This Past Weekend

 We had another busy weekend. These are in no particular order of the time occurrence of the events.

This top photo is of her at the Science Museum and working on the different experiments and projects they had that were special for Saturday.

 Here are a few shots while she is playing basketball at the tournament this weekend. We have seen much improvement but really she had nowhere to go but to improve. She did finally make her first two points in a game. She is getting good at getting the rebound and trying to jump up and take another shot and getting the follow but now she needs to learn how to sync those free throws. They keep bouncing off the rim.

 This next picture is from our monthly for each meeting. They did a science experiment across three different tables of kids.

 Here she is with the Harry Potter golden snitch Valentine box that she made. She  brought it to the 4H meeting for the Valentine Fox contest and both she and her brother one one of the prizes.

Next up is a boat project they had to do for science class, I believe. There were a couple of rules they had to follow one main one was that the bottom of the boat that touch the water had to be completely metal. Another rule was that it had to float for a certain length of time with 50 pennies in it. They had to work on their own and design something that would work. She had three cups to balance out over her pie plate to split her pennies into so it wouldn't tip over. 

Here is a class at Shattuck Saint Mary's  where she is about learning about hearts that included a dissection of a pig or cow Heart during the last hour of the class. She had a friend from school go with her and four friends from swim team were there as well her friend from school didn't care for the smell during the dissection part so she left the room so the other kids in the pictures above are from swim team.

Finally, we took the kids to the winter carnival in St Paul for the first time to see the ice castle and all the amazing ice sculptures there. I thought that was pretty neat to see. 

Catapult Science Class at Shattuck

She loves to take these STEM classes at SSM. This class was a catapult class and she had 4 friends there with her. She was in a group with 2 friends from school and her 2 friends from swim were in the group next to her.

5th Grade Science Project - Gumball Machine

A couple of videos of the gumball machine in action. They had to make it as a group, but if we are being honest she did most of the work.





TO "win" their class gumball project they had to use as many simple machines as possible of the 6 then learned about (they were the only in their class to use all 6) and have it go as slow as possible. They won their classroom, but there was a different one in a different classroom that was slower so they didn't win the grade.

Reg & Slow Mo Video

We took the kids to the Science Museum today and they have a new exhibit called Sportsology and this was one of the activities they could do was to do some kind of physical movement and then watch in recorded in slow motion. I recorded her doing it regular than on the computer as she did them in slow motion. She did a cartwheel in one and a jump in the other.

Microscope Mania STEM class at SSM

 This is the first STEM class this year that Isabel has been able to take at Shattuck. She just loves science and taking these classes there. Wish we could afford to send her there but tuition is the same as a private college. 😔

Parents can come back 15 minutes early for this 3 hr class to see what they learned. Her brother can't wait until he is old enough to go too.

They offer one every month during the school year and then hopefully they will bring back their day camp in the summer.

 She can't make January because of a cheer competition but is considering skipping a travel swim meet to discuss the Feb one. Hopefully she can make the April one. And May she is for sure signed up for. It is working with their big catapult.

Her friend Bennett spent the night at our house and went to the class together. She goes to a different school but they are on swim team together and are the same age and grade. Bennett is her BFF.

Science Fair Presentation

She did a good job presenting. I was there to watch her with one of the two judges. She was happy with how it all went but she does agree it is a lot of work. All the 1st & 2nd graders who participated (I think it was just 7 1st graders, not sure about 2nd graders) got a certificate and a 2nd place ribbon. 3rd grade & up could compete to go on to the regional competition, although the 1st & 2nd graders had to do all the same stuff as the competers which was the experiment, report, display & presentation.

She did like it and likes that she got a ribbon, but thinks maybe next year she won't do it and wait until she is in 3rd grade when she can compete. It was good practice and we know more now so that she can do an even better job to compete. We'll see how she feels about it next year.

Science Fair Project

These are some pictures I took of Isabel when she was starting her Science Fair project. The Science Fair is next week Thursday and since we have a snow day today, we have been working on her presentation board, report, presentation notes. She is in awe of the ability to Cut and Paste and very thankful she doesn't have to retype everything.

 Her question was, "Which Seeds Sprout Faster?" and her hypothesis was that "Small Seeds Sprout Faster". She completed two trials with 3 small seeds and 3 large seeds in each. She did prove her hypothesis but she did have 2 kinds of large seeds that did not sprout at all, so she will have some "discussion" to include about that.

This morning we transplanted several of the seedlings in to small pots so that she can add to her display. Hopefully the transplantation will take.

I am very interested to hear what she thinks about the Science Fair after she is done with everything. At her grade level she only gets a participation ribbon (in 3rd grade she can compete), but she still has to do just as much work. I am not making her do all the research that she would have to do at the competition level, but she is having to type everything and do most of the work for the project and the display and the presentation she has to do on her own.

I am curious if she will think it is all too much work or not. It really is a lot of work and I think all she really cared about was doing the experiment. Plus I am not sure if she will like the presentation part of it as she didn't want to do cheerleading again this winter because she didn't want to cheer in front of a crowd.

She isn't finished yet. She has only prepared 3 of the 5 sections for all 3 parts (display, report, notes) so far and the 2 that are left each have as much typing as all 3 combined. I am envisioning a lot of complaining as she is not familiar enough with the keyboard to type efficiently.

Science Night

An area church sponsored a free Science Night for preschool and young elementary children on Thursday this week. This collage just shows some of the activites they had for the kids. There were several other things we did but didn't get pictures of and a few things we never got around to doing because we ran out of time, but they gave the parents instructions on how to do everything so we could do them again home again (or for the first time.) It was a good program and I was very happy they provided it. Isabel loves to do experiments at home.

Indoor Fun Today

After lunch, during naptime we had some indoor fun. Mommy taught her how to use mousse and scrunch her hair to add the curl back in. She thought that was pretty neat and has been wanting to use product in her hair. I am not sure why since I usually wear my hair in a ponytail, altough daddy puts gel in his hair everyday so he could be the role model there.

She was taking differnt soaps, lotions & hair products from the bathroom and mixing them and said she was trying to do an experiment. So, I told her I would give her some white solids and clear liquids to use and she could figure out what each was and what happened when she mixed them together. Her white solids were: Flour, sugar, salt & baking soda. Her clear liquids were; Water, Vinegar & 7th Generation dish soap. She had a fun time.

3 Other Below Zero Science Experiments

These were so much fun to do, mainly I think because I had never done them before and so I was able to experience them for the first time with Isabel.

They are all relatively simplet to do.

The bubble experiment is just blowing bubbles in the air and if it's cold enough they freeze and don't pop when they touch the ground, or don't fully pop. The picture of the single bubble is a full bubble; the picture of multiple bubbles are actually popped but they stayed frozen and the open part is where it "popped'. Then Isabel was touching them to see what happens when she pops them and basically what we found out is that it flakes away. Here we are teaching how the cold air turns a liquid into a solid. Very interesting.

This next experiment ideas came to us compliments of our friend Rebecca who had done it earlier in today. You blow up a beach ball as full as you can, then place it outside and watch as the ball implodes, this happens quite quickly at -20 below. Once it looks like it is done sinking in, bring it in the house and watch as it appears to reinflate. Then you can talk about how the cold makes the air molecules contract and heat makes them expand. We talked about this while the ball was outside and when I explained what was happening, she knew exactly what would happen to the ball.

For the egg experiment you crack an egg outside ( I did it in a pie tin) and time it to show how long it takes to freeze. This demonstrates how fast frostbite can happen. Then to take it a step further, when you unthaw it you can explore how part of the egg changed in color & consistency due to frostbite. What we found is that it immediately stated freeezing on the thin edges right after we cracked it into the pie tin (which was in the house, could you imagine if we had frozen the pie tin first). Then at 12 minutes, all but the thickest parts were frozen. At 20 minutes the entire thing was one very solid frozen mass and you could see thta part of the egg were changing color due to the frostbite. We brought it inside and after 20 minutes it was still mostly frozen. So, Isabel decided to experiment with 1st blowing bubbles on it (which did nothing to help thaw) and then putting liquid soap on it (which did nothing to help thaw) and finally put warm water on it (which thawed it, these were all her own ideas to try), but then we found that the discolored areas stayed that way and their consistency changed as well in the frostbit area.

What fun experiments! But now we are staying indoors the rest of the day. It's 1:30pm and we haven't reached 0 yet.

Below 0 Experiments - Boiling Water

Today was the perfect day to try a few science experiments in below 0 weather, since we are significantly below zero (with windchill it feels like -35.)

First thing I learn is it needs to be boiling water, not just hot water. Hot water only steams a little bit, but boiling water steams alot and most of the water pretty much just evaporates immediately.

I did a couple videos of it (I had 3 mugs of boiling water in my teapot, so we did this 3 times.)

Here is Take 1 of the Experiment and Take 2 of the Experiment.

Science Playdate - Chemistry

We had a lot of fun with 5 different experiments. Below I will post the recipes we used. We were unable to do the sunprints because it was too windy & our papers kept blowing up.

We made volcanos, oobleck, slime, melting ice with salt, & learned about water soluble materials.

Plus they had some time to play in the backyard as well. I also explained in the simplest terms I could, how things worked and why. Most of these are early elementary science experiments, so these kids will be ahead of their classmates in learning about them. :)

We tried out most of the experiments beforehand to see how they worked and make sure the recipes worked properly. Actually, we did all of them.

Playing with Oobleck with Aleah.

Science Playgroup - Chemistry

Make a Volcano

2 T baking soda
4 drops of food coloring
½ T (approx.) dish soap
¼ C vinegar

Place baking soda in the bottom of the cup. Top with food coloring and dish soap. When ready, pour on vinegar and watch the fun! Point out how the baking soda & vinegar caused a chemical reaction that makes the two liquids turn into a gas (the soap is just for added effect.)

Oobleck
1/3 C Water
5 drops of food coloring
¾ C Cornstarch

Mix together water & food coloring in a dish. Slowly add cornstarch to water mixture. Do not stir! Let mixture stand for 2 minutes. Then pick up and play with it. Add a couple more drops if the mixtures doesn't turn from a solid into a liquid. Point out that this can be both a solid & a liquid. Tell them that corn is a polymer and polymers make it hard for liquids to move, so it acts like a solid until it is able to move and act like a liquid again.

Slime
¼ C Starch
3 drops food coloring
¼ C White Glue

In a plastic bag, pour in starch, put in drops of food coloring and squeeze to make starch colored. Next pour in white glue. Seal bag and begin squeezing the 2 ingredients together. When it makes a solid, you can take out slime and pour out excess liquid (which should be minimal). Have fun playing with your stretchy slime. Point out how when these 2 liquids are mixed together they form a solid.

Water Soluble Packing Peanuts
Tell them how water soluble means it can be dissolved in water. Demonstrate.

Melting Ice Experiment
1 tray of ice cubes (left as is)
1 tray of crushed ice
1 tray of ice cubes
1 solid tray of ice

Leave one tray of cubes as it is. Sprinkle salt on top of the other 3 kinds of ice. Tell how salt lowers the melting point of ice, so it makes it melt faster. Watch to see if different sizes of ice melt more quickly than other or in different ways when ice is applied.

Sun Prints
1 piece of construction paper
various items that will lay flat on paper

Lay items on top of contruction paper (darker colors work best) for 1-4 hours. Remove items and see the prints left behind. Talk about how the UV rays from the sun cause a chemical reaction in which the dye in the paper breaks down and causes it to fade in the spots that were not colored.