Reporting on the Summer of Science: Weeks Two and Three; and a Rebound

There are actually some fun, easy, boredom-buster ideas below that any mom might love for the long summer days!

The Summer of Science experiments continue to be a success! After the fun of the chemistry in week one, we moved on to water experiments for weeks two and three. I have to confess, that with as much as I would love to just be brilliant, I am using a book I found at Barnes and Noble a couple of years ago called Science Wizardry for Kids. So thanks for your vote as "Most Intelligent Mom of the Year," but now the truth is out! The sad thing is that before I had these sweet boys whom I am teaching this stuff to, I may have been able to come up with these ideas on my own. I once was that brilliant-minded gal. But the loss of millions of brain cells from pregnancy, lack of sleep, and pure mom-mindedness (a mind that can only focus on things "mom" related), require much more help, like idea books. Oh well, that's why authors make the big bucks, right?!

Day Four:
Experimenting with Color

This is a simple one, with very interesting results. The kids were fascinated. We colored the end of paper towel strips with black, brown, orange, green and purple (non-primary colors). Then stuck the non-colored end of the paper towel into a dish of water. As the water crept up toward the color, the colors combined to make the black, brown, etc. began to separate. The colors dripped onto the paper towel underneath the bowl to give us awesome separated color rings. It was amazing to see what colors end up in marker ink that result in the single color we have when we color on the paper! We were surprised to find it wasn't as simple as red plus yellow equals orange, etc. In the picture below, starting with the pink/yellow on the left and moving clockwise, you have orange, black, brown, purple and green separated out. Look at all the green in the brown! And the dark pink in the black. So interesting.
Day Five:
Using Fruits and Vegetables to Determine Factors in Floating/Sinking

The boys really got a kick out of this. It's pretty self-explanatory, but here they are floating a red pepper.

Here are all the veggies/fruits we floated, and our chart that included factors such as size (comparative), shape, weight (comparative), density (comparative), and "other" factors. Again, we made our predictions, then tested. We found that in each case there were different factors that determined whether the test item would float or sink. The answer was definitely not weight, as the blueberry sunk quickly. Shape, size and weight seemed to combine for unique outcomes. Hmmmm....

Day Six:

Float a Needle (Water Tension); and Clay Boat Competition

This one was a huge hit. First we discovered that water pushes up on things. When a needle is dropped into the water, it will sink, but by carefully placing it in the water, we could get it to float. We talked about why that was true. If you look closely you can see the needle floating in the water in the picture. It was REALLY hard to keep Luke out of the bowl, which is why I usually do these experiments during nap time. Then the boys used the shape/density/water tension principles we talked about to make boats out of modeling clay.

Then we filled them, one penny at a time, and tested to see which boat stayed afloat the longest. Zach's is yellow, Josh's blue, Ben's green, and Luke's (with 99% help from mom) red. We talked about why some sunk quickly and some stayed afloat and could hold a lot of weight. The boys loved it; Ben wanted to keep changing his boat until he could get it to beat mine. He eventually settled for a tie.

Luke loved playing with all the discarded boats after our experiment was over, filling them with pennies, watching them sink, and ended up making quite an ocean on the counter-top as the bowl was emptied, boat-load by boat-load!

Day Seven:

Aluminum Foil Boats in Different Water Types

This experiment was to test the buoyancy of different water types. We made boats of aluminum foil, and I have to tell you, if your kids are ever bored, give them a chance to make boats from aluminum foil or clay and then float them. My boys really enjoyed both days of boat making/floating/competing. Zach's mighty Blue Wolf, Ben's huge S.S. Longer, Josh's small but strong Littlest Boat, and mom's simple but hearty Rinky Dink.

First we figured out how many pennies it took to sink the boats in homemade salt water. The trick was pulling the boats out without changing them at all, so we had to try a few times to get it right. Next we used the same boats and sunk them in fresh water. It took fewer pennies to sink the boats in the fresh!! Then we tried corn starch water. The results were inconclusive on this one. Maybe I didn't add enough. I believe they are supposed to sink faster than in fresh, but they sunk in about the same time. So we decided that for sure, salt water had the best buoyancy. Hopefully we are never out boating on corn starch water anyway.
Day Eight:

Our Own Water Cycle

First we made steam, and talked about the cold ocean and the warm air and what happens when the warm air hits the cold ocean. Evaporation occurs, so it's not exactly steam, but we had to speed up the process! This first experiment was not from our book, but completely Zach's idea when I told him we were going to make rain later. He suggested that we use fridge cold water and pour in boiling hot water to get the biggest amount of steam and show evaporation. I loved that he contributed, he's really thinking about this stuff! That's not just a bad picture below, that's Ben behind all the steam from the experiment.

Then we made rain by boiling water and placing a pan of ice-cold water above it. The steam condenses on the bottom of the cold water pan, and once enough collects it starts to drip. So we talked about how rain is created in a similar way up in the atmosphere. The cold air high up causes the evaporating air to cool and condense, creating clouds. When it condenses enough, it gets heavy and falls to the ground as rain. It was a quick experiment, but the boys thought it was really cool.

I am still so happy with how these S.O.S. experiments are all going and the reaction I am getting from the boys. I don't know how much of the information or principles we are learning will be remembered, but I think the point is to get them to love science. And I really think we are achieving that goal, experiment by experiment!

I also thought I should report on our garden. After a great start, a harsh move and a time of shock, we've had a bit of a rebound! Seriously, the plants that didn't die from the move just seemed too afraid to do anything for awhile. They didn't call it quits, but they weren't growing at all. It was very odd. But finally, they seem to have revived themselves. These are the radishes, that are really starting to get going again. Below are our bean plants. It's not the best picture, but you can see at the bottom of the stalk the leaves from the shock of the move, all curled and withered. But above them is new growth, and there seems to be new leaves every day! Yes!

I will probably head to the nursery today and buy some tomato plants and lettuce plants that are already established, because we don't want to miss out on those veggies later this summer, and they just didn't survive. But our squash and pumpkins and peas are still trying to grow, slowly but surely, and we even have two corn stalks that look healthy! Poor artichokes, they never had a chance. We may have success yet!

I think next year we will just go for it and plant everything outside in late Spring. No starts. We'll see how that goes! I guess a lot of it depends on when our weather turns in the Fall. If we have a lot of sun and warmth like we did this year through October, it will be great, but if we have an early cold...well, not so good!

Thanks for sticking with me again on this post. I am in science-nerd-girl heaven! We're going to take a little break now from experiments while we travel, but we should have a couple of weeks left at the end of the Summer when our journeys have ended to have a bit more science fun!