The Naked Egg Experiment

 This is an oldie but a goodie.  But, with so many kids, and so many science experiments, I didn't realize that these two hadn't done the "naked egg" experiment. 

All you need is a jar, a raw egg and white vinegar.

Put the egg in the jar and cover with white vinegar.

 Bubbles immediately begin to form on the egg....the white vinegar has begun to dissolve the eggshell.

 After about an hour, the egg began to float.

 The next day, and the next day....change out the vinegar with fresh white vinegar.

After only one day, the shell is mostly dissolved and the egg is squishy.

 After 7 days this is what our egg on the left looks like compared to a x-large egg on the right. (we started with a medium egg)  This is also a lesson about osmosis.  

"naked eggs", raw eggs and a plastic Easter Egg

If you look carefully in the sunshine, you can see the yolk sloshing around inside the egg.  The outer membrane is quite rubbery at this point, 

 but not so rubbery that is can't break with you drop it on the counter...poor Luke!

Kim's egg made is outside and

it can bounce...a few times.

 Luke dissecting his egg goo.

Kim's splatter....the yolk was almost like playdough.

You can see our "naked egg" posts of the past here. 

Borax Snowflakes

 We've started a unit about winter and snow...and hoping for some significant snow ourselves.  

I decided to help the kids make borax snowflakes.  

First you need to cut a pipe cleaner into three equal parts.  Bend into a 6 sided "snowflake".  Tie a string to the pipecleaners and the other side of the string to a pencil. 

 Make sure the edges of the pipecleaners don't touch the bottom or sides of the jar.

 You now need Borax and boiling water. 

 Add 2 cups of boiling water to the jar...stir in 6 tbls of borax.

 Stir....not all the borax will dissolve--it is a super saturated solution.

 Put your "snowflakes" into the jars...wait 24 hours.

 The next day we had crystals everywhere.

We were careful not to shake the jar as we carried them to the table. 

The big reveal!

 Amazing crystal snowflakes.

 Ta Da!!!!

These are very, very hard...and last a long time!

Breakfast Science....Iron in our Cereal

 Today was learned all about the vitamins and minerals in our food.  Especially the iron in our breakfast cereal.   

 We used Total cereal, which has 80% of the daily allowance of iron per serving..which is one cup. 

We put one cup of cereal in a good ziploc bag and add a cup or two of water.  Squish and mush and and turn the cereal to a soup. 

 When the cereal is dissolved run a strong magnet along the cereal...slowly, back and forth.  

Ta Da!!!  Real iron...right there in our cereal.  We next tried Chex cereal which has 40% of the daily allowance of iron...we only found a teeny tiny bit of iron in the cereal soup. 

Science rules!!

Physics for Third Graders

We have finished out first quarter of 3rd grade, which means we have finished up the health section of science for the year and have moved on to "real science".

This year we are using Noeo Science Physics 1.

 

This is our type of schooling...good books, notebooking and experiments.  It's very hands on and the kids love it. (So do I)  We do tend to be pretty science geeky around here, so once we get started on a subject we generally go all out.

 

Today, after reading the first 2 pages of the book Forces and Motion, the kids did their note booking page,

 

This led to watching Bill Nye the Science Guy on Youtube...not just about forces and motion but we also watched gravity.  (we do get sucked into more and more and more in the science department.

 

We then found some experiments to do.  (I said we really get into science....today it lasted about 2 hours-after only reading 2 pages from the first book)

 

The law of inertia, Isaac Newton’s First Law of Motion, states that an object tends to stay at rest or in straight line motion if no outside force acts upon that object. It can also be described as the resistance of any object to change in its motion. Using inertia, we can drop a penny into a cup without touching it.

 

Next we removed a coin from the bottom of a pile of coins without disturbing the coins on top.

From Steve Spangler:

How Does It Work?

The key to safely removing a coin from from the bottom of a stack comes from friction and inertia. Inertia comes from Newton's first law of motion, stating that an object in motion (or at rest) tends to stay in motion (or at rest). This means that the balanced coins wants to stay in their stacked position, in the spot they are stacked. However, when you attempt to remove the bottom coin, you apply an outside force that causes the stack of coins to topple over.

This is where friction becomes a factor. There is friction between the bottom coin and stack above it. There is so much friction that the bottom coin brings the next coin with it, that coin drags the next coin, and so on.  To overcome the amount of friction, you swing the knife at the bottom of the stack. This process is fast-moving, but there is plenty of force to remove the bottom coin. The amount of force applied to the coin is enough that the friction isn’t allowed to tip the tower over. Instead, the tower drops, almost perfectly, into the spot that it was before.

 

A homemade lava lamp--revisited

 We did this experiment about 4 years ago, and today we revisited it with Kim and Luke.

 We got this kit from Steve Spangler, but you can do it with just things around the house.

That's what we did 4 years ago.  You can see that post here.

 Put cooking oil into a thin container...a 16 ounce soda bottle could work for this. Fill it about 3/4 full of oil.  Add water to the container, filling until you are about an inch from the top. (if you fill it to the top, you will have a giant oily mess.

We can see the water is more dense than the oil.  The water fall to the bottom of the test tube.

 At this point we added Steve Spangler fizzing color tablets

You don't need these.  You can just add about ten drops of food coloring to the mixture. (You will need Alka-selter to make the reaction if you use this option.)

 Carbon dioxide is released from the fizzing color tablet or the Alka Seltzer.  The carbon dioxide caused the colored water to rise to the top of the test tube.  When the carbon dioxide reaches the surface, the bubbles pop, causing the colored water to return to the bottom of the test tube.

 A beautiful display of science fun.

 I got a kick out of this.  Kim discovered that she could hear the popping of the carbon dioxide.  She shared this discovery with Luke.

Placing the lids on the test tubes the reactions stopped.  (The gas could no longer escape the tube)

We now waiting for a bunch of kids to get home from soccer so we can show them our science lesson.



http://youtu.be/Q_oD_iwxzrg?list=UUZkofq6s-LxGSjVctldb5cg

I encourage you to check out this video from our original experiment---4 years ago. It is so cute to listen to the kids as we did this!

Mysterious Rising Water Experiment

 Another great experiment from Steve Spangler: The Rising Water Secret.

The kit contains everything needed for this experiment...but we have done it in the past using things from around the house.

 You just need things around the house:

1 cup water

food coloring

pie tin

candle

glass jar--or beaker

Here Luke is coloring the water to make the experiment a little more colorful.

 Pour 1 cup of water into a pie tin.

 Put a candle in the middle of the pie plate in the water.

 Light the candle.

 Place the beaker (or small necked jar) over the candle.

 The candle heats the air in the beaker.

When the candle goes out, the air begins to cool, causing a difference in the air pressure, forcing air out of the jar and causing a vacuum making the water fill the jar.

Science is cool!!

Shaker Slime!

 Steve Spangler Science never lets us down.

Today was a perfect day to make shaker slime.

 Measuring carefully.

The cups came with ounce markings on the outside. It was very easy to measure out two ounces of clear slime goo.

 Then we added a color fizzing tablet to make our slime pretty.

 There was plenty of supplies in this one kit to invite the neighbors over to enjoy the fun.

After mixing in the cross-linker solution, shake, shake, shake!

The instruction sheet gives an explanation of the experiment and teaches about polymers.

 Gracie's slime.

 Luke is smiling here.

But, this is what Luke really thought about holding the slime.  He has never liked to get too gooey.

Science is fun!