Category: Science

Lego Pulleys and Levers

2/5/2016

Levers, pulleys, gears, axles and other such things. These have been consuming our science-y lives lately.

This week we decided to put this learning to the test to see if we could build
1. a crane
2. a tow truck.

It was fun. :)

My son built this crane.

I put it to him as a challenge.

He tried it out several times before he was able to make one strong enough to lift the weight of one lego car.

He came up with this question that I couldn't answer, perhaps one of my readers can.

WHY does it get harder for the crane to lift the higher up it lifts an object?

I did tell him that it had something to do with gravity but I couldn't fully explain it to him.

This particular beauty was harder to build than I expected. Like my son I had a couple of false starts, but eventually I got it to work. The hardest part was figuring out how to get the string to wind around the pulley (and it still never worked perfectly) but at least it was able to exert pressure on the car and pull it forward (ergo a success).

We been using the God's design Curriculum for our learning, but if you don't have that curriculum here are some places you can go for additional help.

PDF on simple machines.
Easier to lift submerged items.

Unit Studies from
Oklahoma. EHO.
Hot Chalk. Our Journey Westward.

For information on doing Lego check out this link: http://brickdave.com/how-to-learn-with-lego

I have linked up here.

Binturong

2/2/2016

In the Mammals book that my son and I are reading, we recently read a passage about the Binturong. The description left me wondering.. what in the world is this animal? A type of monkey???

So I thought I'd take the time to teach other people about this animal as well (and also doing some more research for my lad). :)

The Binturong is also known as the Bearcat. It's Latin name is Arctictis binturong.   It is neither a bear nor cat, but rather a viverrid.   A viverrid is small to medium sized mammal that lives only in the Old World countries.   They include animals such as civets.

If you go to this site you'll be able to read a poem about them as well as see several pictures .. you just HAVE TO see a picture of a baby and did you know they smell like buttered popcorn?

These long bodies animals with a tail like a monkey, the body of bear and the face of a cat, are classified as vulnerable (generally due to habitat loss) and live in the rainforests of Southeast Asia.    They are covered in long, shaggy black hair with stiff white whiskers on the cheeks and above the eyes.

Even though they are listed in the class Carnivora they predominately eat fruit, but they also will eat insects, earthworms, birds, fish, and small mammals.     This shy animal stays up in the tree tops as much as possible, avoiding contact with other creatures.   They are safest in areas where the tree cover is thickest.   They are generally mild mannered but when threatened can be quite aggressive.

Interesting fact: they can reverse their ankles which facilitates their easily climbing up and down trees.     They can also purr, grunt, hiss, wail and make various other noises to communicate.    Other interesting fun facts can be read here.

M is Moving Fireheart

1/24/2016

The Old Tank
This tank was simply getting too small for him.. he was as long as the tank and simply wasn't going anything anymore. And since lately he's eating really really well and growing better because of it, so new digs were getting imperative. I wondered about getting him a new tank when hubby said HEY! Why don't you use one of the big tanks we have in the basement.

The New Tank
The only real expense we'll have with the new tank will be buying a filter for the pond and I needed to get a reptile lid. It cost a fair bit more than i would have preferred, but one does what one needs to do eh? The wood stumps came from our Christmas tree, the rocks from and old rock garden we had, and Fireheart's hidey hole is an overturned in/out tray.

I am feeling a tad annoyed because my lad asked me to take a couple videos of Fireheart enjoying his new set up and they seem to have completely disappeared so I'll just have to get you some still shots.

it's amazing the difference it has made. Fireheart, a garter snake, normally spent ALL his time (unless hungry) hiding under his yellow water bowl.

NOW we'll see him sitting next to his logs.

Checking out his mini pond. Garter snakes are one of the few snakes the regularly eat fish. Once we get a filter in it, we'll be moving his fish into the pool so he can snack whenever he feels the urge. We get him minnows from the pet store and not small goldfish since overtime goldfish can make a snake unhealthy. My son has a tank of guppies in the basement that we hope will soon over populate thus negating the need to buy minnows from the store.

We built him a burrow as that's what snakes like. We made it in such a way that we can still see him. It's actually quite fascinating...he sits there watching us almost as much as my lad sits watching him.

It's rather neat with the new bigger tank. There are distinct warmer and cooler spots so he will come out more and bask in the heat and then retreat to a cooler more "hidey" area. Then come out again and move around. Often after he eats we'll see him basking under the heat lamp. My hubby postulates that it helps with the digestion.

We have successfully transitioned Fireheart onto eating mice. it is not a normal part of a wild garter snakes diet (they mostly eat toads, worms, snails, slugs and the like). But with the judicious use of worms and baby mice we got him transitioned. He doesn't need the worm scent anymore to have a mouse meal. it's a better diet for them to be on mice when in captivity... means their poops are firmer, there are less parasites, and it a more complete meal which means a healthier snake.

I have to admit, we only give him one at time, and if I, or the lad am foolish, we have two cats who find themselves VERY intrigued by Firehearts diet. Our next goal is to get him eating dead mice... but we haven't quite gotten him to that stage yet. I need to, along with my lad, do some research about how one does such a transition.

My son plans to give Fireheart's old tank to his toads. I told him it'll need a good clean and we'll add a debris section so he can run crickets in with his toads and an area where they can eat and grow and the toads can help themselves to a meal whenever a cricket is silly enough to wander in front of them. Currently the toads enjoy mealworms for their lunch.

To learn more about garter snakes check out these links below:
garter snake info.
reptiles.
PDF on caring for garter snake.
Take care of g.S.

Lapbooks and Unit Studies.
Homeschool share.
imam's homeschool.
LaToya.
A moment in our world.
Middle school lapbook.
Free unit study snakes.

I'll be linking up this week with blogging through the alphabet.

Review: Dinosaur Boy Saves Mars

1/21/2016

Rampaging polar bears, a missing father, a threat to a group of individuals, Soccer, gene-ing and nutri-nuggets. Can Sawyer's Grandfather, his friends and himself sort through that needs to be done so they can indeed save Mars? This is my review of Dinosaur Boy Saves Mars.

Book Synopsis:
Dinosaurs, Martians, and mystery, oh my! You will love this hilarious, action-packed adventure series. What would life be like if you were part dinosaur?

When you're part Stegosaurus life can be a little crazy. (Yes, sleeping with plates is weird. No, dino-human hybrids do not have second brains in their butts.) But Sawyer's life is normal(ish) - until he's yanked aboard a UFO and sent on a mission to Mars.

Sawyer, Elliot and Sylvie travel to Mars to find her missing father, but they find even bigger trouble. Mars is trying to kick Pluto out of the solar system. And the fate of both planets will be decided by the upcoming Pluto VS Mars soccer match.

It's an intergalactic mess, and only Sawyer can save Mars, defend Pluto and protect the galaxy

My Son's Thoughts:
"I liked it.   It was a good book, I enjoyed it.   The people in it were good."

My Thoughts:
This was an enjoyable book. I have to admit, At first I thought it was a little ridiculous to have a boy half human, half dinosaur, but it ended up working out okay.

My son kept asking.. "WHY did he need to have tennis balls on his spikes?   Why would they be sharp mom"?    That detail kept getting lost on him, and I really don't know why. :)

Sawyer is struggling with figuring out what his Passion is for a paper he needs to write for school.   He was unable to answer that question so his mom got an extension on this paper for him, but his grandfather snatched he and his friends up before he could get it written.   The topic weighed in Sawyer's mind as he worked through the mystery of Sylvie's dad's disappearance and what was planned for the people of Mars.   By the end of his book he discovered what his passion was.

Cory Putman Oakes wrote a book that explores what might happen if we take genetic research too far and/or put it in the hands of people who don't exercise due caution.   He turned it into an enjoyable book about a boy and his friends needing to find out more about who they are and in the process help two groups of "people" to mature in their relationships with each other.

Product Details:
Received: Softcover book
Title: Dinosaur Boys Saves Mars
Author: Cory Putman Oakes
Pages: 215
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Age Range: 9+
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

As I do this review I am reminded of a topic I researched a while back about animals that glow. Here are seven animals that glow. I know that I find it amazing what they can do with science nowadays, and how important it is to have good oversight of such projects so that people don't get lost in the joy of discovery without thinking through well potential results of such research and knowledge. Such potential to discover new ideas that will be of help to mankind exists. It surprises me sometimes. BUT, as this book points out, without good oversight the unthinkable might happen. Gets people thinking and that's a good thing. :)

Raincoast books can be found at the following links:
www.raincoast.com
https://twitter.com/raincoastbooks
https://www.facebook.com/raincoastbooks
https://instagram.com/raincoastbooks/
https://www.pinterest.com/raincoastbooks/
http://raincoastbooks.tumblr.com/
https://plus.google.com/+raincoastbooks/

Linking up here: Dinosaur theme at Dear Homeschooler.

Poetry Lesson: The Ptarmigan

1/12/2016

Today's poetry lesson with my boy was really simple.

I read the poem.
He told me it rhymed.
I asked if he could hear anything different in the t-words.
No.

I then asked....do you know what a ptarmigan is?
No.

It's a bird bud.   Lives in the north.

Oh.. okay.
So they don't like to sit in trees mom?

I asked him to come over and look at the poem with me and tell what what is odd about the poem. Could he even read it?

It took him two readings to figure it out.

"MOM!   Why do they keep adding those "P's" to the words with the letter T?
Don't they know how confusing that is?"

Hmm... I said... looking at him and smiling... what do you think the point of the poem is?

"The P is useless mom".

Yup... in these words the P is pretty useless.   Good point eh?

"That makes it a silly poem mom" and he walked away shaking his head and smiling.

A good thing that is it not?   Especially on a day when everyone is tired.

Some facts about the Ptarmigan

It's a ground dwelling bird, the smallest of the grouse family. It resides permanently in the alpine regions and is an herbivores, eating leaves, seeds, buds etc.

It has a brown summer plumage and a white winter one.

They form single season monogamous relationship, the male guarding the female over a shallow scrape in the ground with 2-8 chicks being born per clutch.

So indeed...as the poem says.. they don't like to sit in trees. :)

A Skeever or a Bandicoot???

1/11/2016

Tonight while reading from our mammals book we were learning about the Bandicoot. My son, as soon as he saw the picture said "It's a SKEEVER! Look Mom!!! It's a skeever".

So what do you think? Is he right???

Long nose, long tail, the ability to hop out at you, omnivorous, rat like... He might be on to something here....

Just so you know .. a skeever is a pesky animal in a game called Skyrim. They are called "large rat like creatures".   They have a tendency to leap out at unsuspecting heros and attack them.   They eat everything.

It caused him to be quite interested in learning more about the Bandicoot..

The Bandicoot is a marsupial living in Australia and New Guinea.   It is a small to medium sized animal that eats insects, earthworms, insect larvae, and spiders (including the venomous funnel web spider) as well as tubers and fungi. They also nibble on fruits, berries, nuts, seeds, eggs and even small rodents when they are in search of food.

The whole eating spiders thing... alarmed my lad...he'd rather they didn't do that... though I happen to be glad that something eats very venomous spiders. :)

There are about 20 species of them roaming their area of the world.

They are a small animal, so they are as much prey as they are predator so tend to live in places with plenty of hiding spots. They grow quickly upon gaining maturity.    Males tending to be bigger than the females.

They make people think of rats (and bandicoot means pig-rat) because of their long, pointed heads and compact bodies followed by a long thin tail. Unlike rats though, they average size about the same as a rabbit, and use their hind legs to hop around.   They are generally a nocturnal animal, living up to three years in the wild, and up to seven in captivity.   They make a nest in a thicket that only one adult occupies at a time.

Bandicoots live alone except during mating which can happen all year round. Females can have their first litter at 4-5 months old, gestation is only 12 days and since they are marsupials the young are carried in a pouch. Their gestation period is the shortest known of any mammal. They normally have 2-3 litters per year.   Each litter will have 2-7 young.

Some bandicoots are on the endangered list due to habitat loss and the introduction of cats and other small animal predators.

Digitigrade or Plantigrade...what are you?

1/4/2016

I don't know about you but one of the things I love about the educating at home life is learning with my son. I love it! :)

Currently we are reading a book about mammals.

Every day we read one small section and it's amazing what we learn. The other day we came across two words we had never heard before Plantigrade and Digitigrade.

plan·ti·grade ˈplan(t)əˌɡrād/
adjective: plantigrade

(of a mammal) walking on the soles of the feet, like a human or a bear.

dig·i·ti·grade ˈdijədəɡrād/
adjective: digitigrade

(of a mammal) walking on its toes and not touching the ground with its heels, as a dog, cat, or rodent.

Click image to go to source: Forgeworld

And then when you go look up more information on it and you learn even more information like..unguligrade. Who would have known? Or that gamers who build there own stuff actually study these terms. :) My lad was fascinated. Certainly makes it meaningful for him though, to see that adults learn these things so they can make their game materials more meaningful.

Unguligrades are mammals with hooves, both single hooved like horses and donkeys as well as double hooved like deer and cattle.

Plantigrades include a remarkable number of mammals. They walk on their whole foot. So bears, humans, hedgehogs, rabbits and kangeroos are included in this group.

Digitigrades walk on their toes. So animals such as dogs, cats and the like.

One of our digitigrades that resides in our house and helps us study. :)

An Easy Way to add Science to your day

12/21/2015

One of the things my son and I do is read.   He loves to play and listen to me read books, and I know he's listening since he often stops me and asks questions.

Part of our list of books at night is always a science, history or geography book. Sometimes they are combination books.

Right now our history books are read during the day, but science is something my boy likes to have read at night.

We just finished read "over 1000 fantastic Science Facts".     We read a two page spread each night.

It is SUCH an easy way to add science to a day.

Reading about the human body, different inventions, animals, space and more. I do have to admit that we skipped through the evolution section, we deliberately chose to not read every page or factoid in this section.

I have a whole section of section of this book rack filled with factual science books

Whenever we finish a book I tell my lad to go pick another and he does. He surprises me sometimes in what he'll pick.    Sometimes we'll study what a savannah is, other times we'll learn about spiders, or read a how it's made book.     Tonight he picked out a book on mammals.   So every night we'll read about a new type of mammal...and perhaps I'll occasionally throw some geography in there and show him with my tablet where that animal lives. :)   Fun times ahead!   :)

Unless the book is a "we have to keep this" when we are done I write up a post on it and stick it down in our basement in our stuff to sell pile.   It keeps growing and eventually I sell it or find someone who can use it.   So it's good all around yes?

I love it when we get books that say "now you try it" because then you know what?   We can try it!     Like when we read about how ice expands when frozen and we tested that theory out, and how salt slows down the freezing of water, and we tried it out.

We had the fun of it being winter when we did this one.. like a winter with snow (unlike this this).   So we borrowed winter to do it.

It's just taking an idea that captures a boy's interest and then finding a way to work with it. Helping him to think ideas through and then put them into action. I love watching that process. :) Reading and then acting works for us. What works for you?

How do you add science to your day?

Review: James to the Rescue

12/20/2015

A beetle and a boy, exploring a miniature world. This is the world of James and Marvin the beetle.

Book Synopsis.
In this new Masterpiece Adventure, the second in a companion series for younger readers from bestselling author Elise Broach, Marvin the beetle is going collecting with his family to find discarded things that the beetles can put to use: a thumbtack, a used piece of gum, a shiny quarter. . . . All is well and good until Uncle Albert gets pricked by tiny cuticle scissors and is hurt. Marvin needs James's help to save Uncle Albert. It's a race against the clock-will James come to the rescue in time?

My thoughts:
I gave this book to my 10 year old lad to read, but he returned it saying it was too easy and not moving fast enough for him so "could I read it for him?"

It was a very simple read, intriguing enough to cause me to want to finish.   i can see young readers enjoying this story along with the multitude of simple line drawings that help tell the story.

The story actually had a surprise ending, and both friends ended up helping each other.

Now.. if you are going for realism... this is not the book for you. The beetles are more human like in what they say and do and how they live than they are like.. you know.. real beetles.   For but for early reader book... it works. :)

In fact as I sit here pondering this book I think...this would make a good book to read to talk with children about the differences between people and insects. And to see how sometimes that facts are discarded in the search for a tale to tell.

To that end here are some studies you might want to look at with your students:
June Beetle Lapbook.
All about beetles.
Gift of curiousity unit study on beetles.
Oklahoma Homeschool - insects.
Homeschool Share.
Montessori.
The Teacher's Corner.

Product Details:
Received: Softcover book
Title: James to the Rescue
Author: Elise Broach
Illustrator: Kelly Murphy
Pages: 104
Type: early reader (ages 6-9)
Series: The Masterpiece Adventures book 2.
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

Teaching a Boy To Read

11/24/2015

I have to tell you... my son was NOT an early reader.

There were reasons for this... having holes in his ears affected his hearing and he had a hard time figuring out what the right sounds were for different letters. Teaching phonics with him was such a no go as it just didn't work for him.   Logic of English was a review we did last year that worked really really well for my boy.   It helped him to figure out what letters are shaped like in your mouth and what the vibrations feel like.   Why that helped him connect with the sounds I don't know, but it was such a God-send because once he made that connection he started to read.

BUT what to read.   I got a lot of "mom, I don't like that book.   Mom, that doesn't interest me. Mom, this one is too hard to read."    I kept encouraging him, telling him it was just a matter of finding what intrigued him and was at the right level for him to read ... even if he couldn't read all the words (making a point of letting him see how sometimes even "I" don't know all the words but I can figure out meaning using a dictionary or using the context of the story to help me) he would be able to enjoy the story.

I mandated 20 minutes reading every single day. I didn't care what, just that he read. We started and stopped a lot of books. Discouragement set in until... we hit upon Calvin and Hobbes.   A boy and his cat. Living life, getting into trouble, laughter ensued.   We got the entire series for him and he read it over and over again.. you could just see his confidence growing.

From Calvin and Hobbes we moved to Garfield to Snoopy to a book I started him on called Deltora Quest.   His goal was to finish the second book before I managed to do so.   In fun I kept threatening to steal it on him, but he finished it before I did. From there he moved on to Mouseheart, and Andi Undercover and Fish Finelli and now he's starting into one of the Redwall books.

I can't say how very delighted his dad and I are to have a reader in our house. It's so very nice. :)

My lad and continue to read together.    I find it interesting that as much as my lad likes to read fiction books, it's the non-fiction books that he reads or that I read with him that inspire the most comments and questions from him.

Take for instance the book: Natural Gas Power. This book is part of the harnessing Energy Series.    It's not what you call an "easy reading book". It uses technical language (while explaining what the words mean) but one really learns what is all involved in using natural gas.   We learned the history, the uses, the shipping and more.    "But mom, why?" was a frequent question. OR "(statement of clarification).. would I be correct in that mom?" OR "MOM! That's neat!"

I LOVE how non-fiction books bring out those questions in him.   AND it's particularly neat when I see him internalize that information and I see it come out in the stories he plays out with his toys.   Just LOVE IT.

Another book we've been reading lately is from Smithsonian called Endless Explorations Readers Level Four. Learning about predators, world wonders, natural disasters, space exploration, Ocean Habitats and Flight. It's a rather neat book with fact cards, quizzes and gorgeous pictures. Just perfect to read together or for a lad to read on his own. It has interesting tidbits of information scattered throughout... like did you know the Spanish Flu of 1918 affected 1/5 of the world's population and was found on almost every continent? (of course now I am curious about which continents it wasn't found on... ) :)

Reading non-fiction books is a great addition to my boys reading. It's good to have him reading and asking questions... some of it as I read to him, part of it as he reads to me, or as he reads on his own and brings his questions to me. Seeing the confidence in him grow is amazing. And I love it. :)

Product Details:
Received: Softcover book
Title: Natural Gas Power
Author: Diane Bailey
Pages: 47
Publisher: The Creative Company
Series: Harnessing Energy
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

Product Details:
Received: Hardcover Book
Title: Endless Explorations: Level 4 Series: Smithsonian Reader
Pages: 200
Publisher: Silver Dolphin Books
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books