Wordless Wednesday 6/12/13

Wordless Wednesday 5/22/13

Wordless Wednesday 5/30/12

Theory Thursday: Dry Paper Underwater

Jake and I came back from soccer practice Thursday night and Erika had the Amazing Science DVD playing. Jake spotted this little trick and knew what he wanted to do.

All you need is a dry piece of paper, a glass, and a bucket with enough water to completely submerge the glass. Crumple the paper lightly, not too tight. (You want the paper to fit in the bottom of the glass but not fall out when you tip the glass upside down.) Simply tip the glass upside down and steadily submerge the glass in the water. You gotta keep the glass level so that none of the air is replaced with water. If it does you will have wet paper underwater.

Check out our attempt.

 

So how does it work? The air in the glass is lighter than the water. Because of this the air remains in the glass and acts as a buffer between the paper and the water keeping the paper dry.

Well, now that you know how to do it and why it does it go and try it. Try it with your friends. Just tell them, "I bet I can submerge this piece of paper in that water and it won't get wet."

 

Theory Thursday: Cloud in a Bottle

When I got home today Jake started me to tell about a science project that he watched on the "Amazing Science" DVD we are reviewing. (Look for the review in 2 weeks.)

"You take a plastic bottle and put alcohol in it, and swoosh it around, and put the cap back on. Then you use a drill or pencil or something to put a hole in the bottle. Then you pump it up with air and it goes WHOOOSH!His excitement was a little overwhelming. I knew what we were doing tonight, "Cloud in a Bottle".

It is simple really. Start with a two liter bottle, or any plastic bottle that can handle some pressure. A juice bottle perhaps. (Although I wouldn't try a milk carton.) Put about 1/2 teaspoon of rubbing alcohol in the bottle and "swoosh" it around to coat the bottle with it. Put a hole in the bottle. Now I pre-drilled a hole that fit a rubber fitting I had for our pump, but you can just make a small hole and cover it with duct tape and use a pump with a needle on it. (You know a needle for inflating a ball.) Insert pump end and inflate. We were trying to hit 25-30 psi. Once you get some pressure in it, release the pressure and WHOOOSH! You have a cloud in your bottle.

So why does it happen? I thought you might ask so I looked it up. When pressure is applied to the water in the air the molecules gather together and heat up. When the pressure is released the water molecules separate and cool. As they cool they form a cloud and if they cool further it rains. The alcohol evaporates quicker than water and releases its bond with itself quicker thus the alcohol cloud in the bottle forms quicker and with better visibilty than water would. (check this site for deeper info stevespanglerscience.com)

You may have noticed that there are no pictures in this post. That's because we did a video. Check out how much fun we had trying this out. Do you see our special guest in the background, its the new kid in school.

Now its your turn grab the supplies from the closet, bathroom, and recycle bin and give it a try.

Theory Thursday: Soy Sauce Submarine

 I don't know about you but when I was a kid I always loved playing with stuff that floated in the bathtub. I had this little wooden boat that I played with all the time. My dad had made it for me, it was just a basic boat shape cut from plywood with a dowel sticking out the middle and a piece of material that hung off the dowel as a sail. How many of us threw rocks in any body of water we had the chance to, I still do! We love playing in the water. There is something intriguing about seeing what floats and sinks. How about something that floats and sinks?

All you need is a bottle full of water, Soy sauce packet (or any plastic condiment packet), and a small paper clip or two.

Attach the paper clip to the bottom of packet and insert in the bottle.

It should float at the top of the bottle. If it floats with a lot of the package above the surface of the water add another paper clip or upgrade to a large paper clip. Do yourself a favor though, don't start with a large paper clip. It just might be too heavy and sink. Then you have dump all the water and fish the packet back out. I won't mention how I know this.

With your sauce packet now floating at the surface begin to squeeze the bottle.

Isn't that cool! So.... do you wanna know how it works? We all know that water is less dense than air that is why it "floats" above the water in the bottle. Well the air in the sauce packet keeps the packet afloat. When you squeeze the bottle the air and water have no where to go so something has to give. Since water does not compress as air does the water compresses the air. When the air inside the packet gets compressed to the point at which it is denser than the water outside the packet the packet falls. When you release your squeeze all returns to normal and the packet floats.

Well, don't just watch our video. Go make your own see how hard you have to squeeze the bottle. Can you squeeze hard enough to get the air in the packet to lay the packet down? Or can you get the packet to float in the middle? Make it a game, who can get the packet to float in the middle the longest? Just go try it and have fun!

Theory Thursday: Water on a Penny

Have you ever taken the time to figure out just how many drops of water will fit on a penny? You know, one day that information will be very vital to your well-being. For instance, you're at the grand prize stage of a game show, and the final question is "How many drops of water will fit on a penny?" Or what if an evil villain is overtaking the world and the only way to stop him is to answer "How many drops of water will fit on a penny?" Or if one day you need a science project for your kids and answering "How many drops of water will fit on a penny?" seems like a good choice for the day. 

See? This is a very important question. One day you'll be thankful you read this post. Trust me.

Start by filling an eye dropper with tap water.

Squeeze a drop of water, one at a time, onto a penny.

Make sure you count each drop as it drips.

The water will create a big bubble. Keep adding drops and counting until it spills over the edge.

 In the meantime, give the toddler his own water and a bulb syringe.

Get some towels to clean up the mess.

 And since this is science, try different approaches of filling the bulb.

Eventually, the others will realize how much fun the toddler is having making a mess experimenting that they'll want to join in.

Get more towels.

Jake made comments like "Yikes! I'm making a mess everywhere like a real scientists." and "I'm making my own scientist potions."

And then came the declaration that made all 3 children laugh hysterically. As he sprayed the water out of the bulb, he said, "I even made it backwash!"

And then I got more towels.

Oh, you're still waiting on the answer to the million dollar question? Well, Jake and Alyssa had a hard time getting a single drop every time they added water. I got 17 the one time I tried. I've heard that you can get anywhere from 25-40 drops on a penny though.

So, go try it yourself so one day, you'll be prepared to save the world.

Wordless Wednesday 8/3/11

Wordless Wednesday: 7/27/11

Theory Thursday: Water Sensor

So it was Thursday and the girls went to the store leaving Jake, Zac, and me here at home alone. I thought it would be a good time for Jake and me to do one of the electronic circuits in the kit we used for Theory Thursday: Electronics 101. I pulled the kit out and Jake got all giddy, he tends to love science and electronics like his daddy. As I flipped through the book to find a quick simple circuit I started to realize that Jake was probably able to do this by himself. I had to help him identify the resistors he needed but he put the entire circuit together by himself, except the battery that somehow I didn't realize was in the schematic, I added that once I realized we needed it.

Now I didn't take a lot of pictures for this one, above are all the pictures I took. All that is shown is the building of the circuit. Below is the video of the circuit in action, along with a lesson learned.

So we learned something, had fun, and made a mess all in like forty-five minutes or so. We even had the mess cleaned up before mommy came home.

Wordless Wednesday: 6/29/11

The "Dinosaur" Museum

So we read a lot of Berenstain Bears books with the kids. They enjoy them quite a bit. There is one in particular in which Brother Bear gets really interested in dinosaurs. Jake loves it and started to get interested in dinosaurs himself because of it. It is because of this interest and the idea of wanting to start taking the kids to some museums and such in the area that we decided to go to the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History. It  is not a "dinosaur" museum but they do have dinosaur bones on display.

The libraries in our area have a program going where you can "check out" tickets from the library for different educational attractions in the area. I do believe that it is Macy's this year that is actually paying for the tickets. It was through this that we got tickets to the museum. Although we found out that the museum was free anyhow. Coincidentally the museum had a special day for the kids with the Water and You exhibit. They had stations set up throughout with tasks, activities, games, and lessons for the kids to participate in. This made the visit. I do believe that our day would have been much shorter and less enjoyable for our young children had the water stuff not been there.

At first it didn't seem to me that the kids were getting in the museum and what it had to offer. I, of course, started to think that they were not going to enjoy it much, but Erika could pick out what they wanted to see and thus it started to become a hit. As I said there were stations about water facts and activities for the kids to participate in. At each of these they got a little bead for their "Water Cycle" band (yarn). This was probably the most exciting part for them since at each station they immediately went for the basket with the beads. 

Activities included PH testing, bingo, and finding little animals from river water.

Some of the activities set up were things that our kids had already done with Erika at home for school. So they already knew the facts and impressed the UM students heading up the activities. Below and to the left Jake was helping demonstrate what items would float or sink in the water. In the center and right pictures Jake was making a color straw with water of different densities due to the sugar mixed in each. Next to the color straws was the water and oil illustration that the kids had just done a few days before.

Placed throughout the museum were large fans for air movement that I am sure are used in the hotter months. For some reason Jake thought that these were the coolest things in the world and wanted his picture taken with them. They were so cool to him that when I asked him to stand next to a huge leg bone for a picture he thought I was asking him to stand next to the fan.

Poor Zac stayed in the stroller the entire time and did great! He never once complained or whined. At the end of the day Mommy bought him a little dinosaur from the gift shop which he immediately went to roaring and attacking his sister with. Did I mention we've never taught him that dinosaurs roar.

All in all we had a great day even stopping to check the Borders in that area that was going out of business along with all the others. The kids had a great time and I do believed learned at least something that  they did not know before. We walked away with quite a few beads, a book, some coloring pages, posters, tattoos, info on local parks, and resources from the local DNR. The Water and You exhibit was very well done. The students and other adults that headed up each of the stations did an excellent job in presentation of their task and in the work with the kids. This impressed us with how young our kids are in relation to the ages that the activities were probably meant for.

Deja vu

I am tempted to repost what I wrote a week ago. Talk about deja vu. I went to bed just before midnight. Alyssa, my dear sweet Alyssa, came to bed with us at 12:30 am. Here we go again. She is wide awake and wanting water. Not a sip, mind you, but a gallon or so. She drank almost my entire glass. More. I got her own sippy cup full. More. Filled it again. More. I’m pretty sure she drank her weight in water. One-thirty rolls around and Zachary, who normally sleep until 7:30 am, wants to eat. I came back to find Alyssa wide awake and still playing. Finally, enough is enough at 2:44 am. She goes back to sleep in her own bed! Exactly five minutes later, Jake comes to our room. Why not? It’s a party in the Leaf household in the middle of the night. Zac eats again at 4:30 am and has soaked through his clothes. He eats and soaks through again at 7:30 am. (You’re starting to question my diapering abilities, aren’t you?)

These are not every day occurrences. I’m starting to think that it’s a Sunday night/Monday morning thing. Or maybe they just want to make sure I have something to write about. Well, they better come up with some new ways to drive me crazy because I really don’t want to say the same things next Monday. I’m sure they’ll think of something.