30 Days of Science - Day 24

The next time you see a newspaper bag, save it.  Use the bag to try this experiment.   A newspaper bag won't be that exciting, but it's a cheap way to try it and test Bernoulli's Principle.  Diaper Genie bags or these bags will be extra fun like what you saw in the video. 

I asked Luke if he understood Bernoulli's Principle and how this windbag experiment worked.  When he said yes, I asked him to explain it better to me.  I thought he would give me the simple answer about air pressure, but instead he got into detail and started explaining how airplanes lift off the ground!  I didn't even know the two were related!  Albert Einstein once said, "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough".  I think of that every time Luke explains things to me because he can explain things so easily. 

Oh and one more thing... did you know firefighters use this principle for getting smoke out of a house?  You can read more about that as well as more on the windbag experiment here.

30 Days of Science - Day 23

Yesterday I checked the kids out of school for a dentist appointment.  They were so excited to be called on the intercom and get out of school.  They both had huge smiles.  Luke was especially excited because he loves going to the dentist.  He loves it because he wants to be a dentist one day.  Every time we go we remind everyone that he wants to be a dentist and that he would like to learn anything he can while he is there.  We ask that everyone teach him what they are doing so Luke can learn.  Luke learns all sorts of things about the tools and procedures.  When the dentist (Dr. Troy Hardy) came out to look at the kids teeth, he spent a lot of time talking to Luke and answering Luke's questions.  They brainstormed about some science experiment ideas and he explained that most teeth experiments have to be done with teeth that are immediately saved in a special solution that keeps that keeps them from drying out when they are out of the mouth.  That was good to know.  He also spent time showing Luke the x-rays and explaining what was happening in his mouth as well as Megan's.  I couldn't help but take pictures with my iPhone when he let Luke stand next to him while he worked on Megan's mouth and he explained what he was doing.  Luke was in heaven!  He left with a giant smile on his face. 

After the dentist we went to get lunch.  I had been debating on taking the kids to a district science fair for the Salt Lake School District.  I knew we wouldn't have time after school because of how much homework Luke had so I decided to have the kids eat their lunch on the way to the science fair.  I didn't tell them where we were going.  I told Megan it was more of a surprise for Luke but she would like it too.  I gave them a clue that we were going to a school.  Luke's energy level went up about 50 times when we pulled up to a school called the Salt Lake Center for Science Education.  Luke said he would wake up a half hour early every day if he could go to that school. 

We looked around the school a tiny bit as we walked to the gym where they were holding the science fair.  Unfortunately the projects weren't all set up, but we were able to see plenty in the short amount of time we had.  Luke amazes me because he understood all of the concepts and corrected me on a couple things I said.  A man came over and gave Luke a mug with Einstein on it creating another huge smile on Luke's face.  The man happened to be one of the founders of the school.  We talked to him and and the director of the school.  The school is for 6th grade and up, but he said next year, when Luke is in 5th grade, Luke could come and shadow a nice student and go to all of his classes with him for the day.  The school sounds amazing but it would be a 20-30 minute drive each way.

It was a great little break from regular school.  Obviously educational too.  Everything we do, every where we go can be educational.  It's fun to use the world as your classroom. 

30 Days of Science - Day 22

What is this, you ask?

It's three glow sticks that Megan is swirling around.  I set the aperature on my camera low and turned off the flash to get the picture to work.  We had a lot of fun with the glowsticks the other night when the LeBaron cousins came over. 

If you read the link for Plasma TVs on day 19, you would understand better how glow sticks work.  On that link there was a picture that shows how atoms emit light.  Light sticks work from a chemical reaction. The light from that chemical reaction is called chemiluminescence.  When the chemicals are mixed, the atoms are excited, causing electrons to rise to a higher energy level and then return to their normal levels. When the electrons return to their normal levels, they release energy as light.  If you want to read more you can read under the header, How Does it Work on Steve Spangler's site. 

When Luke chooses books from the library, he gets books I'm sure most people only read if they have to.  This last week Luke chose a book called, How Atoms Work.  This type of information used to be so boring to me.  It still isn't my favorite but I have loved understanding more fully how things work.  I'm absoulutely fascinated with scientists and how they ever came up with theories on these basic principles in the first place.  It's amazing.

I thought it would be fun to make our own glow liquid.  I started googling it and have decided it's probably a bit too dangerous for little kids.  So for now, this YouTube video will have to do. 

30 Days of Science - Day 21

Lady Liberty may not appreciate the angle of this photo.

Keith and I went to NYC in September for our anniversary.  It was a great 3 day trip.  The first day it rained so hard it was incredible.  We were soaked!  We might as well of jumped in a pool.  It was also very foggy so we couldn't even see the Statue of Liberty until we got close to it and when we were on Liberty Island we couldn't see the city.  Just minutes before I took this picture, the rain finally started to let up for a while.  Despite the rain, we still had a good time.  We went to the 911 memorial (it was the first month it was open), we also went to Cirque du Soleil at Radio City Hall, the Blue Man Group, Little Italy for some amazing desserts and a street fair, and some fun toy stores including the American Girl Place.  It was a great trip.  At the 911 memorial we got our picture by the Survivor Tree because I think it will be really interesting to compare photos 50 years from now.

Did you know that according to Einsteins theory of relativity a clock at the top of the Statue of Liberty would run slower than one sitting on the ground?  It has to do with the fact that the earth is rotating, and the higher you are, the faster you are rotating around the sun.  The faster you travel, the slower time moves.  It's a complicated topic, but very interesting.  Read this simple explanation of the theory of relativity on WikiAnswers.  It's something interesting to think about the next time you are in a big city. 

30 Days of Science - Day 20

Luke and Megan are getting good at skiing.  Luke especially is getting really confident and doing really well.  I keep telling him I want him to fall more often because that shows he is pushing his abilities and he will get better.  A couple weeks ago when we went skiing we decided to take a picture of him after he fell for a blog post about gravity.  I'm glad he can have a good attitude when he falls.

My 10 year old Luke has a science journal he writes in just for fun.  His first entry is about gravity.  He wrote this while we were in church.  We have three hours of church so I let him do what he wants for most of the first hour.  Here is what he wrote, in his own words:

Luke's Theory of Gravity
I predict that all energy attracts other energy.  Something with more potential energy must be larger.  Larger objects have more gravity, so the energy must be attracting other energy.  Heat energy tends to go upward unlike my theory, but it vibrates therefore making the gas less dense, so more dense gasses can push their way through and creating pressure where there is no more room to go down, so it applies pressure on the less dense gas causing it to overcome gravity.

Want a fun anti-gravity experiment?
Watch, then try this.  It's one of our favorites.

30 Days of Science - Day 19

The kids and I went up to Park City a couple months ago, early in the morning to be on the news.  My kids are the ones in the picture with newscaster, Casey Scotts hands on each of their shoulders.  We were happy to go even though we had to get up around 5:00 a.m. because we got to go sledding at Gargoza Park.  Unfortunately, it was so super cold (negative 6 degrees) that even with all of the layers of clothes I put on my kids, they were just too cold to have too much fun sledding.  They only went down the hill twice and rode the mini snowmobiles for a couple minutes before they had enough.    They did have fun being on the news though.  I also think they enjoyed going to school to tell everyone all they had done before most of them had even woke up.  My kids aren't very assertive so they stood in the back of the crowd during the filming.  You could barely see them on camera, but they were really happy just being on TV.

TVs are interesting.   The old TVs were much bigger than the newer TVs they have because they have big cathrode-ray tubes in them.  When a video signal comes into the TV, the cathrode-ray tube shoots beams of energy (electrons) at the back of our TV screens.  These beams are so precise that they can hit just one tiny red, green, or blue point on the screen and that color shines.  The cathrode-ray tube hits thousands of these lights at a time and that creates the TV picture. 

Newer Plasma TVs are much smaller because they use tiny compartments filled with gas (plasma).  Plasma is an important element in florescent light. Electricity charges the gas, which creates energy that lights up the colors on the screen.

Ok, so here are the parts I don't understand yet.  It absolutely baffles my mind how the video signal is sent in the first place.  I'm also baffled by how telephones and radios work too.  I understand the concepts of radio waves, but it still seems impossible to me.  I told this to Luke once and he did a great job explaining it to me.  Haha.  He is so smart!  I was so impressed with his knowledge but it still didn't help.  I think the hardest thing for me is actually believing that these signals can be sent so efficiently.  It's amazing to me!  Perhaps I'll be interested in understanding more later, but for now I'm happy to simply pretend it's magic :)

30 Days of Science - Day 18

This picture is from last year. Until today, we have sure been low on snow, haven't we?  Because it's been so warm a lot of the snow we have had has been pretty wet. Usually Utah really does have the greatest snow on earth. It's light and powdery because of our dry climate.

We also (usually) get a lot of snow because because of the geography of our area. The storms we get here in Utah are formed out over the Pacific Ocean. Remember day 15 where we talked about evaporation, condensation, and precipitation? These storms travel across the continent, not bumping into any significant barriers until they reach the Wasatch mountain range which has peaks up to about 12,000 feet.

When these storm clouds get to the Salt Lake area they get even heavier because of the Great Salt Lake. Because the Great Salt Lake is relatively shallow (about 33 feet deep) and has a large surface area, it heats up faster than other deeper lakes. Remember Day 17?  When the cold winds blow over the warmer water, the clouds passing overhead suck up the water vapors and produce even more precipitation. That precipitation falls as snow. Beautiful snow!

30 Days of Science - Day 17

A few months ago Luke came up with an experiment he wanted to do.  He created a chart, wrote up what he was going to do, and kept track of his findings.  Below I've typed up what he wrote since it's hard to read in this picture. 

Question:  Does water evaporate faster when the waters skin is greater?
Hypothesis:  Water evaporates faster when the waters skin is greater.
Experiment:  Take a cup and a bowl and put the same amount of water in each container.  Whatever evaporates more in 6 days would have evaporated faster. 
     Cup:  1 1/2 inches around at waters surface  (he used a measuring tape around the perimeter)
     Bowl:  14 inches at waters surface
Analysis:  The cup had 3/4 cups of water left and the bowl had 1/2 cup of water left.
Conclusion:  Water with more surface area evaporates faster than with less.

Can you see his drawings at the bottom?  He drew H2O molecules and wrote, enlarged to show detail. 
I love it!

30 Days of Science - Day 16

While listening to an AMAZING recording called "The Essence of Success" by Earl Nightingale, I heard something I really loved about Albert Einstein.  I can't find a clip of the recording online so I'll type it out here.  I've listened to it a dozen times, so it will be nice to have it be something I can read.

You know it's been said that if the universe is is an accident, we are accidents.  But if there is meaning in the universe, then there is meaning in us also.  And since it is believed that Dr. Einstein understood more about the laws governing the universe than any person who ever lived up until his time, lets go to him for some answers.  He believed there was some sort of meaning in the way things are.  He was sure of it.  He said the more I study physics, the more I am drawn toward metaphysics. The word metaphysics simply means beyond physics.  The study of what is beyond measure the invisible forces at work. ...Albert Einstein was so remarkable of a man, that it was as if he had arrived on this planet through some mistake in celestial navigation.  And as a result, devoted his life to solving the problems of time and space, so that the mistake would not be repeated (he chuckles).  Dr. Einstein belonged to no formal religion or sect, yet he was a deeply religious man in the cosmic sense.  He believed that such magnificence of colossal order the great phychlatron(?) of the universe, as Ronald Clark puts it, could not have been an accident. And he addressed himself to the purpose of life.  He answered the question, "why am i here" as well as it has been answered, I believe, when he said, man is here for the sake of other man only.  Now he used the word man in it's classical sense, the idiomatic man, meaning human beings of both sexes, of course.  So he said that we are here for the sake of others only.  Is that the way you would have answered it?  Do you believe you are here solely to serve others, being served and enjoying life as a result.  We are here for the sake of serving others only, and to the extent that we serve others, will we know the joy of living.  To many that will sound silly and square but that's what it comes down to nonetheless and sometimes it takes a long time to learn the truth of it.  Millions never learn it and grow old and cry out in discontent wondering what is wrong with their lives. Our rewards in life will always be in direct proportion to our contribution this is the law that stands as the supporting structure of all economics and of our own personal well being. 

I highly recommend you listen to anything of Earl Nightingale.  He has so many incredible words of wisdom.  You can find a lot of his recordings on YouTube.

30 Days of Science - Day 15

Do you want to make it rain?

Here is what you'll need:

* A 2 liter bottle (cut the dome part off of the top carefully)

*  Hot tap water

*  Ice

1.  Make sure the cap is screwed on tightly to the dome part of the 2 liter bottle you cut in two. 

2.  Fill the bottom part of your bottle about half full of water.  If you notice my picture above, you'll see I didn't do quite as much water.  It worked but might have worked better with more hot water.

3.  Turn the top part of the bottle upside down and fill it with ice.  Set this into the bottom part of the bottle and wait and see what happens.

You've now created a mini water cycle in your bottle and you can teach your kids about evaporation, condensation and precipitation.  Evaporation is when the water turns to a vapor gas and rises (like steam).  Condensation is when the gas turns back into water.  When the hot water from below rises it cools as it hits the icy area and turns back into water droplets.  This is the same thing that happens in nature when clouds are formed.  Precipitation is when the water droplets in this experiment get heavier and heavier and finally fall.  In nature, the water droplets get to heavy to float in the air (clouds) and create rain. 

Luke found this experiment in a book our friends gave us called Pop Bottle Science.  It comes in a cute kit but the best part is the book that you can buy here used.   I highly recommend it.

Tooth Fairy

I've decided that there must be more than one Tooth Fairy.  I'm guessing there are lots of tooth fairies.  Some girls we talked to today said they know for a fact there is one for each person.  I had never heard that before, but it makes sense since the Tooth Fairy does different things for different people.

Megan heard from a friend at school that if you put your tooth in a glass of water the tooth fairy will dive into it to get the tooth.  When she gets out of the water, the water will change to whatever color the fairy's dress is.  I didn't believe Megan because I had never heard this and I wasn't sure the Tooth Fairy would be too happy about having to dive in a cup to get a tooth.  I had good reason not to believe Megan because last week she tried to give the Tooth Fairy a fake tooth.  She put a note under her pillow saying, Dear Tooth Fairy, Here is my FAKE tooth, please give me a FAKE dollar.  The Tooth Fairy never came or gave her anything for that fake tooth, so I thought for sure this water thing must be wrong too.

I was wrong.  When we woke up we found the water had turned blue and even had some glittery fairy dust in it!!  Also, Megan got a Valentine from the Footh Fairy, some money and a tiny paint set!  I guess the Tooth Fairy didn't mind diving in the water!  Now we are wondering if you lose a tooth on Christmas if you would get a Christmas present.  Does anyone know?

30 Days of Science - Day 14

Luke doesn't ask for many things, but he saw a Galileo Thermometer in one of his books and got so excited about it he begged me to help him find one.  I've never heard about these thermometers before, have you?  If you look on Amazon you'll see they sell quite a few of these pretty thermometers.  If you want to know how they work, you could read here.

Since getting this thermometer, Luke has decided to do his 4th Grade Famous Person report on Galileo.  Galileo is pretty fascinating.  It's been fun learning about him.  Science as we know it barely existed before him, because the universities at that time were full of philosophers, who followed the teachings of Plato and Aristotle.  These philosophers spent their time discussing how things MIGHT work, rather than testing their theories.  Galileo rejected the traditional approach because he believed that an idea couldn't be accepted as true until it was tested and proven.  This laid the foundation for our modern experimental method. 

Galileo got in a lot of trouble for his discoveries.  It's fascinating to read about the time period he lived in, in relation to science.  Galileo was born in 1564 and at that time in Italy the Catholic Church controlled all aspects of life.  The church was especially strict about areas in which the bible seemed to give guidance on what was true.  One example of this was the idea that the earth was motionless at the center of the universe, with all the stars and planets moving around it.  In 1600 a man named Giordano Bruno had been burned at the stake in Rome for claiming that the earth moved around the sun (an idea first published by Copernicus in 1543).  Galileo was being led toward the same dangerous view as he studied with his telescope.  Although Galileo was a good Catholic, he could not deny the evidence that Copernicus was right.  He agreed with Cardinal Cesare Baronio, who said that the bible was a book about how people go to heaven, not about how heaven goes.

Well, that is just the start.  His life is really interesting.  You'll have to read about it.  For starters watch this kids video on Brainpop about Galileo.  Brainpop is an AMAZING website!  The videos often make tough concepts easy to understand.  Some videos are free.  Others you have to have a subscription for.  You can get a free subscription for a month though so try it out!!

30 Days of Science - Day 13

I shouldn't have to buy diapers anymore, but I still do.  It's all for fun though.  Diapers make really fun science projects/ magic tricks.

You know the game where you take three cups, put a ball under one, and then move them around a lot trying to get the observer to loose track of the ball?  Well, instead of a ball, try something similar with diapers.

Diaper Science

1. Get three cups (make sure they aren't see through).
   Have your audience sitting down, because if they are standing they might be able to see in the cups. 
2. Before you show anyone what you are doing, cut open a diaper and put the soft stuff inside the diaper into one of the cups. You don't need a lot, I usually use half of the diaper stuff (for lack of a better word). 
3. I like to stack the cups together, and then bring the cups to my audience. I stack the cup with the diaper stuff on top because if it were stacked on the bottom or middle, you could tell there was something in the cup.
4. Have your audience sitting down, because if they are standing they might be able to see in the cups.
5. Pour quite a bit of water into the cup with the diaper stuff.   I use 12 oz cups and fill them about 3/4 full (or half full for a 16 oz cup).  Your audience should not know there is anything other than water in the cup. 
6. Start moving the cups around and tell your audience to keep their eyes on the cup with the water in it. 
7. When you are finished mixing the cups around, have the audience guess where the water is.  Each time they guess, you take the cup and hold it up to pour the water out.  Each time you attempt to pour the water out of each cup, nothing will pour out making it appear as if the water disappeared.  The magic (science) is that the diaper stuff is made up of water absorbing polymers.  When you are moving the cups around, the water is quickly being absorbed by the polymers.  When you attempt to pour the water out, it doesn't pour out because the water and polymers have expanded together enough they don't pour out easily.  Fun! 

Remember we talked about water absorbing polymers before on day seven?  Don't forget about how this type of science can be used to conserve water in the environment.  It's neat stuff!

Happy Valentine's Day

Megan has loved putting her Valentines together!  She has had so much fun!  We got the idea for her Valentine from a cute blog called The Brooding Hen. 

Luke has no interest in creating Valentines so I did most of the work on his.  Megan and I made his box with his supervision (haha).  I figure most people buy their Valentines pre-made or even buy pre-made boxes for school so I think his teacher wouldn't care that I didn't have him do more.  Hopefully I am right.   His Einstein Valentine was made by the Jacks of Science and says, "Your More Special Than Relativity". 

30 Days of Science - Day 12

Luke really loves learning about alternative forms of energy.  It's very surprising how much he likes learning about this stuff.  This is a hand crank flashlight he loves.  The US Department of Energy has a great site for kids to learn the basics about alternative energy.  Here is the link.

30 Days of Science - Day 11

Growing Bacteria.

I'm done with this experiment.  This is our second time doing this and it gets pretty gross after a while.  I suppose it's interesting seeing the different types of bacteria.  It's also interesting seeing what has more bacteria.  This past time Luke tested his hand, his friends hand, his mouth, his friend's mouth, the doorknob and the telephone. 

I want to throw away the rest of his petri dishes and the rest of his agar solution but I won't.  I'll just hope Luke has had enough for a long time.  This picture only shows day 2 or 3.  I've spared you from seeing the rest of the results.   

If you want to do this you could Google home recipes where you use plastic cups and some sort of a gelatin solution.  Or you could buy this. 

30 Days of Science - Day 10

This is a radiometer. When you put it in the sunlight the little flags spin around. It's so interesting when you understand what is going on and how it works. Read how it works at Steve Spangler's site, and then you could look up a video on YouTube.

30 Days of Science - Day 9

I couldn't get my camera to focus on this very well.  This is a broken tooth in front of a tooth holder my son got at school. 

When Megan lost one of her teeth the other month, Luke begged her to let him buy her tooth.  He even offered her $10!  Even though the Tooth Fairy pays considerably less than Luke would have, Megan wouldn't sell because she was really excited to write the Tooth Fairy a note and ask her what she did with the teeth. 

Luke wanted the tooth to test the effects of soda pop on teeth.  Fortunately he lost his own tooth recently, and after it fell out, it split into two!  Now he can do two experiments!  He did a similar experiment a while back with chicken bones.  He put one bone in root beer and the other in Coke.  He expected for the one in Coke to make the bone become soft and bendable.  That didn't really happen but the one in Coke did have some weird stuff come off of it.  It was certainly rotting away faster than the one in root beer.  Gross.  When we know the results of this tooth experiment, I'll put the results in the comments. 

By the way... the Tooth Fairy did answer Megan.  Her one word answer to Megan's question was "castles".  It was written with something that looked like sparkly silver glitter glue.

30 Days of Science - Day 8

Luke loves freezing things.  He is constantly freezing lego guys, cars, pennies and anything else small he finds.  Luke experiments with the temperatures to freeze things at, he experiments with how much the water grows when it turns into ice, and he has even experimented with freezing different types of liquids including adding lots of salt to the water.  Mainly, he just loves freezing things, but he is learning a lot in the process.

For older kids or super science nuts:
Did you know that scientists have recently made discoveries changing why they believe ice is slippery?  It might seem like a simple question and answer, but apparently it's not.  Here is a link from the NY Times showing old and new theories of why ice is slippery. 

In our family, we especially love ice because we love to skate on it.  Luke and Megan have been taking ice skating lessons and are doing great!  I just found a website that talks about the science of hockey.  I think Luke will really enjoy reading it. 

30 Days of Science - Day 7

These are water absorbing polymers or "jelly marbles".  They start off small and solid about a quarter size of a pea, then you put them in water and they absorb the water and grow into a much bigger size.   

Fun experiments:

There are lots of things you can do with these.  My very favorite thing to do with these is make them vanish in water.  If you don't add any extra color to them like the cup on the right, you can put the fully grown jelly marbles in a glass bowl and add water to make them vanish!  The neat thing is, they don't really vanish, they just appear to be invisible.  It's pretty interesting.  Read how to do the hidden message trick with these on the Steve Splanger website.   

Where to buy:

You can buy them at SteveSpangler.com or at Hobby lobby and other places in kits that look like this.  Recently I saw them in the dollar store.  They weren't sold as a science project.  They were being sold fully grown, as a flower vase filler.  Once you use them, you can let the water evaporate and keep them again for another time. 

Conserving water in the environment:

These "jelly marbles" are an example of a hydrogel.  Hydrogels are used in gardening as a way to conserve water.  Imagine areas in the world with little water, being able to use these in their gardens to conserve water, and release it to plant roots when needed.  Amazing.  My grandpa Park used to travel to 3rd world countries and teach them how to farm.  I doubt he ever knew about this though.  I'll have to ask him.  As always, Steve Spangler can teach you more.

2-2-2-2-2-2

Today is the 2nd day of the 2nd week of the 2nd month of the 2nd year of the 2nd decade of the 2nd millennium.  How cool is that?

30 Days of Science - Day 6

Continuing on from yesterday's discussion on that fun word hydrophobic...
Luke would be so proud.  I sound like a real geek even though it took a 10 year old to teach me all of this. 

Another hydrophobic product is SOAP! Soap is actually a very long molecule that is hydrophobic (fearing water) on one end and hydrophillic (attracting water) on the other end.  The water sticks to the end that attracts water and the oil sticks to the end that fears water.  When you rinse the soap off your hands, the oils on your body stick to the soap, and the soap sticks to the water.  

Try this really easy experiment on how soap cleans.  Note:  this picture shows our experiment within a minute or two of shaking the jars.  Each had the same amount of blue food coloring.  If you let them sit a lot longer the soap one does separate, although not as much.  Make sure you watch the non-soap jar closely for a while right after you shake it.  It's fun to watch it slowly separate.

30 Days of Science - Day 5

Any clue as to what you are looking at here?

This is a picture of the inside of a plastic cup I'm holding with some magic sand and a little water in it.  I love this picture because I think it is unusual and has good balance.  I love photos of interesting textures like this one, or this one, or this one.

Magic sand is a lot of fun to play with.  It's actually normal sand with a water resistant coating on it that makes it so it never gets wet.  There are a few really fun things to try with magic sand.  Let Steve Spangler teach you some fun ideas. 

Magic sand is a hydrophobic product.  Hydrophobic means "water fearing".  Isn't that a fun word?  If you buy the magic sand, you could first show regular sand and how it works, then tell your kids you have some sand that is afraid of water and bring out the magic sand and joke around about how scared the sand is of the water while you are playing with it.

30 Days of Science - Day 4

Most of the things I'll share on this 30 Days of Science are things my son has taught me.  He is such a smart kid when it comes to science.  Luke read about this experiment in a book and then had a blast trying it out and teaching me why it works. 

Vibrating Coin Experiment
All you need is a empty water bottle, a quarter and a freezer.  We don't have any of those measly quarters lying around so we had to use a gold dollar. 

The experiment is really easy.  However rather than type it out, I'll let you read how to do the experiment here.  Make sure you read the short result section so you can explain what is happening to your kids, or if you have a little scientist like I do, have him read it and explain it to you :)

Tips: 
*Rather than say the coin is vibrating you may choose to say the bottle is burping to get your kids to laugh and have even more fun.  Why do kids like potty talk so much?
*When you are explaining about how the molecules speed up and start vibrating more you can talk about how heat is energy and that cold is simply the absence of heat.  When the air gets colder the air molecules slow down.  Isn't it interesting that heat is simply molecules moving around quickly?  This is an important basic concept I didn't even remember/know until my son taught me.
*If you can't remember what exactly a molecule is read up here. 

30 Days of Science - Day 3

These are not regular beads, they are UV beads.  They start out a nearly white color and then change in the sun.  Luke's teacher from last year, Mrs. Crowder, did the neatest experiment with the beads.  She taught the kids about sunscreen.  She had the kids put various numbers of sunscreen on the beads.  When you take the beads in the sun you can tell which ones have the most SPF protection by the amount of color they change.  Luke was beyond excited about this science project!  In addition to learning more about how sunscreen works, Mrs. Crowder taught the kids about the various UV rays. 

Need a quick refresher course on UV rays or how sunscreen works?  Read here. 
Need a good place to buy the UV beads?  I like buying from Steve Spangler.  Don't forget to click on his experiment and video tabs. 

30 Days of Science - Day 2

I looked around my house the other day and noticed we had at least 8 science projects going on.  My son Luke absolutely loves science and is constantly coming up with new things to try.  Megan isn't passionate about science the way Luke is, but she has a great time, each time Luke does an experiment.  I decided to do this 30 days of science as a fun way to share the experiments he is working on.

Can you guess what the experiment is here?  About a year ago Luke begged me for days to buy a plant.  He wanted to test the theory that plants grow towards sunlight.  With this ivy plant he was able to discover first hand that the theory was correct.  We rotate it from time to time or it would be leaning a little bit towards the light.

30 Days of Science - Day 1

Anyone want to guess what you are looking at?

These are Insta-Worms!  You can make them long, short, skinny, thick or even into little dots.  It's a fun Chemistry experiment.  We used a kit Luke got for his birthday.  You can buy them from Steve Splangler.  Make sure to click on the experiment and video tabs so can learn more.  The Steve Spangler website is very informative if you click on all of the tabs. 

There are also a lot of learning opportunities with this wacky stuff.  It's a fun chemistry experiment.  You take a liquid that is used to thicken pies and other things called sodium alginate (aka worm goo) and squeeze it out of a little bottle into a calcium solution.  Immediately the liquid worm goo turns into a solid can look like a worm if you squeeze the liquid the right way.  My picture shows a globby mess we had fun creating. 

When you are playing with this fun kit you can talk about molecules.  The sodium alginate (worm goo)  is actually a long chain of molecules called a polymer.  Later in this 30 days of science I'll show you some other really fun polymer activities. 

For now, if you want an easy way to learn more about molecules and polymers you can read up here.  Truthfully, I  rarely know any of these science terms until I do a quick google search and start experimenting with my kids.  My little scientist Luke teaches me a lot too.  It's amazing how much I learn either from my kids or in an attempt to teach my kids.