A Science Experiment That Actually Worked!

Now that's blog-worthy!

We came across the following brain teaser and had to try the solution for ourselves.

A man in a restaurant asked a waiter for a juice glass, a dinner plate, water, a match, and a lemon wedge. The man poured enough water onto the plate to cover it.
"If you can get the water on the plate into this glass without touching or moving this plate, I will give you $100," the man said. "You can use the match and lemon to do this."

A few minutes later, the waiter walked away with $100 in his pocket. How did the waiter get the water into the glass?


Solution:  
 First, the waiter stuck the match into the lemon wedge, so that it would stand straight. Then he lit the match, and put it in the middle of the plate with the lemon. Then, he placed the glass upside-down over the match. As the flame used up the oxygen in the glass, it created a small vacuum, which sucked in the water through the space between the glass and the plate. Thus, the waiter got the water into the glass without touching or moving the plate.


This was so cool that we did it three times. Try it! For other brain teasers, check out Briangle.

Homeschooling With Weird Al (Again)

Hello again! It's been a crazy year, and I haven't found much time for blogging, but some things are just to good not to share, so here I am again.

Last year, we incorporated some Weird Al into our Language Arts studies. I know we are a family of total nerds, but we really love Al. Have I mentioned that the man is a goofy musical genius? Anyway, this week the kiddos and I were learning a little about the digestive system and the question arose, "What does the pancreas do?" Weird Al to the rescue again. I have it on good authority that this silly little song about the pancreas is 100% scientifically accurate. My son's high school biology teacher even uses it to teach his students about the pancreas.

Given that my kids retain pretty much anything they hear in a Weird Al tune, if he wrote a home school curriculum in song, I'd buy it.

Learning about Bernoulli's Principle And Flight

Have I mentioned that I really love Oak Meadow? The enrichment activities are so great. Take our lesson on Bernoulli's Principle and the Principles of Flight, for example. We had a textbook lesson that explained Bernoulli's Principle and its relation to flight, and then OM had Thing 3 experimenting with paper airplanes to gain a concrete understanding. He told me today that it was one of the best days he's had this year. But then, who doesn't love playing with paper airplanes?

Volcanoes!

A couple of weeks ago, we studied volcanoes in OM 3. I am fascinated by volcanoes. As it turns out, so are my children. I purchased this volcano kit for our demonstration. That's art and science rolled into one! My kind of activity!

We forgot to add the red food coloring the first time. Still, it was an impressive eruption.

The boy had the idea of recreating Pompeii...with army men and Native Americans. There were army men and Native Americans at Pompeii, weren't there?

Edible Cell

In Oak Meadow 5, we've moved on to Life Science. On Friday, we studied cells and made an edible cell. This was a really cool activity that made learning the parts of a cell a little less intimidating.

We started by gathering items from the kitchen to represent the organelles. We used a blueberry for the nucleus, a strip of fruit roll-up for the microtubles, Mike and Ikes for mitochondria, and rock candy for vacuoles. Not surprisingly, the candy didn't hold up too well in the Jell-o, but we worked with what we had because we were sort of snowed in.




Jell-o was our cytoplasm.


We poured the Jell-o in a quart-sized Zip-Loc bag (which was the cell membrane) and added the "organelles". As we added each item, we talked again about what it does. I don't have a photo of us actually creating the cell, because we had a slight mishap just as I was going to shoot the picture. Let's just say that cytoplasm on the floor, cabinets and Oak Meadow Science book makes for a sticky situation.

Here is our finished cell, which no one will eat because it looks too gross.



It's even worse than those nasty congealed salads that people of a certain generation like to bring to our church pot-luck dinners. All of our organelles, except for the nucleus, either dissolved completely or look really anemic. Oh well, it wouldn't be an Otherwise Educating science project if it worked well. The cell may not be edible, as the book suggested, but Thing 3 does have a really firm grasp on how the main parts of a cell work together. He also learned that rock candy completely disappears if you let it sit in Jell-o too long. Where else is he going to learn that?

Sundial

OM 5 Science has us learning about astronomy. In our study of early, practical applications of astronomy by the Egyptians, we learned about sundials. One assignment required Thing 3 to make a sundial and try to tell time with it, checking himself against a clock. It was difficult at first, but he got pretty good at it fairly quickly.

We made this very simple yet effective sundial by placing a pencil in a ball of clay. Every hour, Thing 3 went out and marked the hour with a stone. This sundial goes from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Easy cheesy! And fun!

Fool-Proof Science Experiment

Our first semester of Oak Meadow 5th Grade Science has focused on Environmental Science. A few weeks ago, we were studying pollution, recycling and composting. We did a very easy experiment where we buried five different types of trash.



Four weeks later, we went out to dig up the trash in order to make observations about how quickly the different types of trash decomposed. Now that's an experiment that even I can't mess up!




Oh wait. Yes I can. Unbelievably, we couldn't find the trash. We even called in reinforcements. Still, no trash.



Through some kind of gypsy magic, the trash disappeared! Either that, or someone is trying to drive me insane like Adam did to Dixie all those years ago. (And let me tell you, that's a pretty short trip!) Or maybe we gave up too soon. It was very windy and chilly that day. Perhaps we'll find it when we plant our garden in the spring...if I'm not in a treatment facility by then.

Science

Oak Meadow Science is very hands-on. The kids and I really appreciate that. Science is so much more meaningful when you can see and touch it.

Here are just a few photos of some of our science activities from the past few weeks.

The kiddos are gathering pond water for our observation of bacteria growth. We put tap water, pool water and pond water in petri dishes with agar to see which would grow the most bacteria. The children's hypothesis was that the pond water would grow more bacteria. They were right, of course. You'll have to take my word for it because I forgot to take pictures of the bacteria growth.

Since I had extra petri dishes and agar, we decided to swab some things around the house to see what kind of bacteria we could grow. We swabbed the toilet seat, the door handle in the bathroom, the coffee maker handle, the computer keyboard, Thing 4's bear that she has slept with (and chewed on) since she was 6 months old (aptly named "Yucky Bear Bear" by her brothers), and Thing 3, who had a bad cold at the time, coughed in one of the dishes. Ick.

Here, the kiddos are looking at Thing 4's blood. She made good use of the nasty scrapes she had on her knees after having a bad fall on her skates.

Science rocks!

Today in Oak Meadow Science

This week in third grade, we are studying plants and our relationship with them. We learned about the plant oxygen and food cycles yesterday, and today we learned that in addition to food and clean air, plants provide us with beauty. The assignment for today was to find ten flowers/plants in our immediate environment and draw them in the Main Lesson Book.



In fifth grade, we are studying the envrironment and our ecosystem. We talked about living and non-living things in our environment. Here, Thing 3 is making a mural of a forest scene and including both living and non-living things in his drawing.


When we have a busy day (like we have today), it's tempting to skip the more artsy aspects of our lessons and get on with Math, Latin and more "school-y" things. I'm trying to resist that temptation and remember that taking time to observe and draw a flower is important, too.

Why Do My Science Experiments Hardly Ever Work?

Seriously. I'd like to know. Ok, I've had the occasional experiment/demonstration work out. But more often than not...as my boys would say, "FAIL."

Today, in the interest of learning how ancient civilizations measured the passing of time, we tried to make a Greek/Roman water clock. The directions and illustration that Oak Meadow gave me looked so simple. I thought, "Now here's an experiment I can't screw up." We just needed to punch some holes in some cans (we substituted cups, as suggested in another book we have), set them on a ladder, pour the water in the top cup and start timing.

We were excited. Thing 4 poured the water in the top cup.

Thing 3 was manning the stop watch. We watched. Water started shooting out of the hole in the top cup just like it was supposed to do. At this point, for some reason unknown to me, Thing 4 excitedly shouted, "Look! The baby is peeing!"

Then, as quickly as it started, it stopped. Well, it didn't stop exactly. It just slowed to a sad trickle. Instead of shooting into the cup below, the water just dribbled down the bottom of the top cup and landed on the floor.

Those poor Romans and Greeks. What a lame excuse for a clock.

Thing 3 accurately noted, "That is quite possibly the worst science experiment we've ever done." And let me tell you, given our track record with science experiments, that's saying a lot.

Weather!

In Science last week the kids learned about weather. Among other things, they made it rain in a jar, learned about lightning, and made these fun anemometers.

Have I mentioned that Ms. Angie is the best!?

Green Science!

Every Monday, we meet with eight other kiddos and their moms for Science. Ms. Angie is the best Science teacher. She is as passionate about Science as my 12th grade English teacher, Mrs. Shepherd, was about Shakespeare. That's pretty passionate. Ms. Angie also happens to be one of my best friends and the coolest mom ever! We love her!

Last Monday, we studied Environmental Science. It was oh so fun, and it warmed my little green heart!

The kids learned about paper, paper fibers, etc. Then they made paper from recycled newspaper.

They also learned about the effects of oil spills on animal life by making a foil "tanker" and having a spill.

Finally, they learned how oil spills are contained and then cleaned up.

Very cool!

Ewwww...

In Science today, we learned about worms. The kids made a worm habitat.

Complete with live worms.

Then it was time to dissect an earthworm. I don't mind telling you that I refused to take part in this activity. Instead, I acted as school photographer. Someone had to capture these photos for our yearbook.

It seems that someone inherited my aversion to all things disgusting.

Getting braver.

"Ok, I'll watch while someone else does the dissecting."

Conquering the fear.

"I LOVE WORMS!"

What a great class! Thanks, Ms. A!