I may have mentioned that Tigger took a science class this term. Loosely based on the Grade 9 curriculum, it was 8 sessions of microscopy with a group of 8 kids. She loved it.
We have a microscope that my mom picked up somewhere (free or cheap) and she checked it out. Although not as good as the ones she used in her class, it is useable. But she didn’t get it out much, saving science for her class.
So, inspired by Theresa’s centres, I decided to set up a biology lab where she could just go in and do some work without having to get everything out and put it away afterwards.
It is in my laundry room. That photo is taken from the doorway, the washer (a front loader) and dryer are on the opposite wall (with a sink between them). There are clothes lines strung above the counter you see […]
Original post by jove
We are low on groceries around here and it’s a big expedition into the real world to get them since our local grocery store burned down. And when we’re low on groceries, I make soup.
So last night I decided to make a favorite soup around here that’s a bit like Zuppa Toscana (however that’s spelled) at the Olive Garden, except it’s vegetarian so there’s no sausage. If I tweak it just right, even meat-loving Daryl thinks it’s fabulous.
I’m one of those tinkering chefs who never uses a recipe and tosses willy-nilly into the pot. So I started cooking– sauteed finely diced onion and peppers in butter till translucent, covered with water, tossed in sliced potatoes, chopped spinach, lots of garlic, sea salt, pepper, turmeric… you get the idea. Then I let it all bubble and blend while I checked my email, cuz I’m like that.
The kids were noisy, I was […]
Original post by Alicia
Tonight the International Space Station flew over my house. This video was shot from our backyard.
var flashObject = new FlashObject(”http://www.youtube.com/v/uDlM0fkbD-I”,”fm_uDlM0fkbD-I”,”425″,”350″,”6″,”",”",”",”",”");
flashObject.write(”fo_targ_uDlM0fkbD-I1906007493″);
You can track it’s orbit at this site to see when it will fly over your house.
Original post by Robin
Alicia wanted me to do the guest blog spot, so you know it’s not just her having all the fun!
Last week I went on our egg roll run with a couple of the kids, and we saw some signs in the ditch but couldn’t make out what they said. We kept driving and saw a couple more, then finally saw a large colored circle and a sign next to it that said “Jupiter” and realized the school had put the solar system along the road!
We made it to Walnut Grove and came back to pick up the rest of the kids, then went back out and took pictures of the signs and marked the mileage. We were able to determine that the scale was 1:100,000,000 (1 mile to 100 million miles).
Here’s the signs:
First, the sun (located in the city limits).
Second, Mercury (.3 miles away, just barely past town)
Then Venus at […]
Original post by Alicia
It’s snowy and dreary here this morning. I desperately need to find the cleaning fairy and chain her to my kitchen, but I also have 4 mostly-darling children in dire need of some plain old fun.
Here’s 10 things that are on our list of possibles today.
1. Play hide the phone. This is one of my favorite games to play with toddlers and the big kids love doing it with Alex. Hide the phone, press the page button and watch the little guy happily tear through the house looking for it. (Can also be played with ticking timers.)
2. Make miniscule art. Hand out index cards or other small pieces of paper and trace a circle in the middle. Have the kids use magnifying glasses, microscopes or just look very closely at whatever object they like (each in a different room). […]
Original post by Alicia
I knew that science book I picked up at the library would come in handy (Gizmos and Gadgets by Jill Hauser.) We made this today to study Newton’s 1st law of motion. To make inertia zoom ball you get 2 bottles (soda, water, quart, liter, etc.) and cut them in half. Attach the 2 ends together and tape. Pull two 12 ft. lengths of string through the neck of one bottle and out the other neck of the other bottle. We didn’t have 6 pack plastic holders so I taped together 4 rings from the bottle ends and then tied the string onto them.
Now stand with the string tight and pull your hands apart to send the bottle flying to your partner, like this (click on the pic to see the video.)
From newton
This is Newton’s 1st law of motion; without force like a push or a pull an […]
Original post by liese4
We always come back to Science. Our best days are always the Science days. GB loves them.
Today we did two seed dissections. He has been learning about the process of plant reproduction.
This procedure was to show him that the seeds come complete with their own little embryo and plenty of food — all built right in.
First, we soaked the seeds over night to make them easier to split.
This photo clearly shows the seed coat on our lima bean (dicot).
Even without using the stereoscope you could clearly see the embryo, but the stereoscope makes it so much more vivid. Don’t you think? I mean just look at that detail. The embryo is at the top of the photo and all the rest of the bean is the stored food for the embryo.
Vocabulary Definitions:
Seed Coat - Protects the inside of the seed.
Embryo - the beginning of the new plant.
Stored Food - a […]
Original post by Robin
Among other things, we have begun a kid-requested study of human anatomy here at LaPaz. We are using The Body Book as a “spine” (LOL!) for this study, which is a very fun cut-and-paste sort of book, beefing it up with some library books and videos, and rounding it out with some hands-on extras.
Here are some scenes from day one, the five senses:
From The Body Book:
Some resources we borrowed from the library:
A smelling experiment all ready to go–the shakers contain cotton balls soaked with various extracts (I used lemon, root beer, peppermint, and maple, just whatever I had on hand). I put tape over the tops to keep the scents inside until the kids were ready to begin.
The challenge is to match them up while blindfolded.
Pull the tape, smell the scents, and pair them up!
“Mmmmm! That smells goooood! Can I do it again?”
Sure! Except (shhh…don’t tell) tomorrow the scents will […]
Original post by lapazfarm
Yes. I made that last word up. Do you like it? Here. I’ll even provide a definition for my newly created lexiconic invention. Biophyschemophobia: A pervasive fear of teaching, studying, reading about or exploring in any manner any material remotely related to the complex fields of biology, chemistry and physics or any combination thereof. A condition occasionally affecting homeschool parents and increasing in severity as their children do that annoying thing they do all the time (get older.)
In her fantabulous (I’m on a role with the new vocabulary, here. Just go with it.) book, The Cannon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science, Pulitzer Prize winning science writer, Natalie Angier, bemoans the low value placed on basic scientific knowledge in everyday American society. For the most part, if you ask the majority of people in your life who are not professional rocket scientists what they think about science, she explains, you’re more than likely […]
Original post by Crunchy Mama
We all got to meet a lovely little Plains Garter Snake yesterday! Daddy caught him as we were leaving the park in Walnut Grove and he gently held him so all the kids could pet him and take a peek.
A few facts about this little beastie:
The plains garter snake is a medium length Minnesota snake, measuring 14 to 43 inches in length.
It is more docile than the common garter snake.
They breed in the spring and are born alive in late summer or autumn. There are typically 10-70 born in a litter, at 5-8 inches each. Yikes! How would you like to happen upon 70 little newborn snakes, even docile ones?!
They are voracious eaters and will eat just about anything they can find, even carion at times (especially if it is still warm). Preferred munchies: birds’ eggs, toads, mice, earthworms, fish and frogs.
They kill without constriction or venom, so […]
Original post by Alicia
This experiment was in our local newspaper today. So GB and I decided to give it a try. He is unbelievably picky about food. So I suspected that he would be one of these super-tasters.
A super-taster may be someone who dislikes strong-tasting foods such as vinegar.
For this experiment you will need:
food color
magnifying glass
cotton swab
mirro
clean piece of paper with a 1/4 inch hole
and an adult helper
First put a drop of color on a swab and rub it on the end of your tongue.
Look at your tongue in the mirror - Do you see small pink dots or bumps on it? Those “taste buds” let you taste different foods.
Hold the hole in the paper over your tongue, then use the magnifier to count the number of bumps in the hole. ***Very hard to do if you have a wiggly kid.
Most people have 15-35 bumps.
Fewer than 15 bumps makes you a “non-taster’ and […]
Original post by Robin
Thursday at the Martinzoo is science day. I didn’t think it was going to be a science day today. We were going to go on a field trip to Hollywood Cemetery. Unfortunately, I committed to the cemetery field trip without GB’s input and he didn’t really have any desire to go. I’m not sure of his reasons, and I don’t want to say that he was *nervous* about being in a cemetery, but that could have been part of it. It’s too bad. I’d like to try it again someday because there are a lot of famous people buried there.
Anyway, we decided to not go and just have a typical school day instead.
We are doing a bit of life science this year, and our current chapter is on plant structure. So after reading the chapter and doing a virtual dissection at the BBC School Science site we went outside find […]
Original post by Robin
Tigger is currently doing a cell biology/microscopy course. That prompted her to get out the microscope her grandmother had picked up for her free or cheap somewhere. She checked it out and thinks it is good for her purposes but we need some slides and cover slips and things. So I suggested that she ask her science teacher where he gets his stuff.
She came home with a borrowed copy of his catalogue from ProlabScientific and advice that it is better to phone them than order online. I note that slides and coverslips are in their back-to-school sale flyer. Hurray. (I also noted that they have a battery operated acceleration timer in the $40 range which is much cheaper than what I’d seen before, when we get back to thinking about physics.) There offices are right here in Ottawa. I’m not sure if that will make a difference on shipping (or […]
Original post by jove
After the Great Chipmunk Adventure, I have apparently become that friend who collects roadkill. I had a message on the phone yesterday from Paula telling me she’d found a dead squirrel in great condition and had it in her trunk for me!
This is not to mention PisecoSis, who is in the process of preserving a bat hide for me and has a swallow in her freezer.
But of course - I’m thrilled. We don’t have a borrowed collection to rival Theresa’s, but we are slowly amassing our own nature study collection!
To preserve the stomach of anyone who may be coming across this post while munching on a midnight snack… I’m putting our pictures behind the cut.
WARNING! THIS POST IS NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH!
Original post by piseco
JediBoy has been clamoring for more hands-on science experiments, having had his fill of nature study for the time being. This week, we decided to explore electricity: we visited Radio Shack and bought several batteries, small bulbs, wires and bulb holders. (Is it just me, or was the do-it-yourself section of Radio Shack bigger and much more exciting when we were kids?)
I pulled out a neat old text I have: Addison-Wesley’s STEM Science. This bright red text from 1977 features activities on Space, Time, Energy and Matter. I would guess it’s aimed at young primary students (5-7 years old, maybe?). I like it because its activities are centered around questions and open-ended explorations.
The section on Electric Light Circuits begins on page 62, and we briefly read that page (it’s a big cartoon on top and then a simple introduction at the bottom) before turning to […]
Original post by piseco
Module 5
In this module we did two experiments to observe the unhealthy residue that cigarette smoking leaves in the lungs and other parts of the respiratory system.
Things we learned about tobacco:
Tobacco is VERY potent.
It contains more than 4000 chemicals, many of which are released into the air during smoking.
Tar and Carbon Monoxide are two particularly dangerous chemicals in cigarette smoke.
Tar causes lung cancer, emphysema, and bronchial diseases.
Carbon Monoxide can cause heart problems.
Other serious health problems linked to smoking include digestive cancers, gastric ulcers, and cancers of the throat, lip, esophagus, and pancreas.
The leaves of the tobacco plant contain a drug called nicotine. Nicotine is found in all tobacco products: cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco, chewing tobacco, and snuff. It causes an increase in blood pressure, heart rate, and respiration. It is VERY addictive.
Nicotine enters the body very quickly. After the smoke is inhaled, it only takes EIGHT seconds to reach the […]
Original post by Robin
I was chatting with a neighbor, a school teacher, about her position, classroom stuff, and soon the topic moved to science. She expressed how she loved doing experiments with her little cherubs and I shared how I was turning Mark onto science this year by doing Chemistry experiments with her. She was quite interested in what I was using and had never heard of Wild Goose Company Science Kits. I pulled one out of the house and began to show it to her. The label says, Real Science-Real Fun.
Suddenly she caught herself, and exclaimed, “Oh no, no I can’t use this. It doesn’t meet the DE State Standards for what I’m to teach in the classroom.” There was no teasingly sarcasm in her voice, but dead seriousness. She closed the box and handed it back. In case you aren’t familiar with Wild Goose products they are totally secular, very […]
Original post by mtpleasant
GB and I were totally focused on our Language Arts day. He had a spelling test, got new words for next week, learned about writing for the reader, and took a chapter test.
96%, thank you very much!
We also did some work in his Getty & Dubay Handwriting book.
And he did some more Complete-a-Sketch.
It was all going normally for a Language Arts day.
Until this guy walked across the floor and FREAKED me out!
Once suitably contained, we were able to observe him in relative safety. We quickly identified him as a wolf spider (Because we’ve seen them lots of times before). Then we pulled out the books and magazines we have that deal with arachnids. And we checked on our trusty computer. GB’s best moment of the day was when I screachingly yelled at told him to NOT tilt the container so much. Good Lord! My heart!
Under our stereoscope, we noticed the […]
Original post by Robin
I think most people know about FreeRice by now, the cool web site that tests your vocabulary and earns rice that’s donated to the hungry. They’ve expanded and now have categories like chemistry symbols, multiplication, world capitals, foreign languages and more! What a great way to help others and help your kids (or yourself) learn.
Original post by Alicia
You will not think this is a big deal. But, good grief, we struggled!
Our assignment was to scrape some cheek cells from the inside of the mouth. And to prick a finger to get some blood, so we could study the cells. First of all, GB insisted that my cheek should be the one to scrape since I’m older and lose more skin cells than he does. I don’t know if that is *true* but my dh laughingly agrees with GB.
The cheek scraping went off with nary a hitch. And we got a very nice slide out of it when we looked at it under the microscope. The cheek cells were very nicely defined and looked just like the book.
Oh, but the blood………… Yuck!
Ok, I will admit it. We are a family of fainters. Not my dh, I want to clarify, because he’d be highly offended to be lumped in […]
Original post by Robin
Typical day here at the Martinzoo. We spent every bit of it studying Science. Why can’t Science be one of the required subjects that the County requires? Ours doesn’t. All they care about is Language Arts and Math at GB’s age. And he, of course, is most excited by Science and History. Ah well! Such is life.
Today we were learning about cells in our Switched on Science curriculum…. kind of dry, I have to admit. So, I decided to punch up the visuals with some cool web sites that I found during our lunch hour. This site has very cool interactive plant and animal model cells, which was done WAY better than I could have drawn for GB.
We also learned about unicellular organisms and the same site had this graphic:
I think all the ads were annoying on this site, KidsBiology, but I understand that that’s how you make a site […]
Original post by Robin
I’m reading Madeleine L’Engle’s Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage and came across this today (page 125 of the edition I have).
There are many times when the idea that there is indeed a pattern seems absurd wishful thinking. Random events abound. There is much in life that seems meaningless. And then, when I can see no evidence of meaning, some glimpse is given which reveals the strange weaving of purposefulness and beauty.
The world of science lives fairly comfortably with paradox. We know that light is a wave, and also that light is a particle. The discoveries made in the infinitely small world of particle physics indicate randomness and chance, and I do not find it any more difficult to live with the paradox of a universe of randomness and chance and a universe of pattern and purpose than I do with light as a wave and light as a […]
Original post by jove
You’re a regular guy, driving home for lunch to your regular house in the ‘burbs in your regular company car. You turn down your cul-de-sac in your regular new construction neighborhood and suddenly something looks decidedly irregular. A large gaggle of school aged kids and a handful of mothers (one of which you think is your neighbor from two doors down) are gleefully jabbing pointy sticks into a huge mound of dirt on an empty lot that has yet to be built. It’s noon. On a Thursday. In September. What is going on here?
Your neighbor waves cheerfully and promptly goes back to coordinating the pointy-stick jabbing venture. Oh yeah. She mentioned something about homeschooling at the Labor Day block party…… So this is how homeschoolers spend their Thursdays.
Today was the first fun-filled day of my Ancient Scientists class. And those kids jabbing stick in the ground were happily experiencing Prehistoric Man’s […]
Original post by Crunchy Mama
Discussion:
We reviewed the six kingdoms of life and made a new chart — kind of a “mind map” — which the kids decorated with magazine clippings.
We talked a lot — again — about how the animal kingdom is divided into phyla.
We talked about how scientists divide animals into kingdoms (by the type of cells, how it is nourished, etc.)
Lab:
John led us in a biology lab — studying specimens of various animal phyla. We used a biology textbook for reference. Since my kids already have a basic understanding of natural selection and evolution, I wove that into the discussion. We emphasized the way animals are believed to have evolved from protists (which we studied in our last lab).
We started with a starfish — which is basically a mass of unspecialized cells, then moved on to cnidarians (like jellyfish), which have simple specialized parts (basically a tube-like body and tentacles, both […]
Original post by tribeofautodidacts
Daryl and Victoria have been having a blast playing Seed, a free online game where kids learn about everything from clones to genetic codes. Plant a seed and grow a flower, then choose whether to plant a clone of it or cross two flowers and splice them. Watch for mutations, see what new designs you can make and experiment with other people’s genetic codes. Not only is it really educational, but it’s pretty and fun.
Original post by Alicia
« Previous Entries