Kickbutt's Crazy Lapbooks: science

Experiment 12: Erupting Volcano

I know, most of us have done this a million times, but it is soooo much fun! My kids love erupting volcanos so much that we finally made a permanent volcano so they can erupt it over and over!

Supplies: (most of these measurements are rough)
6 cups flour
2 cups salt
4 tbs cooking oil
2 cups water
Empty soda bottle (16 oz)
Warm water
Red food coloring
6 drops dish detergent
2 tbs baking soda
Vinegar about 1 Tbs
Baking dish
Large bowl

Process:

Stand bottle up in the baking dish
In large bowl, mix flour and salt.
Add the water (from the 2 cups) at cup at a time. More might be needed. Mix until you result in a smooth & firm mixture.
Use mixture to make the sides of the volcano, smoothing from the neck out and down to the baking dish, trying to make the sides sloping and smooth.Be careful not to cover the opening or drop dough into it!
Let your volcano dry, you could even paint it if you want!
Fill the bottle about 3/4 of the way with warm water.
Add a few drops of red food coloring to the water
Add the few drops of dish detergent.
Add baking soda to water
Slowly add the vinegar and watch the eruption!

What's Happening?
Chemistry (for older kids).
In this experiment you have several chemical reactions that happen in rapid succession. First, the acidic acid in vinegar (the stuff that makes it sour) reacts to the Sodium Bicarbonate in the baking soda, the result is Carbonic acid. But carbonic acid is very unstable, and it rapidly decomposes (an immediate reaction) into carbon dioxide and water. The bubbles in this experiment are from the carbon dioxide. The bubbles flow down the sides of e 'volcano' because carbon dioxide is heavier than oxygen. In this experiment you get even more bubbles because of the dish soap.

Volcanoes:
Why do volcanoes erupt? There are several different types of volcanoes and therefore there are several different types of volcano eruptions. In this experiment we are simulating a Strato-Volcano - this is the type of volcano that has steep sides reaching up toward the sky. The eruption of these volcanos usually occurs in stages. These stages can happen in rapid succession or each stage can last days, months, even years!

The inside of a volcano is like a bowl with a bunch of straws sticking out of it. Most of the straws go off in different directions. The 'bowl' is the magma chamber. Magma is liquified rock from deep within the earth. There are cracks, or weak spots in e crust that allow the magma to travel closer to the surface. These tunnels (like the straws in the above analogy) are vents. Usually there is one main vent, and many secondary vents.

Did you know it's called Magma when it's underground, but Lava when it's above ground?

The closer the magma gets to the surface, the more ground water is boiled into water vapor. If the vents are open, there might be a constant stream of steam that escapes the vent. This stage usually lasts the longest. Water vapor below ground build pressure. If the vent is open enough, it could release this pressure enough to prevent an eruption from happening for years!

But, if the vent isn't open enough, then the pressure with build and build. This is like shaking a closed soda bottle. Eventually the volcano will blow apart in a violent release of pressure. The first part of this kind of volcanic eruption is made up of rock and super heated gas, the rock and dust is usually what remained of the part of the volcano above the blocked vent. (look at videos of Mt St Helen's erupting, where 1/3 of the volcano was blown away!) this bstage of the eruption is called the Pyroclastic Flow - believe it or not, this type of eruption is more deadly than any other stage. Because it is so explosive, it can happen with little to no warning. And the super heated gases and rocks can be thousands of degrees in temp and travel hundreds of miles an hour! This doesn't give people much time to get out of the way. The next stage of the explosion is the ash cloud. When the volcano violently erupts, the stuff too heavy to fly flows down the side of the volcano in the Pyroclastic flow, but dust and ash is very light, most often it is made up of pumice which is very light, and this ash can be blown miles into the atmosphere, but eventually it will come back to earth. Feet upon feet of ash can fall for days, eve, weeks, after the initial eruption.

If this initial explosion destroys enough of the volcano the magma can leak out. In the final stage of an eruption. This stage isn't very often. Most often the pressure is released in the early stages. But if the magma chamber is high enough, or if enough of the vent is blown open, then the magma will spill outward, flowing downhill, much like water. As soon as this super heated rock touches surface air it immediately cools back into solid rock. Eventually this rock will again plug the hole in the end of the vent, and the process begins all over again.

To Make a More Permanent Volvano:

Supplies:
1 Empty Toilet Paper Roll
10 lengths of string about 18-24 inches in length each
1 large paper plate
Plaster of Paris
2-4 Roll of Gause
Warm Water
Tape
Paints
1 mini plastic bowl (I used a washed out cup from the cinnamon rolls, the one the frosting comes in) < br/> Spray Sealant (optional)

Process:

Cut 4 small slits on the bottom of the tp roll, very small ones, then bend the pieces out until you have 4 'feet'
Tape these feet to the middle of your paper plate
Cut about 12 evenly spaced tiny cuts along the top edge of the tp roll.
Tape one end of one piece of string to the bottom edge of the plate, wrap the middle of the string between 2 slits on the top of the roll, then tape the other end under the edge of the plate. Try to make the string go to a slight diagonal.
Repeat step 4 until you have a nice structure for a Strato-volcano. (you'll use all if not most of your string.
Cut a roll of Gause into roughly 8 inch strips.
Mix some of your plaster with water. I do this in small sections because plaster dries crazy fast, and you need to move fairly quickly.
Dip a section of Gause into the plaster and lay it over your structure, making sure not to seal off the top hole, until the whole thing (even bottom edge) is covered in a nice thick layer.
Allow it to dry completely. You can do a couple of layers until you have a solid volcano
Allow it to dry, then paint as desired
You can chose to seal it with a spray sealer if you think the kids will want to cause repeated eruptions (sealer will prevent the sides from getting sticky once the 'lava' starts flowing).
Fit tiny cup into the top of your volcano, this is where you'll put your chemical mixture.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Experiment 11: Floating Water

Experiment 11: Water Pressure vs. Air
This is another experiment that doubles as a magic tric. Amaze your family and friends with this experiment!

Supplies:

1 plastic bottle with a top (it can be a 16 oz-2 liter)
Water
Sharp knife or drill (CAUTION!!)
Sink or bucket

Process:

1) have an adult use the sharp knife or drill to make tiny holes along the bottom underside of the bottle. If using a bottle that has 4 little feet (small protrusions) then put one hole in the bottom of each; if your bottle is flat edged n the bottom, then just make 4 equally spaced holes
2) fill the bottle about 3/4 of the way full with water.
3) secret cap on tightly
4) Lift up bottle and be amazed that none of the water leaks out of the holes.
5) holding bottle over sink or bucket tips slightly and watch the water come out of the holes.

Explanation:

Water can only leak out of the holes when air can pass into the bottle via the holes. See inside every object is a constant # of molecules. I an empty bottle the bottle is actually filled with air. If the bottle is filled with water the air is pushed out through the 'mouth' of the bottle. When holding a bottle upright, the air in the bottle goes toward the top the water, toward the bottom. In effect, the water prevents more air from entering the bottle through the small holes - so the water is acting as a plug! When you tip the bottle even slightly, some of the water molecules shifty off of the openings, ever so briefly. This allows some air to enter the bottle and some water to exit the bottle. But it looks like magic to have the water not fall down out of the holes!

Experiments 8-10: Playing with Gas Pressure

The next 3 experiments all deal with gas pressure. They are among my kids favorite experiments - but, as boys, anything exploding or seeming like magic will always be a hit!

Experiment 8: Exploding Soda

CAUTION: you'll want to do this outside away from your house, as it makes a fantastic mess.

Supplies:
2 liter bottle of soda unopened 1 package of mint mentos

Process:

1) set the soda bottle in a wide open space and carefully open the top. (don't shake up the soda as you want as much of hte carbon dioxide to remain in the bottle as possible)
2) this is the tricky party. You'll want to drop at least 5 mentos into the soda at the same time. I stacked the mentos carefully so they could drop, one right after the other into the bottle.
3) duck and run! The soda will shoot up about 15 feet into the air!

Explanation:

Soda is backed with carbon dioxide, that's what all the fizz is about. A mento may seem smooth on the surface, but in actuality the entire surface is pitted with hundreds of microscopic holes. When they are dropped into the soca much of the carbon zooms through these holes, building up the gas pressure to explosive levels, as the pressure inside the bottle becomes greater than the air pressure outside, the liquid seeks to go where there is less pressure, outside the bottle. This is a similar concept to releasing a blown up balloon - it will zoom around as the pressure within the balloon is rapidly released.

Experiment 9: the Coin Launcher

Supplies:

1 small bottle of soda, empty (16 oz is a good size)
1 pieces of tissue paper
1 quarters
Freezer
Safety glasses

Process:

1) put the top on tightly on the empty bottle, also place it in the freezer
2) let sit for About 30 minutes
3) observe what changes to the bottle, but leave it in the freezer so it doesn't warm
4) wrap the quarter in the tissue paper
5) get the paper wet
6) with the bottle still in the freezer, remove the top and place the tissue wrapped quarter over the opening.
7) allow to sit in freezer until tissue is frozen
8) take bottle out of the freezer. Wear the safety glasses!
9) gently warm the bottle in your hands pointing away from you. Watch what happens!

Explanation:

When the bottle is frozen it shrinks as the air molecules pull toward the middle of the boodle. When the frozen tissue is in place of the top, it should maintain this vacuum. (if he coin doesnt shoot off, then the tissue dint form a good enough seal). When the bottle is then warmed the air molecules push back away from the center. This causes a change in pressure that pushes the coin away.

Experiment 10: Magic Card Trick

We actually first did this trick last spring for a local science fair. My youngest did the next two experiments as a part of his display on the awesome capabilities of air & water pressure!

Supplies

Small glass or plastic cup (it must have a rather sharp or flat rim with no bends)
Water
1 index card

Process:

1) fill the glass about 3/4 of the way full of water
2) lay the index card flat across the open end of the glass.
3) support the card with the flat of your hand as you quickly turn the cup upside down
4) remove your hand, amaze your family & friends with the fact that the card stays in place and doesn't fall!! (don't leave it too long upside down though, once the water soaks into the card enough it will destroy the seal and the water will go everywhere!)

Explanation:

The reason the card stays in place is based on 2 laws. First Newtons second law of motion: "every action has an equal and opposite reaction" and air pressure vs water pressure. (or more specifically air pressure vs the force of gravity)

Essentially the water in the cup is pushing down with the force of gravity (9.8 meters/second squared). While this force is pointing toward the ground, the air outside the cup of pushing upwards on the card. For a period of time this creates a seal between the card and the edge of the cup. Furthermore there are way more air molecules outside of the cup than there are water molecules inside the cup. This is the true reason for the 'magic'. All air molecules are trying to raise up. This means there is a pressure imbalance. It's like having a car hit a brick wall. If it is a small wall the wall will be destroyed by the car - because there are too many molecules in the car acting against the fewer molecules in the wall. But if it is a gigantic stone wall (like a concrete bridge support) then the car is the one with more damage - as there are more molecules in the wall than there are in the car.

Monday, July 16, 2012

Experiment 7: Making Rain

This experiment is fun, especially for elementary and preschoolers. We did it as a part of our study of the water cycle.

CAUTION: you must have adult supervision for this experiment as you are dealing with a stove top and boiling water. This experiment also demonstrates how temperature is one of the main factors in changing the state of matter.

Supplies:

one hard covered book
stove top heating element
one small sauce pan
freezer
water

Process:

1) place your hardcover book in the freezer and allow it to sit there at least over night.
2) boil a pot of water (demonstrating evaporation)
3) once you have a cloud of steam rising from the pot, hold the book at an angle in the steam, making rain! - Watch out for your fingers! Steam is very hot!!

Explanation:

First in changing the states of matter: This is the approach to take with older kids who may already be familiar with the water cycle. In order to change a substance to different states of matter (liquid, solid, gas) you must apply a change in temp. A solid is a substance that has the molecules tightly packed together with stong bonds, at room temperature. A liquid is one where the molecules are spread out, some have bonds to other molecules, some are free floating. A gas is where the atoms/molecules float independantly from the other atoms, no bonds between them, rarely do they interact with the other atoms.

Water is one of the easiest to see the change in matter. If you apply heat, the liquid will evaporate, this results in steam - aka water vapor (a gas). If you apply a dramatic drop in temperature (like in a freezer) the h2o molecules will bond tightly together creating a solid (ice). Now, most children are taught these 3 states of matter at fairly young ages. But did you know there are actually 5 states of matter? The unsung heroes of matter are Plasma and the Bose-Einstein Condensiate (BEC). Plasma as a state of matter was only introduced in 1879, and the BEC was only recognized in 1995!! In a BEC the atoms are even more richly packed than in a solid. Most solids are brittle because of the way the molecules are bound (ever shattered a piece of ice?), but BEC are extremely strong, and not easy to break. A plasma is a cross between a solid and a liquid. It has properties of both.

Scientists are still hard at work on understanding matter. In fact, most scientists now refer to 'states of matter' as a Phase. For example, with water. If you start at a very low temperature you have a BEC, slowly increase the temp and youll have a solid (ice). If you slowly increase the temperature, you'll get a plasma (slushy like material, some ice, some water). Keep the temp increasing and you'll eventually get a liquid, keep the gem going and eventually you get a gas. So it is like your water has gone through different phases based on temperature. In a nutshell, matter is understood based on 2 things: temperature and the density of the molecules.

Water cycle: Did you know the amount of water found on Earth hasn't changed for billions of years? The only things that have changed are the location and whether or not the water is drinkable! The water cycle is responsible for both. It is never ending, which is why it is considered a cycle. At any given moment there are millions of gallons of water all around the globe: from oceans and seas (which contain a lot of salt); to lakes, rivers and ponds which are fresh water (low salt, but higher in other natural chemicals; to clouds, snow, ice and rain! Water is everywhere. To keep water moving about we rely on the water cycle. You see, the sun heats the surfaces of most water (puddles, rivers, oceans etc.) the only water unaffected by this first stage is water found below the ground or ice. As the sun heats the water some molecules seperate and turn to water vapor, a gas. Since water vapor is lighter than air it raises high into the sky. Way up high in our atmosphere it is very cold, the water vapor then wants to bind back to a solid, but our atmosphere is vast, so the molecules have trouble finding eachother in order to bond. Istead the bond with dust particles. This is the reason for the awesome shapes of a snowflake. Many water molecules will bind with individual dust particles, growing into ever larger snowflakes (ice). The particles might even find eachother, creating clouds. But the sun strikes these atoms as well, melting the ice back to water, which is heavier than air so it falls back to the ground as rain. (in winter the snow/ice particles grow until they are too heavy to remain aloft and they fall as snow or ice!). Once the rain is on the ground it flows down stream, back to the oceans, rivers lakes, etc. Happy learning!!

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Physics Progression Questions Answered

In one of my online groups I had a mom ask me some questions about teaching science, and what progressions I suggest....here's my responses...

What books am I using for Quantum Physics?

We are using "Alice in Quantumland" and "Scrooge's Cryptic Carol" both are awesome for creating that visual picture for things that are so conceptual, as well as "The Cartoon Guide To Physics" and "Janice VanCleave's Physics for Every Kid: 101 Easy Experiments". But I've always just made my own curriculums.

What sequence did you use for beginning Physics?

Ok basically I taught/will teach them in this order -

Machines (levers, wheels, etc), Motion/Forces (intro Newton's Laws), Light & Sound/Waves, Optics, Matter/Fluids,Probability/Measurement, Electricity/Magnetism, Heat/Thermodynamics,The Atom, Quantum, Astro, Nuclear, The 10 Dimensions, Newton, Einstein, Steven Hawking, Neils Bohr = until the Quantum I didn't teach the formula's that went with the topics (since my kids were REALLY young when we started (toddlers) so much of the formula's were beyond them....that's why I introduced Newton then went back to it later in more depth - where I could include the mathematics (to a certain extent).

Although I also found my background made teaching math easier as well (haha) in that scientists like Physicists realize the 'numbers' in all equations are just titles or names for sets. This is the same in Physics with their advanced equations - each letter/symbol stands for another set. Believe it or not changing the 'number' names to symbols or letters keeps things more organized and less confusing. (of course many of the symbols also stand for other equations, but that's another matter). Many kids/teachers get caught up on the identifiers - the number 3 times the number 5 always makes the number 15 - then once the student reaches middle or high school we throw away the numbers in favor of letters/symbols for algebra when most student's lock up with confusion not understanding what the x's and the y's are supposed to be about, But I think I've digressed, lol...

Online Physics Resources?
Some of the websites I love:

http://www.school-for-champions.com/science.htm#Physics http://www.lbl.gov/abc/ http://www.chemmybear.com/shapes.html http://americanhistory.si.edu/kids/molecule/ http://www.mos.org/sln/Leonardo/InventorsToolbox.html http://www.howeverythingworks.org/ http://www.blackcatsystems.com/science/radiation.html
http://www.thinkingfountain.org/f/friction/friction.html
http://www.kqed.org/quest/television/view/397 (the science of a home run)
http://www.strangematterexhibit.com/
http://library.thinkquest.org/2779/
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/HFrame.html
http://mitchellscience.com/bernoulli_principle_animation
http://www.exploratorium.edu/snacks/
http://myweb.lmu.edu/gvarieschi/chimney/chimney.html
http://www.ncsu.edu/sciencejunction/station/experiments/EGG/egg.html#Pizza
http://ngsir.netfirms.com/englishVersion.htm
http://littleshop.physics.colostate.edu/onlineexperiments.htm
http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/newtlaws/
http://slinky.org/ Demonstrating Physics Concepts with the Amazing Slinky!
http://surfaquarium.com/IT/physics.htm

http://www.pitt.edu/~poole/physics.html = For the Physics Teacher

{My husband suggested} to do basic physics, then basic chemistry, before diving into quantum or more advanced/specific physics? He said she will need that basic chem before more advanced physics?

As i sated in one of my previous replies, my oldest is also special needs - he has Aspergers, which makes straight up math (like multiplication tables) difficult. He's way advanced with understanding concepts though - like he can explain multiplication, he just get's confused when it's a worksheet in front of him. Anywho - because of this difficulty we are going a little out of the norm for progression. If we were focusing on advancing through science in the normal way, including most of the basic (if not calculus) equations, then I'd say yes. You want a solid understanding of basic physics and chemistry before going into the conceptual (like atomic and quantum) this is because the math for these are really advanced logrythms and calculus - so if you don't understand the math behind Force = Mass x Acceleration then you'll never understand E = MC squared. BUT, due to the complication of being able to manipulate mathmatics I took a round about root. I'm doing some of the more conceptual stuff first, without the mathmatics. So essentially we are covering the 'discussions' without the 'proof' - which to a physics buff sound really stupid - why discuss something when you have no concrete evidence such a thing is viable? But when teaching on of the hardest things for me was to teach the boys how THEY needed to learn not how I wished I had been TAUGHT. So that's the reason for the book choices I previously mentioned - they offer very little in the way of math. They are discussing the concepts of Physics as well as the history of the science. That's why we plan on going back and focusing on some of the most intrumental scientists later - to focus on the PROOF once my son catches up with the math. I didn't want to hold him back - he loves the discussions - just because learning the equations are much like learning to read a foreign language.
When it comes to Chemistry - we plan on covering basic chemistry when we focus on Atoms and their structure - this is primarily because we have no access to an advanced Chem lab, so again much of our lessons will be more conceptual (how this substance and this substance come together to form this substance). We can do several 'kitchen' experiments and the rest we can postulate on paper, which often involve breaking things down to the atomic level. Then near the middle-end of the year, once the kids have a handle on the structure and behavior of an atom, and how one substances atom reacts/mixes to another we can start filtering in more conceptual/modern discussions on sub-atomic and atomic theory. Which naturally would lead to the next level nuclear fission.

An understanding of basic physics - essentially Newton's Laws - is essential before even entering a discussion on the more specific physics. Chemistry is somewhat debatable. If one understands different types of matter (liquid, solid and gas) and a tiny bit of the structure/differences of matter, as well as some very basic machines, then you can easily have broad discussions in Quantum and Astro Physics. Nuclear really should have a basis in light and heat (as it is all about radiation) and Atomic theory should have a solid comprehension of the structure of matter (atoms and molecules). But again, it all depends on how you teach basic physics. Furthermore for a solid A & P class one doesn't really even need to have physics nor chemistry, you could technically do it before biology as it really focuses so specifically on the human body as a machine.

That's how we've been working things though....as I always say, what works for one may not work for another.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Art Fair Project - Optics & Light

We are so excited to finally have the International Fair behind us...and what do I do? Sign them up for another fair of course!! (I'm still looking for a science one in our area for HS'ers..lol..then our year will be complete). This time it's an art fair....now I'm not super arty - I am crafty (as evidenced by all the craft things we just did for the other fair), but we're now on a strict budget so purchasing a ton of craft supplies is outta the question....

Instead, I spent $30 on all our supplies (and will have whatever film development costs these days, I'm budgeting another $10 for our 36 exposures)...

Purchase List: (from Amazon)
DIY Pinhole Camera - $12.95
Super Sunprint Kit - $14.95
35mm, ISO 100 B&W professional film - $7.44
1 PVC Pipe w/ End Cap
Weather Stripping (aka foam rope w/ adhesive)
1 Roll Heavy Duty Aluminum Foil (for making reflective Surfaces)

Projects:

Pinhole photos (using various light strengths as well as some reflective surfaces)
Sun Prints (using the same light strength and reflective surfaces)
Digital Photos (will show the progression of photography as well as exposure)
Home-Made Kaleidoscope
Rainbow on Paper Experiment
Blue Sky Experiment
Milk-dish soap-food color/ color mixing experiment

Links -
Make and Use a Pinhole Camera, by Kodak
Opaque Surfaces, by Teacher Vision
Reflecting Light Rays, by Teacher Vision
Light Experiments ABC Teach
Fun and Learning With Photography, by Edutaining Kids
How Camera's Work, by How Stuff Works
How Digital Camera's Work, by How Stuff Works
How Photographic Film Works, by How Stuff Works
History of Photography & Processes, by the National Portrait Gallery
Trouble Shooting your Pinhole Camera, by Photo.net
Understanding Photography, by Wikipedia
Understanding Histograms, by Luminous Landscape
Intro to Photography, by Pieces of Science
Build a Darkroom & more, by Black & White World
Light & Optics, by Physics 4 Kids
Optics For Kids, by Optical Research Assoc
Make a home-made Kaleidoscope, by Univ of Arizona
Experiments with Light, by Hunkins Experiments
Make a Rainbow on the Wall, lesson plan by Lesson Plans Page
Make a Permanent Rainbow on Photo Paper, by
Optical Illusions, by Weather Wiz Kids
Blue Sky Experiment, by Weather Wiz Kids

Friday, January 7, 2011

Weather Blues Box

What do you do on Snow Days? The local schools are letting out early, so my BFF called to see if I wanted to get out kids together...and I explained that we don't usually take snow days!

Sometimes, if it's been bad weather for several days in a row - preventing the kids from burning off energy outside (as my oldest is a severe asthmatic) I'll put together fun weather related projects. In fact I have a small plastic bin (about the size of a shoe box) that I keep my fun weather junk in..lol...

Kit Supplies:

a couple of plastic 1 liter bottles (with tops)
cotton balls
cotton swabs
safety goggles
matches
canning jars
food coloring
old DVD's

Projects we like:
NOTE: I suggest a parent ALWAYS be present for experiments - you never know what can go wrong!!

Cloud in a Bottle:
a cloud is made out of 3 things in the atmosphere - water, dust particles and atmospheric changes.

Rinse bottle thoroughly - do not use soap, and do not dry the inside of the bottle.
Add a very small (like 1/8 teaspoon) of very warm water to your bottle.
Put the cap on the bottle and shake well.
Pour out excess water.
Have adult light a match and carefully drop the lit match into the bottle. -- The smoke from the match adds the key ingredient DUST.
Immediately replace the cap so none of the smoke is lost.
Gentle shake the bottle back and forth 2-3 times- stirring up the second ingredient WATER
Make sure the cap is very secure. Squeeze the middle of the bottle with both hands, then release your hands evenly & quickly - this is stirring up the final ingredient in cloud formation ATMOSPHERE CHANGES
You should see the cloud form after 2 - 3 squeezes. It is better to do this in front of a dark background (like dark curtains) as the cloud will show up better. If you still cant see anything, then I suggest going back to the match step (as you probably let too much smoke escape before getting the cap on).

Weather Front in a jar:
all poor weather comes in the form of a weather front. Generally speaking one side of the front will have absolutely gorgeous weather and the other will have absolutely horrible weather. This occurs in a clear line of demarkation. High and low pressures do not mix - they may swirl around eachother (thus causing a tornado) but they don't mix.

Warm Front diagram - http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/7r.html
Cold Front diagram -http://www.kidsgeo.com/geography-for-kids/0128-cold-fronts.php

Fill 1 cup measuring cup with very warm tap water.
Add a couple of drops of red food coloring. Make it so you can see the color but not so dark that it is almost black.
Fill second measuring cup with very cool water from the tap.
Add a couple of drops of blue food coloring.
Gently stirr each mix to evenly spread the color.
You need 2 jars with EXACTLY the same size neck. (If there are any cracks or crevices that don't line up you'll have a huge mess).
Fill one jar to almost overflowing with the cold water, and the other to almost over-flowing with the hot. (be sure the glass isn't too hot to touch).
Place an index card over the top of the top of the hot water jar. Push the edges down, cupping your hand around the neck.
Carefully turn the jar over (with your hand still holding the top in place at the neck) - some water leakage is totally normal.
Carefully stack the hot water jar over the cold. The paper acting as a boundery.
Carefully pull the paper out from between the jars without sliding the jars.
I like to use a little Scotch Clear tape around the joint of the jars. It won't stop all leakage but will help.
Very Carefully, lift both jars, pressing them together at the neck. Turn the jars on the side and see what occurs!

Tornado in a Jar:
Once you have a clear understanding of how the cold air slides against the warm, you can get a better understanding of tornados. Essentially you have to have several phenomena to have a tornado - wind at 2 different atmospheric levels blowing at different speeds and in different directions (creating wind sheer). Extreme variations in temperature at 2 different atmospheric levels (the ground level is Very hot and humid, while up in the atmosphere is Very cold). The cold air goes to lower, the hot air attempts to rise and the wind creates a rotation - a tornado will usually only touch the ground if full of either rain or hail (making the spinning cloud heavy)

Take 2 2-liter soda bottle.
Fill one bottle (about 3/4 full) with water and a few drops of food coloring. Add a small sprinkle of glittler.
Place the empty bottle over the full one, so the neck of the bottles lines up.
Use duct tape to secure the necks.
Quickly turn the bottles over and give them a little twist. you should see the twister form.

Make Rain -
I did this one with my boys when they were young to understand where rain came from and the water cycle. Again an adult needs to be the one doing the experiment with the kids watching. The water cycle is so important to us - it is what allows for life!

The water cycle - http://www.kidzone.ws/WATER/

Much to my husbands confusion, I always keep a small hard cover book in the freezer just for this experiment. But if you don't want to do that, I suggest a minimum of 6 hours in the freezer - and it must be a hard cover.
Boil water on the stove - you can see evaporation in motion with the steam!
Very carefully hold the book at an angle in the steam - this will condense the water vapor back into droplets of water and it will look like the book is making rain!

Blue Skies!
This is another really fun one - especially just before bed. Although I warn you it's a messy one! Essentially, this is demonstrating how our eyes interpret the color of the sky. The white light coming off of the sun enters out atmosphere where the particles break that light into all the colors of the rainbow. Blue being one of the most slow and is absorbed by gases in the atmosphere and radiates!
http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/sky_blue.html

Set a flashlight standing upright right in front of you, so the beam is clear and rises.
Gently take a bag of flour (even better with a flour sifter) and gently allow the particles to blow through the beam - you should see flashes of colors/light!

Weather Sayings:

Red sky at morning sailor take warning, red sky at night sailor's delight.
Red sy at night shepherds delight. Red sky in morning shepherds take warning.
Never cast a clout till May is out. (Captain Urchy)
If cows are sitting down then rain is on the way.
Gullywasher (a lot of rain by bcluv)
When the stars begin to huddle the earth will soon be a puddle. (Insomniduck)
Halo around the sun or moon rain or snow soon. (Insomniduck)
A year of snow a year of plenty. (Insomniduck)
Rainbow in the morning gives you fair warning. (Insomniduck)
Clear moon, frost soon. (Insomniduck)
Mares Tails and mackerel scales make tall ships take in their sails. (Insomnduck)
It's raining cats and dogs.
http://hobbyscience.com/weather.html

Arts & Crafts

http://familyfun.go.com/winter/winter-crafts/snowflake-crafts/let-it-snow-t-shirt-674877/ Let it snow tee shirts (my kids favorites!)
Wind Socks Need: 1 6 oz. foam cup for each child, Sharpened pencil, crepe paper streamers ( 6 colors), glue, yarn. Directions: Use a sharp pencil and poke six holes in the bottom of the cup. Space holes evenly about 1/4" from the sides of the cup. Cut 6 18in crepe paper streamers for each child. Roll the end of the paper and stick in hole on cup. On inside of cup, add a drop of glue on the side of the cup and glue the paper to the side of the cup. Do all 6 and glue. Poke a hole on each side of the cup- this will be the handle part- add yarn to make the handle. Have the children decorate the outside of the cup with extra pieces of Crete paper. We took ours to the playground and hung then on the fence. Its was so colorful and pretty!
http://www.first-school.ws/theme/climate.htm
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/themes/weather.shtml
http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/weather/index.htm

Monday, March 22, 2010

Happy Water Day!

As today is National Water Day we focused on the water cycle and water conservations!

http://www.filefolderfun.com/SubjectWeather.html
http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/watercycle.html
http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/mearth.html
http://lapbooklessons.ning.com/notes/Water_Cycle_Lapbook_Links
http://www.epa.gov/safewater/kids/kids_k-3.html
http://www.kidzone.ws/water/bactivity1.htm

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Crazy Science Bday

Awwww my baby boy is now 6 years old! Xman turned 6 this past Thursday and yesturday we had his party. He requested a Mad Science party - he had seen a flyer of a company that has an employee dress as a character and conduct funny experiments...I thought, sure, but why pay them to do it? So we researched some fun, easy experiments and made our own crazy science party.

Each child got a Science Kit goody bag:

Safety Goggles
Plastic Gloves
Ruller
Compass
Lifesaver Wintergreen Mints
Mentos
Rock Candy wooden stick & clothes pin
Lab Notebook (with each of our experiments explained in each one)
2 unblownup balloons

The Experiments:

Sparking Candy (and other electricity experiments like with balloons)
Planting Fun (learning about plants and soil)
Rock Candy (learning about sedimentary rocks)
Fantastic Foamy Fountain (we compared 6% & 3% solution hydrogen peroxide, and leared about exothermic reactions)
Color Explosion (we compared the grease breakdown strengths between Joy & Palmolive dish detergent).
Exploding Soda (we learned about gas pressure)

To see the printout for the Lab Notebooks and the descriptions/explinations of the experiments view Birthday Experiments {username: kickbutttidbits password: kickbuttmama }

{Bday Scientist!}

Lil' Scientists!

Planting Fun

Soda Explosion (it was pouring rain...so I got toally soaked! The kids stood on our awning covered porch screaming a countdown to me then cheering wildly as the soda exploded!)

Fantastic Foamy Fountain

Color Explosion

Monday, January 4, 2010

Cool New Science Site

I found this cool new science link - the kids have been watching their videos all day...lol...and wanting to try them themselves. Check it out!

http://www.sciencesplat.com

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Science Experiments For 2009-2010

We're doing at least one experiment per week. While many will coincide with our Combo-books/lapbooks, not necessarily. Most of the time we'll just be progressing through common types of science (earth studies, physics, astronomy, etc.) This will teach the kids to study, collect and report findings as well as understanding the scientific process.

Now, as a former scientist myself, I can tell you adults in the field use a 13 step scientific process -

Observe
Classify
Measure
Sequence Order
Infer
Predict
Communicate
Investigate
Control
Hypotheses
Interpreting
Defining
Formulating

For kids we shorten the process to only 5 steps:

Ask Questions
Observe
Compare
Contrast
Estimate

Using this process we'll perform the following experiments this coming year

Astronomy:

The Sun and Us
How Radar Works: Seeing inside a closed box
Day & Night Part 1: Simulating Day and Night
Day & Night Part 2: The differences between Day and Night
The Shape of the Earth
The Tides
Creating an Eclipse
Shadow Lines
Equinox
Star Tracker
Shrinking Sun
Sun Spots
Sunset in a box
Solar Oven
Different Moons (2 parts understand the moon's phases and observing them)
Your Weight On The Moon
Reflective & Refractive Telescope
Making a Parallax
Mapping the Night Sky
Your Age on Other Planets
Green House Effect
Rocket Launch
Satellites Part 1: Simulating Satellites
Satellites Part 2:Orbiting Satellites
Satellites Part 3: Signals & Satellites

Forces & Waves:

Splitting Light
Angled Light
Centrifugal Force
The Sun's Gravity Part 1: Demonstrating the pull of gravity
The Sun's Gravit Part 2: How a spacecraft can escape gravity to fly in space
Escaping Gravity
Watch Inertia
A Pendulum
Pull It Up: Using Levers
Turn It Up: Sound Amplification
Tinkling: See how sound vibrates
Echo, Echo
Water & Light Waves
Shadow Drawing
Rainbow Light
Refraction & Reflection
Turning to White - see how many colors make up white
Falling Over: Energy Transference
Bounce: Energy Transference part 2
The Swing of Things: Every Action has a Equal Reaction
Lifting Higher: Sideways Force
Jumping Up: Static Electricity
Ions in Action
Lemon Batteries
Magnetic Field
Double Magnetism
The Amazing Jumping Man: Relationship between electricity and magnets
Jar Magnet

Earth Science:

Salinity of the Oceans
Classifying Living Things
Breathing Plants: How plants obtain nutrients from the soil
Nocturnal Plants
Mini Greenhouse
Classifying Fruits & Vegetables
When is a Fruit a Berry
Making a Compost Bin
Tree & Plant Encyclopedia
Bird Encyclopedia
How does a Boat Float (It's full of air) Using a jar cap to show how a submarine floats or sinks.
High Tides: Water Volume

Anatomy & Physiology:

Balloon Lungs
At Home Stethoscope

Monday, May 25, 2009

Magnetism & Electricity

So I've finally gotten a PDF program, which will allow me to make my own little flapbooks and such for my boys (I'm so excited!). Now I can finally share the files and designs I've come up with!!

Electricity Links:
Ben Franklin history & impact on electricity.
Thomas Edison - one of the most famous inventors in America
Nikola Tesla - one of the most awesome inventors, who wasn't very popular because of a feud with Edison.
Elementary Experiments on electricity & Magnetism {We will be using the simple circuit and I just made a flip book to go with it, we also used a magnet in several different experiments.}
Fabulous Static Electricity Facts {we also used a baloon to demonstrate these facts in our 3rd experiment}
Alliant Energy has a nice kids site
One of my favorite kids electricity websites - Kids Corner
The US Dept of Energy has also put together a kids energy website

Magnetism Links:
Science for kids on Magnets
Brain POP has put together a nice magnet lesson plan
Fact Monster has an awesome site on magnetism

Here is my mini-lapbook on Electricity & Magnetism

Let me know what you thought!!

Solar System

The Cool thing we did here was make a pop-up of the universe. You can find directions here. Essentially the sun pop's up then the planets are attatches with a bit of wire so that as the lap book opens they hover around the sun...(boy did the boys love doing this!)
k - I promised I'd give y'all the printables and links for our solar system lapbook...so..."Ta-Da!"
NASA's "Our Very Own Star: The Sun" this is actually a little book you can print!
Planets Coloring Page
Various Printables (there is actually a very good small coloring book I used for my preschooler, while my older son did the harder stuff!)
Clip Art
Moon Phases (action flipbook)
Live & Learn Press Lapbook
Solar System Printables (these are the more advanced word finds and such)

Caterpillars/Butterflies

Resources:

http://lapbooking.wordpress.com/2009/03/28/butterflies/ (LOTS OF RESOURCES)
http://butterflieslapbook.tumblr.com/ (LOTS OF RESOURCES)
http://lapbooking.bravehost.com/Butterflies.html (MORE RESOURCES)
http://www.homeschoolshare.com/butterfly_lapbook.php
http://www.lapbooklessons.com/ButterflyLapbook.html
http://www.homeschoolhelperonline.com/lapbooks/butterflies.htm
(pictures) http://littleblots.ning.com/profiles/blogs/1230297:BlogPost:27267

Science Time

With a degree in Physics and a minor in Geology I have a love for science, but that wasn't slways the case. In school I was terrified of science and math. I worried that I would be a failure and the teachers often left me in the dust of confusion. In college I had to take intro science courses. When I received my associates degree and was looking to transfer to a 4-year college I realized my best grades were in Science - no one was more schocked than I. Now I hope to give that love of science to my own boys.

With Spring almost upon us we're going to be doing Butterflies. We are purchasing the kit so the kids can watch the butterflies 'hatch' then set them free. It should be cool. We studied states of matter by freezing a bucket of water and experimenting on changing it back to water (liquid) we did this at the same time we studied the water cycle. We froze the water (solid) then ran warm water over it to turn it back to liquid, then boiled it (to make steam - gas) I froze a hardcover book and carefully held it at an angle in the steam and we watched the water droplets collect then run off (this is how we get rain). It really drove the point home. We love doing little experiments. When studying nutrition (we did another lapbook on it) we over fed a plant and watched it die, this drove home how important good nutrition is to all living things. We used playdough to make a planet when we were studying the layers of the earth.

Here are some links we use when looking for new ideas:
http://www.education.com/activity/kindergarten/science/
http://hastings.ci.lexington.ma.us/staff/SLee/science/
http://www.educationaltoyfactory.com/science_experiments_activities.htm
http://sciencecastle.com/sc/index.php/home/index
http://www.easy-kids-science-experiments.com
http://www.kidzone.ws/
http://www.kindergarten-lessons.com/science-lessons.html

Kickbutt's Crazy Lapbooks

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Awesome Science Websites

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Experiment 12: Erupting Volcano