Posts Tagged ‘science’
{ August 30, 2009 @ 5:38 pm }
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{ Tags: busy, cheer, classes, dance, homeschool, schedule, science }
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I kind of dread this post every year, the one where I lay out all of our outside (or extrcurricular to use the school venacular) activities. It seems to get worse every year as the kids get into more and more things and, since they are getting older, I find some of my own. It never seems that bad until I write it all out somehow.
Anyway…..here we go!
Monday:
Foster Granny Visit 2-4
Teaching multi age cheer class 4-5
K’s modern class 6:30-7:30
Tuesday:
K’s Marine Bio Class 9:15-10:30
C’s Jazz class 6:30-7:15
K’s Jazz Class 7:15-8:00
Wednesday:
K’s tumbling class 6-7
Thursday:
K’s Marine Bio class 9:15-10:30
Homeschooling Support group 10:30-12
B’s breaking class 5:30-6:15
C and M’s modern class 5:30-6:15
My ballet class 6:15-7
K and I teach Junior Cheer 7-7:45
Friday:
K teaching tiny cheer 4-5
Me teaching special needs cheer 5-6
Somewhere in there we also need to cover lessons, practicing for K’s individual cheer routine or her attending another cheer class (which she ends up doin will depend on when the class is being held and how it fits our schedule), and those silly things like eating, sleeping and housework. Not to mention getting M on the bus at 6:30 and picking her up from it at 2:30. At least the weekends are free…until cheer comp season starts.
*sigh*
It hardly seems to fit the homeschooling stereotype does it?
{ August 14, 2008 @ 11:00 pm }
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{ Tags: nature study, science, snakes }
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Today we found a snake!
Actually W found it. He was mowing the lawn and suddenly rushed into the house saying “There’s a snake in the dog pen!!” and calling the dogs back in.
Now we live in Maine so *snake* usually means *garter snake* which equals *harmless*, but W does not like snakes and tends to be a bit paraniod. I asked him where it was and he repeated that it was in the dog pen. Dog pen is about 8′ X 16′ so that doesn’t really tell me anything. I finally got a location out of him and headed out to catch it. W has a forked stick, but I’m like “it’s a garter snake, I don’t need a stick!”. I was known to be quite a snake catcher in my youth and I never once used a stick, thank you very much! 
I caught it pretty quickly and brought it inside for the kids to see. We put it in a small cage to observe since it was quite upset and ornery. I almost got bit and he musked me pretty badly, yeck!
Here are a few pictures of Nagina (don’t ask me, the kids named him..er her)
We’ll let it go as soon as the lawn is mowed. W said he saw another bigger one in the garden, it seems we have quite a population out there! Might explain all the holes. Between the snakes and the chipmunks my lawn is like swiss cheese :^P~~~~~~~~~~
{ May 13, 2008 @ 2:04 pm }
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{ Tags: art, conservation, homeschooling, science, whales }
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K and I saw this in the latest issue of Home Education Magazine.
Here’s the blurb:
Join Operation Humpback Help
This is a student campaign to save the Humpback and Fin whales targeted by the Whaling fleets in the Southern Hemisphere.
Rather than simply sign a petition, let’s combine Japanese origami with student messages from around the world. Make pods of 50 (the number of humpbacks and fins Japanese whalers plan to kill this year) origami whales, string them together, and write notes on them.
You can read more about the project at the Operation Humpback Help website. the site is run by the Tower School in Marblehead, MA.
Basically you make a *pod* of 50 origami whales and send OHH an e-mail (and picture if you like) telling them who you are and about your pod. The whales should contain messages such as *Save the Whales* or simply *Help!*. You are also encouraged to send them in to one of two addresses listed on the website between May 1st and 15th.
K, her friend C and various homeschooled kids who wandered by made a pod yesterday while manning our table at the homeschool curriculum sale.
Here is a picture of the whole pod (or most if it, I think a couple may have fallen on the floor!):
and a close up so you can read the message:
I am not going to list resources because there are so many good ones on the Operation Humpback Help website and also in the article in Home Education Magazine. Suffice it to say I see a bunch of reading and maybe a whale watch in our future!
Art and science with a purpose, you really can’t beat that!
{ April 1, 2008 @ 1:00 am }
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{ Tags: homeschooling, martian greenhouse, science }
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Today we made our version of the Martian Greenhouse. Of course, in typical B house fashion, we didn’t do it exactly according to directions. Hopefully it won’t explode or anything!
I didn’t have a pickle or mayonnaise jar, but after an intense search I found a flour canister that seems to fit the bill! We went to the pet store and bought gravel and charcoal and then to the big box store for peat moss. I had copious amounts of vinegar and baking soda left from acid and bases class and W already had Teflon tape so that was all set. The only thing I couldn’t find was the bar of charcoal. I’m not even sure what that is?!? Anyway…we left it out and I refer back to the last sentence of the previous paragraph.
We started by putting a layer of gravel, a layer of charcoals and a nice thick layer of peat moss. Then we planted some of our tomato plants in the peat moss and watered them.
Then we made some Carbon Dioxide by mixing vinegar and baking soda and poured it into the jar.
Next we lined the jar’s threads with Teflon tape to make sure we got a good seal.
Viola! A Martian Greenhouse! 
Notice the colorful gravel!
It says these can go one for awhile or they can die very quickly. Since we didn’t actually do it right I expect ours will be of the latter variety but I’ll keep you all updated!
If you like, you can also check out how we started this project and/or how it turned out
{ March 23, 2008 @ 12:38 am }
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{ Tags: experiments, science, tomatoes }
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We have been tending our seeds and recording any germination. We saw nothing for 5 days, which worried me a little since I do have the black thumb of death when it come to growing things 
On the 6th day, however, there was life! On on the 7th day there was more life! Woo Hoo! I didn’t kill them!
Here’s how they looked at the end:
I won’t share how it all came out so as not to influence those of you still waiting for germination but suffice it to say the results were interesting. We did get to learn which seeds were which after we sent in the data.
All in all it was a fun project and I’m really glad we made it to the end this year. The kids want to continue to grow the plants (and I’ll let them do that so they have a chance LOL!) and eventually plant them outside where perhaps we will see a difference in the larger plants and fruit. Plus, maybe we’ll have tomatoes!
Want to see how it all started? Click here. If you want to see our extention activity click here.
{ March 11, 2008 @ 11:58 pm }
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{ Tags: gardening, homeschooling, science, tomatosphere }
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We planted our seeds for Tomatosphere today.
Here are our supplies:
The seeds (labeled A and B) Peat Pellets
The kids placed the peat pellets in the *greenhouse*, labeled the different side (A and B-leaving a couple empty rows in between) and added water until the pellets expanded.
Here they are planting the seeds in the prepared peat pellets and spraying them with water.
This is the finished *greenhouse* and a picture of the label on the side.
I had them each predict what they think will happen. B thinks that they will be no difference in growth while K thinks those exposed to space conditions will not grow as well as the control seeds. We’ll discuss the differences in climate, sunlight and gravity between earth and mars tomorrow and K will fill out a more detailed prediction but for now the experiment is set and ready!
I’ll keep you all updated
Want to know what happened? Click here for our results, or here to see our extention activity.
{ February 26, 2008 @ 6:54 pm }
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{ Tags: collaborative projects, cool things, homeschooling, science }
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http://www.windows.ucar.edu/citizen_science/budburst/ (and yes, it helps if I give you the website, doesn’t it?)
Project BudBurst is “A National Phenology Network National Field Campaign for Citizen Scientists”. Now, who wouldn’t want to be a citizen scientist? LOL!
Phenology is the study of plant and animal life cycles. Basically what you are doing by participating is identifying, observing and reporting the different stages in the life cycles of local plant life.
There are lots of lesson plans, identification guides, teacher guides, student activities and helpful data collection forms available to print. Some are even interactive! I printed off and read through some stuff last night and it seems pretty straight forward.
We plan on observing our lilac bush and I was able to print off an ID sheet and see examples of the different phenological phases.
My kids love to do this sort of collaborative project! In the past we have done Bucket Buddies (http://www.ciese.org/curriculum/bucketproj/), to Tomatosphere ( http://www.tomatosphere.org/) and the Square of Life project (http://www.k12science.org/curriculum/squareproj/). They are really looking forward to this!
{ February 25, 2008 @ 2:24 am }
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{ Tags: homeschooling, potions, science }
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So B has been asking to *mix up some stuff* in the kitchen. He really enjoyed our acids and bases science class and has been wanting to make *potions* ever since. Well, I happened to be tag surfing, found this post http://thejuma.wordpress.com/2008/02/21/sinking-spheres/ on Team Effort and decided to let B give it a try.
(that rabbit looking thing is our salt grinder)
B loved adding the food coloring and watching the bubbles form, but wasn’t patient enough to wait for the salt to dissolve without me urging (read bribing) him to leave it for just a minute.
After performing the experiment to my specifications, he proceeded to add (in this order):
soap-it made everything mix together leaving only a thin layer of oily scum at the top.
corn syrup-it sank to the bottom
vinegar-it broke up quite a bit of the scummy layer
Then he dumped it all down the sink!
So that was what? Density, solubility and a few other things I can’t think of right now. Not bad for a lazy afternoon!
{ February 19, 2008 @ 7:42 pm }
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{ Tags: free stuff, science }
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Otherwise known as the Howard Hughes Medical Institute
http://www.hhmi.org/
This is a great resource for upper level science. They have information of all sorts of on-line information in their resource area for students and educators (how much do I love that they don’t say *teachers*?). One of my favs is the Cool Science for Curious Kids page.
You can also subscribe to their magazine the HHMI Bulletin
and order things like DVDs, print based resources and download PDFs from their on-line catalog all for FREE! You don’t even pay shipping! We own the virtual lab series CD-Roms, the Evolution and RNA DVDs and subscribe to the Bulletin.
I’ll admit that I get more out of the stuff then my kids do (in general anyway), but then I am the only one who gets excited about science anyway. I think any high school-ish level kid who is passionate about science (and some who aren’t) would get something out of what HHMI has to offer and the Cool Science page is geared for much lower age groups. B made a Plant Parts Salad this morning as a matter of fact! K has dabbled in the virtual labs and often picks up the Bulletin. We plan to watch the RNA DVD this weekend to tie in with our DNA/genetics class. Since it focuses on individual scientists quite a lot it would be good for a kid who wants to pursue science as a career.
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