30 Second Science - Physics and a Water Fight

We did a quick physics experiment today, involving air pressure (okay, so what we really did was try out a couple of different models of pop bottle squirt guns - but hey, we take our physics where we find it). For our experiments we used two pop bottles, one balloon, our kitchen sink, and a hammer and nail for making holes in our bottles.

The first model was one we found through the collective wisdom of the Web. We simply poked a hole in the cap of the bottle.

Then, we filled the bottle with water, and replaced the cap. Squirt gun number one was ready to go. It's a simple point-and-squeeze design.

The second model, which we found in Pop Bottle Science, by Lynn Brunelle, was a little more complicated. We poked a hole in the bottle cap again, but this time we also poked a hole near the bottom of the bottle.

Then, we stretched the mouth of a balloon over the bottle opening, letting the balloon dangle down into the bottle.

We filled the balloon with water.

When it was pretty well full, we covered the hole in the bottle, and put on the cap. Uncovering the hole, allowed air into the bottle, and the pressure on the balloon caused water to shoot out through the hole in the cap.

It sounded good, but did not perform quite as well as the simpler model, and was the definite loser in a face to face competition.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Frugal Boredom Buster - Super Hero Climbing Creature

We returned to http://www.sciencetoymaker.org/ today, to try out the climbing creature. All that is required for this project is some string, or yarn, a drinking straw, an empty cereal box, or some poster board, scissors, glue, a little tape, a penny, and a printer, if you want to print out the creature template offered on the site (it looks a little like a gingerbread man with its hands up). What you end up with is a little man who climbs magically up a string while you pull down on either end.

We started out by using the suggested template. After we saw how it worked, we decided our little guy should be a super hero. So, we printed out a super hero paper doll template from http://www.makingfriends.com/ (this is an excellent site for paper dolls, I've used them at home, and for AWANA, and Sunday school crafts many times before).

We backed our paper doll with cardboard, and added a penny for weight under his shirt. When we added the straws to his hands, we made sure they were at enough of an angle allow friction with the string, so that he would move up instead of just sliding down. The Science Toy Maker provides a nice explanation of friction and slip, and why this toy works.

The kids, even my oldest, had a great time with this one. I printed out several more doll templates, so I imagine soon we'll have a climbing creature on every door knob in the house. This would make a great craft, or take home favor for a super hero themed birthday party. It certainly made a good boredom buster, and thought provoker, for us today.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Tornado in a Bottle

I discovered a web site with instructions for homemade science toys - http://www.sciencetoymaker.org/. It is definitely going on my favorites list. Anyway, I was going to have the kids make some climbing creatures yesterday (as you pull down on a couple of strings, it climbs up), but since I had some PVC pipe left over from our marshmallow guns, I decided to look for something that would use a little of what we had left.

Finally, I settled on the tornado in a bottle. I had already printed off instructions from another site for making one of these anyway, because I had two pop bottles under my sink, and I wanted to use them for something. Basically to make the tornado, you need to fill one of the bottles part way, and then connect the two bottles together at their mouths. I've found quite a few suggestions for doing this, from poking a hole through the caps, and then gluing them together with water proof glue, to placing a one inch washer between the open bottles, and taping them together.

Of course, you can buy a tornado cap from almost any educational type science store. The toy maker site, suggests connecting the bottles together by sliding them onto a small piece of 1/2 PVC pipe, with a piece of duct take wrapped around the middle of it, then sealing the bottles with plastic wrap, and taping over that. They also give instructions on how to get an even air pressure in the bottles, so that the bottles won't dent when you use them, and explain the science behind the vortex you're trying to create.

I think this project is supposed to be suitable for older children, but I made ours myself, and then let the kids use it to make the tornadoes (you give the bottle a good circular swish after you turn it water side up). Even so, I found it to be a little bit tricky to get the seal tight, and ended up dousing our kitchen with water before finally succeeding.

If you don't have two pop bottles, you can follow the instructions for making a tornado in a jar at www.weatherwizkids.com/tornado2.htm instead. This is also a great website to check out it your thinking about doing a weather unit with the kids.

It's great to be a homeschooler!

Frugal Boredom Buster - A Mini Marshmallow Gun

This week all of the children, except the oldest one, are going to VBS. This leaves one slightly bored twelve year old, use to a good deal more action around the house. It's a hard age when you're just a little too old to participate, but not quite old enough to volunteer as a helper. Then again, it has given us the opportunity to pursue a few projects that interest him.

Yesterday, after we dropped the others off, we headed straight for the hardware store. I am not overly familiar with that particular store, though it was a little exciting to see the raw materials for so many potential science projects all lined up in neat little bins (my husband tells me those items are actually intended for some sort of home improvement - but I'm not convinced, it looked like a science supply shop to me).

Anyway, we plunked down three dollars, left with a length of plastic pipe (1/2 inch PVC), two elbow fittings, one T joint, and a slip cap (all the 1/2 inch variety). And, after a small struggle to get the pipe to fit into the mini van, we were all set to head home and make a marshmallow gun. This is one of those projects that you can find instructions for all over the web. It seems to be a favorite of the Boy Scouts, though they usually make the larger variety, for jumbo marshmallows.

We unloaded our pipe and fittings into the garage. Then, we grabbed a ruler, a marker, some sandpaper, and a hacksaw, and set to work. From the pipe, we cut two sections that were three inches long, and three sections that were two inches long. We used the sand paper to remove the rough bits from where we had cut.

Then we put the gun together, slipping the three inch pieces into sides of the T joint, and the two inch pieces and the cap as shown in the picture below.

All that was left, was to load up a marshmallow. They go in at the top, right where you blow. My son found that he could load as many as five marshmallows at once, for some rapid fire action. I took a minute to explain the science behind his new toy, demonstrating that the marshmallow goes farther when it is placed at the beginning of the pipe, rather than at the end, because of the amount of air pressure that is allowed to build up behind it when you blow. There is a very nice explanation of this, and a simpler version of the experiment, that does not require PVC pipe, at www.exo.net/~donr/activities/Marshmallow_Puff_Tube.pdf.

Of course, when the other children got home, they all wanted one too. So much for the bag of marshmallows I was going to use to make Rice Krispy treats with. It looks like we're in for a full out marshmallow war (especially since Daddy has put in an order for one too).

It's great to be a homeschooler!

Homemade Pop Tarts - A Delicious Disaster

My oldest son and I decided to try making our own version of his favorite food - a pop tart. There are countless do-it-yourself pop tart recipes available online, but they all seem to have a central theme. Basically, a homemade pop tart is just some sort of filling, such as your favorite jam, wrapped in pie crust, and drizzled with a powdered sugar and milk glaze. I figured we could probably handle that.


I had been wanting to try out a new pie crust recipe, that my mother picked up at her last women's retreat, which uses mayonnaise instead of butter. So, we plunged right in. Since we rolled our pie crust out between two sheets of wax paper, we avoided the flour mess that normally keeps me away from pie making (another little tip from the women's retreat).


We rolled our dough into a rectangle, and then cut it into smaller rectangles.



We added our filling. We decided to try three different fillings: strawberry jam, chocolate chips, and a sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter mixture (the picture is a little blurry, because the camera lense, like everthing else in the kitchen, was smudged with sugar).


Once the filling was in place, we folded the dough over it.


Then we transferred our pop tarts to a cookie sheet, and sealed them shut with a fork.


We baked them at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for about 17 minutes. While they were still hot from the oven, we drizzled them with our powder sugar glaze. We added some cinnamon to the glaze for our brown sugar pop tarts, and some vanilla and baking cocoa for our chocolate ones. That turned out pretty well, except that I did my usual too much milk, more sugar, too much milk routine until we had four times too much glaze.


Our recipe only made about six pop tarts, but I think we could have managed a batch of eight, if we'd rolled our crust a little thinner. That would probably be preferable anyway, though the mayonnaise crust did turn out light and flakey as promised. I cut all the pastries up so the the children, and their father and I, could sample a little of each. The children preferred the brown sugar and cinnamon, but did agree that the strawberry, tasted very much like the real thing too.

Of course, there was the little matter of the clean-up. Happily, we got to the dishes before the sugar rush wore off, so it was quick work. That's really the key to most of our life - get the work done before the sugar wears off!

It's great to be a homeschooler!

Toilet Paper Tube Spool Knitter

The kids and I tried our hands at spool knitting this weekend. It was another one of those ideas we got from Beverly Cleary. This time from Henry and The Paper Route, where Beezus shows off to Henry a spool knitter she's made by hammering nails into the top of a wooden spool.

We didn't have any wooden spools sitting around the house, so we opted for a simpler version, using a toilet paper tube, some craft sticks, a couple of rubber bands, and a little glue. We started out by gluing six craft sticks around the tube, so that their ends stuck up above the top of the tube (I've seen these done with six, four, or three sticks).

Then, we added a couple of rubber bands around the tube, to stabilize the sticks.

When it was dry, we threaded our yarn through the tube from top to bottom, so the loose end was sticking out the bottom of the tube.

We looped the yarn around each stick, so that the yarn crossed behind the sticks.

When all the sticks had a loop of yarn, we wrapped our yarn around all the sticks, in one loop, and began lifting the bottom loops over our new loop.

As we continued wrapping around all the sticks, and lifting loops over the top, a tube of knitting descended through the tube, and out the bottom.

I thought it was pretty neat, but I'll admit when I demonstrated the technique to the children, our conversation was a lot like that of Henry and Beezus from chapter one of the book I mentioned earlier.

"But what does it make?" Henry asked.

"A piece of knitting," Beezus held up her work to show Henry a tail of knitted red yarn that came out of the hole in the center of the spool.

"But what's it good for?" Henry asked.

"I don't know," admitted Beezus, her fingers and the crochet hook flying. "But it's fun to do."

Of course, I checked, and there are a few things you can do with spool knitting, like use it as a bracelet, a belt, twist it into a flower, or a hot pad, or place mat, or rug...

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Road Trip - Craters of the Moon

It's that time of year again, when we like to load the kids, and a picnic lunch, into the van and hit the open road. We rushed around yesterday morning, trying to make an early start of it, though we didn't actually pull out of the driveway until 9:30. We pointed the van south, and headed for Craters of the Moon in Idaho.

It was a pretty long drive for the little ones, probably our limit for a one day trip. But, it was one filled with plenty of interesting things to see and experience.

• Salmon, Id - the birthplace of Sacagawea.


• The Salmon River - known as the "river of no return" to the Corp. of Discovery.


• Borah Peak - the highest point in Idaho.


• Challis earthquake fault line - sight of a 7.3 earthquake in 1983.


• Countless caves - some of which are thought to have been homes to prehistoric man (somebody lived there a long time ago anyway).


• Arco, Id - the first town in the free world powered by atomic energy.


• More historical markers than you could stop to read in a week.
  
  

Finally, we were rewarded with the Craters of the Moon, which President Calvin Coolidge referred to as, "a weird and scenic landscape peculiar to itself". It's a great place to visit if you want to spark your kids interest in volcanology or geology. We would have happily spent several more hours there than we had to spend.

There's a very informative visitor's center, a lot of walking path's marked with educational signs, and even a campground. It is quite high in the mountains, so it was a bit cold there this time of year - we even found some snow! But the spring flowers have begun blooming, in spite of the unfriendly terrain, and it is a site to behold.

If you click on the pictures of the rocks, you can get a closer view of the cooled lava flows. For the really adventurous, there are lava tubes and caves to explore (not for us with the wee ones along). Plus, the park website provides numerous worksheets and activity ideas for further learning.

Throw in some elk, white tail and mule deer, antelope, a coyote, and herds of cattle on the road (this is open range country), a hail and lightning storm, rock slides, fog on the pass, six kids in a minivan, and you have the all the makings for a fun filled family road trip!

It's great to be a homeschooler!