs

Bouncing Egg Day Two

the bleach egg...

Bouncing Egg Experiment

Who Am I?

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2013 TOS Reviews

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Materials needed

Instructions

Ingredients/Instructions

Now the fun part

Human Body

Candy Experiments

Our Reading

Physical Education

Being sidetracked

Math, Measurements and Geometry.

The world

Our reading

the bleach egg...

Who Am I?

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Archives

Categories

2013 TOS Reviews

Other Reviews