Science Post #1

What we have going on this year in science: 

My 12 year old is taking Apologia Swimming Creatures at our home school co-op. This is a terrific choice for Tornado (like Flying Creatures last year) because of the notebook journal style. He loves filling in the sections and cutting and pasting pictures from the Internet and magazines - and all of the lapbook type mini-books, etc.

Science is included in My Father's World curriculum, as well. It mainly takes you through this book, which has a little bit of many scientific subjects, ranging from the solar system to animals. The MFW curriculum set also came with other books and experiments, including Science in the Kitchen and Science with Air. And we'll be adding in other things we're interested in, of course. My 7 year old responds very well to science topics, so I have to put that to use.

It's funny because just as I was typing that above - I gasped; I had totally forgotten about this magnet set that came with the curriculum. I had just seen magnet sensory tubs around and wanted to do one. I guess we will be doing many more magnet experiments in the future, as well.

This is our magnet sensory box. 

The base is dry black beans and split peas.

They made predictions to whether each object listed on their assignment sheet (from a Mailbox Science magazine) would be magnetic or non-magnetic.

Then they tested their predictions. Even though I said he loves science, it's funny (or sad) how much Dash dislikes hypothesizing. He hates to be wrong. I can't get him to understand that's just what scientists do; they're sometimes wrong! He feels like a loser when his prediction doesn't match the result. Sigh.

Later, they each had to find every object in the box (which was more than what was included on their prediction sheet) and put it on the appropriate page.

On their own they discovered the magnets worked through a glass or plastic cup.

Um, I think I see a couple of items in the wrong pile.

I printed off this magnet race game from another book, but it was a fail for us. They couldn't get the hang of keeping the magnet far enough away from the paperclip to move it without it jumping to the magnet. 

We watched this DVD, which included a lot of what we were talking about the past two weeks. There is so much packed into 55 minutes. They're going to have to watch it more to help absorb it all, but I have to say I learned (or relearned) so much, too. I want to order the rest of the series.

 Will a egg float better in salt water? We talked about density and molecules.

 Will it float?
They chose 8-10 objects to test.

predictions then results

This experiment was a little precarious. Oranges should float with the peel but sink without the peel. They, of course, guessed that it would be the opposite and were surprised of the results. We used clementines because when I tried the orange ahead of time it wasn't floating very well. There are tiny air pockets in an orange peel causing it to have a lower density. To create a better distinction I should have used a deeper pool of water, which I think was the problem.

Ryan used Legos as a good example to explain molecules/atoms. On another day we talked more about density. They poured water, syrup, then oil in a glass and watched the layers of syrup, water, then oil form.

They took it further by adding food coloring to another cup of water and watching the oil rise.

After we read the solar system lesson in First Encyclopedia of Science, they worked on their own solar system (kit from Wal-Mart).

We still need to paint the base. I was happy for Pluto still representin'! I taught them "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles" but told them now it's really "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Noodles."