Draw a before and after picture of your "lung" in your Mission Report. Try other bottles and/or other materials and see if they work the same way. Is there a limit to how much you can inflate the "lung" using this method?
"The human body is a magnificent machine. Every part serves a purpose that seems to work like magic (except maybe the appendix). The more science discovers and understands about the human body, the more opportunities we have to replicate their processes. With the Homemade Lung science project, you'll learn how you can replicate a working lung with household objects. You'll have a blast recreating this bodily function, and you don't have to give up a lung to do it! You REALLY need your Science Buddy to help you with this experiment!" (This is copied from Steve Spangler's YouTube Description. I could not come up with a better way to say this!) Try it and think about the answer to your question, then click HERE to find out more.
Draw a before and after picture of your "lung" in your Mission Report. Try other bottles and/or other materials and see if they work the same way. Is there a limit to how much you can inflate the "lung" using this method?
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What happens to a can of soda when you shake it up? Have you ever tried it? What causes it to "explode"? Your Mission is to shake up a can of soda and find out! Watch and try the video below. Then think about and answer the question at the end. Make this activity an experiment! See if bottles of soda will do this too. Does it matter if the bottle is made from plastic or glass? Does the type of soda make a difference (cola versus lemon-lime; generic versus brand-name)? Does it make a difference if the soda is warm or cold? ... What other questions can you think up? Ask your Science Buddy and try it!
Make sure to record what you did and what you discovered in a Mission Report. Our Sun is a powerful star that brings us light and heat. You may have experiences that this summer. You may have gotten a tan or a sunburn. This mission is a fun way to have the sun WORK for you. You will need your Science Buddy to really help you gather materials and safely completely this activity. In your mission report, keep track of the time of day you used your solar oven and how long it takes to make your S'mores when your marshmallows and or chocolate melt. Which one melts first? How hot does it get? You can make this into an experiment by seeing if you use a shoe box and get the same result. Does it go faster, slower, or not at all? Does the surface need to be black underneath? Does another color work better? Make sure to record what you did and what you discovered in your Mission Report!
What happens to water when it is on a hill? Think about it... If you are not sure, please find a hill and pour a cup of water at the top and try it! Depending on what it is flowing on (gravel, blacktop, grass, sand), it can do different things. This is really fun to watch during or after a rain. You should notice that sometimes it will sink in, puddle up, or other times it will flow downhill. It all depends on the surface that it is on. Your Mission this week is to explore how different liquids flow downhill. What You Will Need
What To Do
Have you ever explored what happens to baking soda and vinegar when they are mixed together? We will start with simply mixing the two and then step it up a notch with a variation that would should probably complete outside. What You Will Need -your safety glasses - baking soda - vinegar -measuring cups and spoons -a shallow pan or bowl What To Do 1. Add 2 tablespoons of baking soda into the pan. Scoop it together 2. Measure out 1/4 cup of vinegar 3. Pour the vinegar onto the baking soda. 4. Record your results in a Mission Report...Observe...What Happened? What changes took place? 5. Change it up... Does it make a difference if you add the baking soda to the vinegar instead? What happens if you do the experiment in an empty, plastic water bottle? To step it up a notch to be an experiment, watch this video and try it yourself. On your Mission Report, identify the variable. The variable is the thing that is changed in an experiment. What was the only thing that was changed in this experiment? To identify what causes a specific effect, scientists only change one thing in an experiment and keep everything else the same. What other things could you change? Try it and write about it in your Mission Report!
How much do you need to add in order to get the outside bag to pop?? Sounds like another experiment to me! Try it and keep track of how much baking soda and vinegar you had to use. Make sure your Science Buddy helps you to choose a place that can get wet (like a sidewalk outside) for this experiment. Your mission is to explore what happens when you add holes into a bottle of water... It is simple, but there is some very interesting science happening. What You Will Need •Two empty 1 liter bottles with cover. You may want to remove the label. •a pushpin •water And, as always, a Science Buddy What To Do 1. Watch the Water Twist video below. Then use your materials to DO IT. 2. Record what you did and what happens in your Mission Report. Most importantly, try to explain how it happens. 3. Watch the DO NOT OPEN video below. Then use your materials to DO IT. 4. Record what you did and what happens in another Mission Report. Most importantly, try to explain what happens and HOW this activity relates to the first one...
Please have your Science Buddy help you add your explanations for what is happening into the comments below. Please use your first name and last years class code. I apologize that there were no posts the last two weeks. I was on vacation and I did not have access to the internet to update like I thought I would. I have added a few simple, fun, messy explorations for each week (7/3 and 7/10) that I missed. Please take a look and enjoy. The mission for this week will be posted on Thursday (7/17).. Cephalopods are amazing animals. Have you heard to them before? It is a animal group that contains Cephalopods (octopus, squid, cuttlefish, Nautilus) are predatory mollusks. Cephalopods range in size from the pygmy squids (thumbnail-sized adults) to the colossal and giant squids (18 meters or 60 feet in total length), which are the largest known invertebrates. Cephalopods are believed to be among the most “advanced” invertebrates, having evolved large, brains, vertebrate-like eyes, and fast jet-propelled movement. In this mission, you will learn a little more about them and a little more about one of their adaptations - incredible camouflage also known as adaptive coloration. Dynamic camouflage helps the animals evade detection by predators and approach prey with stealth; the same systems produce signals for communication with other members of their species. (Adapted from http://cephseq.org/basics.html). Watch the video below and check out the adaptive coloration! Check out some wonderful other types of cephalopods from the Oceanic Society. There are two activities for this mission: M&M Survival Challenge and Hide the Octopus
1. The M&M Survival Challenge is described very well by Science Buddies.org. Please CLICK HERE to go to their website. Your Science Buddy should help you set-up the experiment with different items that look alike if you cannot use what is suggested. Have a few people try the challenge and keep a record of what happens. 2. Print out this octopus coloring activity. Modify the texture, color, shape, and size of their octopus picture by folding, crumpling, cutting, and coloring it. You can also create a paper octopus from scratch using colorful construction paper and similar techniques. See if you can make it fit into a different "environment" in your home. Can you make its coloration match your couch, chair or rug? Don't forget to complete a Mission Report! This week (June 16-24) is National Pollinator Week! Celebrate National Pollinator Week with your family! A pollinator is any type of animal that helps a plant to make fruits and seeds. Pollinators move pollen from one part of the plant to another. The pollen fertilizes the plant. Only fertilized plants can make seeds. Without pollinators, over 90% of plants cannot reproduce. Did you know that this is VERY important for the fruits and vegetables that we buy at the grocery store? Take a look at the images below. To have a good variety of fruits and vegetables, we need to have pollinators. In this mission, we are going to focus on one type of pollinator - the bee. Bees live in colonies from hundreds to thousands of other bees. They fly from flower to flower to gather food for the hive. When they gather nectar, they also gather pollen. All of the little yellow dots on this bee are pollen grains! Bees can tell each other where the best flowers are by "dancing" at each other. This is called the waggle dance. Go to National Geographic Kids: Bees and watch the video below. Without flowers, nectar, and pollen, we would not enjoy the variety of fruits and vegetables. So flowers are really the most important thing to pollinators. It is their pollination station! YOUR MISSION - DISCOVER WHAT IS INSIDE OF A FLOWER What You'll Need In order to do this mission, you will need
What to Do
3. Draw a picture of your flower. Make sure to draw what you see not a copy of this picture or what you think you should see. Label your drawing the best that you can. Some flowers may not have all the parts listed here. Some parts may be difficult to see. Draw me what you see. 4. Slowly and Count up the number of petals on your flower. Write that number on your mission report. Sometimes, the number and shape of the petals can be used to identify the type of flower. Did the petals overlap? How many layers or was there only one layer of petals? 5. Slowly and carefully Remove the petals from your flower. Look at a petal under your magnifier. 6. Slowly and carefully remove the stamens. Look at the top end of the stamen with your magnifier. You might see some pollen! 7. Slowly and carefully remove the other parts of the flower. Look at them under the magnifier. Record the parts that you see on your drawing. If you have a second flower, do the same thing to it. Compare it to the first. What is different? What is the same? What else do you notice? If you know the name of the flower, please add the type to your Mission Report. Remember to complete a Mission Report to earn your Brain Power Points! Here are a few other activities for pollinator fun! Have your Science Buddy help you to pick one of the activities below and report on what you did. You can gain extra Brain Power Points if you chose to do one!
Some things just don't get along well with each other. We often think of cats and dogs or brothers and sisters. This is not always true, but can you think of other things that don't always get along? In science, some chemicals do not get along. An example is oil and water. You can mix them together and shake as hard as you like - but what happens? Do they come together to be "friends" and mix or do they stay apart? Remember to have your Science Buddy help collect the materials you need for these experiments. Remember to record your experiements on a Mission Report that has been printed or copied for in your explorer notebook. There are a few different things you can do for this experiment: 1. You can discover what happens when oil and water mix. (You may already know, but it is so fun to see in an experiment. Take this fun experiment a step further and find out how bringing oil and water together can help you do your dishes. 2. You can make beautiful art with oil and water Experiment 1: Water and Oil - Mix? What you'll need:
What to do: Bottle One
Bottle Two
What's happening? While water often mixes with other liquids to form solutions, oil and water does not. Water molecules are strongly attracted to each other, this is the same for oil, because they are more attracted to their own molecules they just don't mix together. They separate and the oil floats above the water because it has a lower density. Try Something New: If you really think oil and water belong together then try adding some dish washing liquid or detergent. What happens?? What's Happening? Detergent is attracted to both water and oil helping them all join together and form something called an emulsion. This is extra handy when washing those greasy dishes, the detergent takes the oil and grime off the plates and into the water, yay! Experiment 2: Marblized Paper Make beautiful special marblized paper using oil and water! What you'll need:
What to do:
WOW!! Another experiement you can try is by Steve Spanger: Oil and Water. (adapted from Science Experiments for Kids and TinkerLab) |
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