Totally Gross: The Game of Science

This week we did something a little different, and played a game.  It was a board game called totally gross. It asked questions about science, had us do some weird things to demonstrate scientific principles, and had us do some simple lab experiments.

We did some really silly things like:

Mina had to try and flap her arms 180 times a minute because that's how fast a fly beats its wings.

Anna had to puff up and pretend to be a tick sucking blood, because they fill and grow when they eat.

Jack probably did the silliest thing in all. Jack had to talk out of his butt! This was to demonstrate how strong our glutenous maximus is. That's a fancy way to say butt muscle.

This game was super fun and we can't wait to play again. We laughed the ENTIRE time. Here's a picture of all of us showing off how our lips are actually the inside of our mouth, not part of our face.

Science Fact:  A mole can dig a hole 300 feet in one night.

Big other news! Jack lost a tooth and had his first basketball game today!

Snowflake Science

Sorry for the late blog post. Science Monday's have been a little hectic with basketball season and Chritmas just around the corner. Last week we made our own snowflakes to hang on our tree (which is huge).

How we made snowflakes:

We used pipe cleaners and used three pieces of the same size and twisted them together in a six pointed shape and we tied a string to it, and taped the string to a pencil.

We then boiled water. For every cup of boiled water we added 4 tablespoons of borax.  Next we added just a little bit of blue dye to color them.

We dipped the snowflakes in the solution overnight.

And this is what happened!

The crystalized!

We learned that this happens because the hot water molecules move faster and allow more borax to dissolve. When the water cools, the water starts to evaporate, and leaving the crystals to form on the pipe
cleaners.

Some cool things we learned about snowflakes:

Jack: Snowflakes are made out of really cold ice. Cold, cold, coldity cold cold, cold, cold, wwwwaaaater.

Mina:  No two snowflakes are alike, but they all have six sides.

Anna: Snowflakes are cool, I can't wait for it to start snowing.

Science Fact: Smokers eat more sugar than non smokers.

Rainbow Fun and Color Wheels

Today we talked about colors. First thing we did was color stripes on strips of paper towels with markers. We then get the towels a little wet, and watched the ink spread out.

We noticed that when we put two primary colors next to each other on the same strip, the colors blended together into something new.

The really cool one was black.  When we did the black, we noticed that lots of different colors showed up. This is because black is made out of all the colors.

Next we made color wheels.

We learned that there are primary and secondary colors. Primary colors are red, blue and yellow. They are called primary colors because you can't mix any colors to get those colors. Secondary colors are purple, green and orange. We can make those out of the primary colors. The wheel helps us see how colors are connected. We learned that complimentary colors are the right across from each other, and they look super good together.


Anna: I should listen directions better, I had to redraw my color wheel three times.

Mina: The color wheel on the blog is mine, it was fun to color.

Jack: My water changed color from the markers, and it looked like different colors when I looked at it in different ways.

We want to try and start something new. So at the end of each blog we want to leave you with an interesting science fact.

Today's Fact: A bumblebee flaps its wings 160 beats per second.

Sorry about last week!

We had a hectic day filled with lots of friends, but we did not have time to do a full demonstration. We did talk a little bit more about bases and acids and played with our cabbage juice. We made pictures using baking soda water (a base) and vinegar (an acid), we then brushed over our cabbage juice to watch them change color! 

Guest Scientist Timmy

Guest Scientist Jojo

Cabbage Litmus Paper

First off....we got much needed lab coats.

Even Auntie Awesome has one

And lab coats are important because science is messy! And we learned today a little smelly.

Today we talked about acids and bases.

The first thing we needed to do was make an indicator solution.  We took purple cabbage and cut it up and boiled it to make cabbage juice.

We let the cabbage boil for a long time. And then we had to get the juice out. So we took the boiled cabbage and squished out all the juice. It was very purple and very smelly.

We then took strips of paper towels and dipped the paper towels in the juices, and let those dry. Those became are litmus strips. We collected different liquids from around the house to test whether they were acids or bases.

We discovered that the paper turned pink when things were acidic, and green when they were a base. We had a lot of acidic things in our kitchen. Dr. Pepper, tea, guava, lemonade were all acidic. Baking soda and water is a base. Next we tried bleach, which is such a powerful base that it turned a very yellow green. The milk didn't really seam to change, or the plain water.

Jack: I got to do basketball for the first time between making the juice and doing the experiment. It was awesome, I almost scored!

Mina: When we were squishing up the cabbage, it smelled really stinky!

Anna: I do not like the smell of cabbage!

Last Day of Alien Eggs!

So we took our eggs out of the syrup! And it was really cool. Jack's and Mina's egg seamed inflated, but Anna's didn't appear to change from the last time. We pressed on the eggs and noticed that the membrane squished in. It seamed like it was more empty on the inside.

We cracked open the eggs to see what was going on inside.

We noticed that the yoke was still in the egg, but there didn't seam to be a lot of water in there. What we found out is that the membrane that was left of the egg, after the vinegar removed the shell was thin enough to let the water molecules leave the egg.  This is a process called osmosis.  We don't know why Anna's egg  didn't work. Maybe its because there wasn't enough corn syrup.

Overall this egg-spearment was really cool!

Anna: I want to find out why my egg was different, maybe we should try it again!

Mina:  The egg felt really cool when it was just a membrane.

Jack: Vinegar eats the shell, and thats pretty cool. 

Alien Eggs Day 2

Today we checked on our eggs from yesterday.  The first thing we noticed was that they were bubbly and the color looked like it was towards the top.

We took our eggs out of the vinegar.  The felt squishy. We noticed that they lost their shell. There were parts of the shell still attached on the ends that touched the plastic and weren't covered in vinegar. We also saw that all of our color was gone.

We took one of the eggs and ripped it open.  It was raw on the inside, with a yellow yolk.  There was a membrane left from under the shell that protected the yolk. It was soft and still strong.

We took the other eggs and placed them in corn syrup over night.  We will check on them tomorrow and see what happens.

Anna: I think it will make them into candy, since its corn syrup. I just wish it would still have the face that I drew.

Jack: I think it might make the egg crack apart.

Mina: I wish mine still had the color.

Alien Eggs

Today we are doing an experiment that will take a couple of days to complete. We are making alien eggs for Halloween.

Egg shells are made out of calcium crystals. We are putting our eggs in vinegar, which is an acid. We think the acid will dissolve the shell, leaving the inside of the egg.

First thing we did was decorate our eggs.

After we decorated our eggs we put them in cups full of vinegar. We noticed that there was a lot of bubbles on the egg, and throughout the cup. We think that those bubbles are a reaction to the start of the calcium crystals being broken down. We also noticed that the colors that we put on our eggs were starting to disappear.

We are going to check on our eggs again tomorrow to see what changes happen.

Anna: I hope the eyeball I drew is still there!

Mina: When we were coloring, my hands got super colorful.

Jack: Wants to know how the vinegar gets in the egg. I think its like the vinegar is eating the egg. Om Nom Nom. 

Slime!

Today we made slime! Matter has three normal states: liquid, solid and gas. Sometimes things don't quite fit into those categories.  Slime is one of those, it is between a liquid and a solid. It has liquid properties like its wet and it can change its shape. And it has solid properties by holding its shape and has a hard time taking a lot of stress, which is why it ripped when we pulled on it! But it can take some stress, like when you pull it slowly and it stretches.

To make slime we need only a few ingriedients:

Borax
Glue
Food Coloring
Water

Procedure:

Mix water and a spoonful of borax

Mix glue, food coloring, and a splash of water

Mix borax solution with glue mixture

Look at how gross it becomes!

We then experimented separately by seeing how changing the amounts of different experiments change the type of slime we got.

We learned that slime is a polymer, that means that the molecules are connected like a chain, keeping them apart and together at the same time. Solid molecules stay closer together, and liquids further apart.

Some cool stuff our slime did:

It bounces!

If you squish it flat, it expands back out!

It can stretch!

It can rip!

Jack: I want to know what happens when it gets cold, so I'm putting mine in the freezer.

Mina: Slime is really fun to play with and squish!

Anna: I'm saving two samples, and I'm going to add a drop of water to one daily and see how it changes from the other one. Also, I wonder if we can use slime instead of dirt. I want to try planting seeds in slime and see if I can grow something. 

Thanks for checking this experiment out, it was a lot of fun!

suprise science Tuesday!!

Today is Tuesday  we couldn't wait until next week ,so we  posted are first experiment today . If you try the "jello volcano" it is super fun [the best part is when you get to eat it].[ :]

Gelatin Volcano

Project: To make a gelatin volcano to learn about how magma comes out of the Earth.

Experiment Procedures: Make a batch of jello and pour into a glass bowl, chill until solidified. Flip bowl upside and let jello come out onto a piece of cardboard covered in foil. In a separate small bowl, mix water and red food dye to create "magma". Take a needle and fill with the magma, injecting it to the bottom of your jello mountain. Change location of injection, add cuts to see how magma flows up the mountain in different situations.

Results: We learned that magma flows through fractures and cracks in the mountain caused by pressure and that magma needs a lot of pressure to create new paths.

Mina: It was a yummy experiment! And so awesome!

Jack: I loved using the needle and the magma, it was cool.

Anna: Fake magma can totally double as fake blood for a costume.

Ideas to make this experiment better: Use a lighter color jello so that seeing the magma is easier. Use different sized bowls, and shapes to see if the results change. Maybe use red pudding instead of water so the magma is thicker. 

Meet the Scientist

Hello, and welcome to our Science Monday blog!
It is our goal every week to learn a little bit more about the world we live in, and share our knowledge with other kids on the internet. There are three young and enthusiastic scientist working on this project.

Anna

 My name is Anna and I am 10 years old. I'm in 4th grade at South Bay Elementary school in Olympia, Washington. My favorite thing about science is working with electricity and making things work. I also really love cupcakes and gymnastics. This year I want to learn how a black light works, and what makes it different from normal light bulbs.

Mina
My name is Mina and I'm 8 years old. I am in 3rd grade at South Bay Elementary School in Olympia, Washington.  My favorite thing about science is cooking science, especially baking. I love cotton candy, and also go to gymnastics.  This year I would like to learn how rainbows are formed.

Jack 

My name is Jack and I am 5 years old. I'm in my first year of school at South Bay in kindergarten.  So far I really like school, especially recess. I like science because we make really cool things and I want to learn how electricity works. I am really good at doing flips at gymnastics, and also video games. 

Next week

we will start posting our experiments and discussions, but for now enjoy this really cool picture that Anna drew.