Apologia General Science, Module 6, Foundations of Geology

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In this module, we learned two more new words!  Uniformitarianism and catastrophism. (!!!)
C'mon, they're no harder than all the words I learned in Biology last year!  
When thinking of the word uniformitarianism, think of uniform - same.  This is the belief that if something is happening slowly today, such as erosion, it has always happened that way.  Uniformitarianists believe that the earth's geography was formed over billions of years.
Catastrophism comes from catastrophe.  This is the belief that most of earth's geography was formed by a large-scale catastrophe -- the Flood.  There are always local floods, some volcanoes, even tsunamis that cause large-scale damage, but nothing like the Flood caused.

We studied how water and wind erosion can affect geography.  I came across this site that had 12 Weathering/Erosion Stations, and we did several of those.

Experiment 6.2, Separation of Sedimentation
We added dirt, gravel, sand, and water to a jar.  They were to shake it up several times during the evening and let it sit overnight.  They had brought their own quart jars.
You can see the fine dirt at the top, followed by the sand and dirt, then sand and gravel.  You can't really see the gravel, but it's there.  =)

I like this picture. ↓
One of my students brought this in and let me keep it from one class to the next so I could get a picture after the blue chalk had settled.
(Thanks, Grace!)
← This is actually a 2-liter that has not been "blown up"!!!
I was amazed!  =)



Experiment 6.3 was about Physical Weathering: The Power of Plants
This experiment did not work, not even after a retry.  Boo.  =(
Readers, if you got yours to work, please tell me what you did!  If you have pictures, I'd love to see them!

We did the experiment as directed, mixing the plaster of Paris, and dropping the lima beans in, and knowing it was okay if they sank a little.  We covered them with folded, moist paper towels and sat them in the sun, keeping the paper towels wet.
Well, the beans did sprout all right.  Right out of the plaster!  Just popped right up.  There was no cracking of the plaster at all.  My experiment, plus the experiments of 5 families (one per family instead of one per kid) were all fails.
← We DID have one to sprout up from the side of the plaster.  A student brought it back and I took a picture.  Very thankful I was, too, since my retry failed also.  (Thanks, Courtney!)


She said she thought that one had sunk way down in the plaster when they dropped it in.  I should have popped the plaster out of the bowl to look at the bottom, but didn't.  =\  But still, there was no splitting of the plaster.  bleh.
Sigh.  I had already tried to redo it, carefully pushing my beans way into the plaster with the seed sprout thingy pointing down.  →
No go.  Fail.  >: (  (very grumpy!)  I am not trying again.


Experiment 6.4, Chemical Weathering
For these experiments I needed limestone and steel wool.  And vinegar.  I only needed 2 pieces of steel wool and just kind of tore/broke it into thirds.  I was given some samples of limestone which JohnDavid (my son) broke apart with a hammer.  I needed it to be the size that could fit in a pint jar.  (Again, they brought their own jars - 2 each family)
← We put the limestone in and covered it with vinegar and immediately saw the bubbles.  Lime in the limestone reacts with the acid in vinegar to make carbon dioxide and other chemicals.  This was to sit overnight.
The limestone started to break down, and eventually we could see the sediment.

The steel wool was placed in a separate jar with vinegar only covering half of it. →
We used jars instead of bowls so that the kids could put on a lid (or saran wrap w/ rubber bands) for the transport home.  Once home, they were to uncover them.
The steel wool was to be turned over a few times during the evening, making sure both sides were immersed in the weakly acidic vinegar.  This only needed to be covered halfway because it needed oxygen in order to work. (No lid)  Steel wool  is made mostly of iron, which tends to rust.  Many rocks have iron in them, and can erode from rusting.  Ours didn't rust in one day, but by day two, we saw rust.
Both of these chemical weathering experiments were to simulate how the acid in rainwater can erode things and make them rust.  There isn't a lot of acid in rainwater, so we used vinegar to speed up the process in order to see the results in only a day or two.

We talked about stalactites and stalagmites that grow in caverns from groundwater dripping down through the ceiling of the cavern.
We discussed the Flood a little, and about the different kinds of rocks that are in the layers of the Grand Canyon.
Igneous rock (formed from magma, or lava), sedimentary rock (made from sediments of igneous rock that have weathered and eroded), and metamorphic rock (made from either igneous or sedimentary rock that is under extreme pressure and heat, but not enough heat to melt back to lava).

We went over the different types of unconformities.  An unconformity is a surface of erosion that separates one layer of rock from another, as in the layers of rock found in the Grand Canyon and many other places.
There are nonconformities, disconformities, angular unconformities, and so-called (by evolutionists) paraconformities.
We also learned about intrusions - when magma/lava "intrudes," shooting through several layers of strata.  It looks like it has been inserted there.  If it is perpendicular to the strata, crossing several layers, the intrusion is called a dike.  Sills are intrusions that run parallel to the strata.

sMiLeS,

Where Have YOU Been???

"I have been to a lot of places, but I've never been in Cahoots. Apparently you can't go alone. You have to be in Cahoots with someone.
I've also never been in Cognito, either. I hear no one recognizes you there.
I have, however, been in Sane. They don't have an airport; you have to be driven there. I have made several trips, thanks to my friends and family.
I would like to go to Conclusions, but you have to jump and I'm not much on physical activity."

sMiLeS,

Apologia General Science, Module 5, The History of Life: Archaeology, Geology, and Paleontology

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This module was so interesting!  I had never before heard of dendrochronology.  (hee hee!)
[den-droh-kruh-nol-uh-jee] Listen here.  
In short, dendrochronology is the study of tree rings, particularly in architecture, compared to other known "master tree rings" to figure out how old buildings or other structures are.  The tree rings can be overlapped and linked back as far as native Indian canoes!

Read this story to get an idea of how dendrochron-
ology can work.  Very amateurish, I know, but
remember, I'd never heard of dendrochronology
before!  (If not printable, let me know)


After we read the story, we used this worksheet, and the kids figured out which samples from the worksheet could corresponded with the items in the story,  according to their order.  Remember to start with the living tree sample as current, and date back from there.




So we looked at "tree cookies" - I had enough for each kid to have one if they wanted it - and of course my girls and their cousin named theirs.
(The skeleton from last year was Oscar, a crawdad we found was dubbed Sparky, they named their eggs (my favorite!), and they even named their spud people!)

So the tree cookies were christened:
Chip, Woody, and Chuck.  LOL!




The newer girls haven't gotten into naming items in their science experiments as much as my girls do, and they're a little more shy, not being used to our "group" so to speak.  (consists mostly of cousins who have known each other all their lives)
Although they did teach one girl how to rename all the scientists in Module 1 on their scientists worksheet.  Her mother wasn't sure what I'd think!    I told her it was totally fine.
Anaximander was just Amander; Anaximenes was x-meanie (hee hee!), and Leucippus became Lucy, lol.
They said it helped them remember their names better, and i'm sure it did!


We also learned how archaeologists use three tests to confirm accuracy of historical documents.
There was an entire section for each of these! Much more information than what I mention here.
►The internal test checks to see whether or not the document in question has any contradictions within itself.  We also discussed some Biblical accounts that are assumed to be contradictory, and how they aren't contradictions.
►The external test compares the document with outside sources - other historical facts - and compares to archaeological facts (like the existence of a city, etc.)  The Bible passes this test very well!
►The bibliographic test is the most important.  The document must contain direct eye-witness accounts, or second-hand accounts.  So these were usually recorded shortly after the actual event, and that is a good thing!
Since there are virtually no original documents from any truly ancient work of history (there are always copies of copies), the bibliographic test also asks how may different copies exist that were made by different people.  The more people who give the same account, the better.  This shows that it would be unlikely that the original was modified.

Of course, the Bible passes this test with ease!  =)
Isaiah 40:8; Matthew 24:35

sMiLeS,

My Dad's 70th Birthday

There aren't 70 candles, bc we didn't have that many, but I know it was somewhere in the forties.  haha!  =)

sMiLeS,

Apologia General Science, Module 4, Science, Applied Science, and Technology

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This module was not quite as fun for the kids because there was MATH!!!  =)
We already knew about the simple machines - lever, inclined plane, etc, but mainly we were learning what the advantage was for using these machines.
This advantage can be measured, and is called a Mechanical Advantage, or MA.
Mechanical advantage makes a job easier.

If the slope of two inclined planes are different, the Mechanical Advantage for each slope will be different.
This is easy to imagine, for if a wheelchair ramp is longer and less steep, it is easier to push the chair up the ramp.  This has a greater MA than a ramp that is shorter and more steep.
But with each advantage comes a "pay."  The pay for having a less steep slope is that you have to push farther.  Now this may seem like a no-brainer, and if one ramp had a height of 1.5 feet, and was only 3 feet long, and another ramp with a height of 1.5 feet was 10 feet long, you'd definitely say you'd rather have a longer ramp.
But suppose a ramp was 1.5 feet high, and was 40 feet long.  More MA is not always desirable if the advantage is not great enough to make the job significantly easier, or if the job wasn't hard to begin with.

Mechanical Advantage is measurable in numbers.
The formula for finding the MA for an inclined plane is MA = (length of the slope) ÷ (height).
So for a ramp that is 1.5 feet height and 10 feet long, you find the MA by dividing 10 ÷ 1.5 = 6.666...
The MA is 6.666...
The shorter ramp of 3 foot in length has a much smaller mechanical advantage.  3 ÷ 1.5 = 2.  Two is a very small mechanical advantage!    
Since a wedge is 2 inclined planes placed back to back, it uses the same formula as an inclined plane.

We learned the formula for each of the six simple machines. the lever, the wheel and axle, the pulley, the inclined plane, the wedge, and the screw.

A screw is a type of inclined plane -- it is just wound around.  To illustrate this, the kids took a piece of paper shaped like a right triangle, and highlighted the slope.  They wound it around a pencil to show that a screw is an inclined plane.
It would be hard to measure the length of the slope on a screw though, so there are extra steps involved in finding the MA of a screw, involving finding the circumference of the screwdriver or device that is turning the screw, then dividing that by the pitch (distance between threads).

The formula for pulleys was the easiest.  To find the MA for pulleys.... simply count the pulleys!  =)
(Unless you use only 1 pulley -- if you use only one pulley, you have no MA because you are simply reversing the direction of your pull.)
The more pulleys, the greater MA.
This means that using 6 pulleys is 3 times easier than using 2 pulleys!
To simulate how more pulleys can make things easier, we used a broom, a mop handle, and some rope.  Each time the rope wrapped around a handle, that simulated a pulley.  The kids first pulled with the rope wrapped around once, then three times.
They said it was much easier with more "pulleys."


The formula for the lever was the most complicated because there are three classes of levers.

MA = (distance from fulcrum to effort) ÷ (distance from fulcrum to resistance/load)
We used the term "fe-fr" to help us remember the order.
If you look at this image of the three classes of levers, you will see it can take a bit of brain work to think how to apply this formula to each of these different levers.

In a first class lever where the fulcrum is in the middle, we learned that the more distance between the fulcrum and the effort (where we placed on book), the easier it was to lift the load (resistance).  We illustrated this by placing a book on each end of a board, and using my pencil sharpener for the fulcrum (lol).  As we increased the number of books on the load end, we also increased the distance from the fulcrum to the effort (one book).  We illustrated that even though there were more and more books on the load end, the effort of one book was able to lift them all because of the increasing mechanical advantage by lengthening the distance between the fulcrum and the effort.  In other words, a longer lever.  =)

I had nothing ready to illustrate a wheel and axle, but I wish I had!  Something like bar weights on one end of the bar would have worked great.
I needed to impress upon the kids that turning the axle to make the wheel turn takes greater effort, but once it gets going, the wheel can turn fast.
►If you are turning the axle, the speed of the wheel is magnified.  You didn't turn the axle that fast, but it is magnified so that the wheel is turning faster.
This is like a 3rd class lever since a 3rd class lever is like a catapult.  
►When turning the wheel to make the axle move, the effort is magnified.  You didn't put forth that much effort, but it is magnified.  The axle turns easily.
This is similar to the first- and second-class levers.

sMiLeS,

Apologia General Science, Module 3, How to Analyze and Interpret Experiments

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This time we were learning about analyzing and interpreting the results of experiments.  We learned that in order to have the most accurate results, as many variables as possible must be eliminated.

With the first experiment, I had planned again to use teams of 2 since that seems to work really well.  Teams of 3 or more often mean that one is doing the experiment, and the other two are doing "Social" Studies, lol.  So with two kids only, there is no 3rd person to talk to.  =D
I learned that it is VERY IMPORTANT to check to see that you have ALL the supplies, even the most basic one that you keep in your home at all times.  I have been told that assuming will get you in trouble.
Well, I assumed.
We do experiments at my house, so I took it for granted I would have enough salt in my cabinet.  We barely had enough for one kid!  So Cousin A did it while the rest looked on...
and did Social Studies... of course.  =D

Experiment 3.1, A Floating Egg
The instructions said to see if an egg would float in a large glass of water, and of course it didn't.  Then she added 1 tsp. of salt at a time, and mixed.  After adding about 5 tsp. the egg did stand on its end, and after 7 tsp. it floated.  =)
We talked a little about density, and then talked more about variables.
In this experiment we eliminated as many variables as possible.  We used one glass and one egg.  Eggs do not vary greatly in size if from the same carton, but they could a little, I guess.
When removing the egg from the water each time to add more salt, we let as much water drip back in as possible to eliminate the water being reduced.
We also could have had 7 or 8 different glasses with increasing amounts of salt in each one, and different eggs, but again there could have been measurement error, or different sized eggs.  (Well, WE couldn't have used that many glasses -- I didn't have enough salt!)
These differences are so slight that they seem frivolous.  But it is important to always reduce or eliminate any variable that is not necessary for the experiment; the variables from which you learn nothing.
The salt was a variable, but it was intended to be part of the experiment.  It was the variable from which we wanted to learn something so it was necessary.

Next we did Exp. 3.2, Which Boat Will Move?
At the beginning of class, I had given all the kids a piece of gum, telling them we'd need a pinch or two later for an experiment.  I had some bins with books in them under my bed, so we used two of those, and JohnDavid poured in about an inch or so of water.  The kids cut out eight cardboard boats, then we added our "motors."
One "motor" was a balled-up piece of non-lotion kleenex, another was a pinch of gum, and the third was soap.  The experiment said use a piece of bar soap, but that didn't work for us.  Maybe because we use Dove soap?  But I knew dish detergent would work.  =)
We had four boats in each bin, so all the kids would not be crowded around one bin.  So what was our motor for the fourth boat?  Nothing.  This boat had nothing being done to it, so it was our control.  The control of an experiment is the variable or part of the experiment to which all others can be compared.
In other words, nothing was being done to this boat to cause it to do anything at all.  If the other boats did respond with a reaction, we knew it was because of what we did and not just a coincidence.


We discussed variables some more, and that we tried to make all the boats the same size and start them from the same starting point.  I tried having the kids place them in the water at the same time, but that caused just enough currents to make boats go everywhere!  Here they are finally still, and only move a little when the soap motor boat causes a slight current.
We also discussed how soap reduces the surface tension of water.
(Here is a practical application of soap reducing surface tension.)

We also did the pepper trick.  This is a video I found on youtube.  I didn't video ours.

We also learned about blind studies and double-blind studies.  It was a little difficult for the kids to grasp whether a blind or a double-blind study should be used.
At the beginning of class, I had all the kids to drink some pop (soda).  I had regular Coke and caffeine-free Coke and had previously poured 4 cups of each, labeling them A and B.  I was the only one who knew which drink was in A or B, but I told the kids not to let ME know which cup they got from the fridge.
So they didn't know what they drank, and I didn't know what they drank.
This is a double-blind study.
The purpose was to see whether caffeine makes teenagers in science class hyper.
Near the end of class, the kids all told whether they had drank from cup A or cup B, and I told them that cup A had the caffeine.
Then we discussed the variables:  Some people are more affected by caffeine than others.  Some may have had caffeine for lunch.  (Two of the students did.)  And at least one girl didn't even drink all of hers.
The results were inconclusive.  None of the students appeared any different to me than normal.  (hee hee, normal???)   Some are always more talkative (and busy!), and some aren't, including the two that had caffeine for lunch.

Since this experiment would involve my opinion, it needed to be double-blind.  This experiment was subjective to whether I thought someone was acting hyper or not, so I didn't need to know who had drank caffeine so I wouldn't possibly watch them more than the non-caffeine students.  Subjective experiments involve opinion, and always need to be double-blind.

An objective experiment is one where the results can be measured in numbers.
These may or may not need to be blind.
If there is an experiment to see what grades different types of students make, it needs to be blind so that the students will not know to whom they are being compared, and perhaps perform differently than usual.  But it does not need to be double-blind because the results (the grades) are not subjected to the observer's opinion.
If one is experimenting with the growth of plants, the results can be measured so this is also an objective experiment.  However the test doesn't need to be either blind or double-blind, because well, plants don't know what you are doing to them.  =D














We went over graphs just a little, and measured
the heights of teenage girls and boys.
We had boys and girls, and the ages vary, but this was not an experiment to discuss variables, but just to review graphing.  They had fun with it.
I didn't know my ds14 was 5'10" though!  =)

sMiLeS,

Apologia General Science, Module 2, Scientific Inquiry

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We learned that sometimes an experiment seems to "prove" something, but actually has faulty results.
I put 'prove' in quotes because we also learned that science cannot prove anything!

In Experiment 1.1, How Does Weight Affect the Speed at Which an Object Falls? the kids dropped several items to see which would hit the ground first.  I divided them in teams of two.  The experiment called for a sheet of paper, a sheet of cardstock, a sheet of cardboard, and a heavy book.  All needed to be about the same length and width.  Well, I wasn't about to let the kids drop books, so we used 4 small removable shelves that I had.  And we dropped them on the carpet, of course.
This experiment seemed to indicate that heavy objects fall faster than lighter objects, but that was shown to be incorrect with our next experiment.

Experiment 2.2 called for the same items and added in a small rock and a paperclip.  This time, however, the kids were to ball up the sheet of paper.  This experiment showed that only because of wind resistance did the sheet of paper fall slower before.  Now it would hit the ground at about the same time as the other objects.
So we learned that in the absence of air, all objects fall at the same rate.  Well, there is air all around us, so you need to look at the object being dropped and consider the wind resistance it will encounter.

So, this second experiment was a counter-example.  A counter-example contradicts a scientific conclusion.  This is very important.  Scientists are discovering new information all the time - and it only takes one counter-example to contradict a conclusion that may have been accepted for many years!

We did not do Experiment 2.3, The Broken Flashlight, simply because I didn't have enough time to "fix" everyone's flashlights.

We did do D & T (you aren't supposed to know what the letters mean until afterwards).
In D & T, the kids had 22 words written on cards that made up one long sentence.  I printed them on cardstock in a light color so they would not show through when turned over.  I had 4 teams, so I did 4 different colors to keep the sets of words separated (mainly for me while I was getting them together!)

The kids turned over 5 words and wrote them down on this worksheet, then made a hypothesis as to what they thought the sentence was about.  Each student had their own worksheet.  I told them not to worry over whether they are right or wrong;  a hypothesis is what you think is the answer.  They turned over 5 more cards, and naturally, their hypotheses changed.  This is the way of experiments.  As you gain more knowledge, your hypothesis will change.  They continued turning over 5 cards at a time until all were turned over.  All 4 teams had different hypotheses, and some were very funny!  This sentence had several phrases and several adjectives, so it could go in many directions.
It was so fun, but I don't want to give it away.  You'll just have to try it yourself.  =)

We also did the Scientific Method in Action.  These were two real examples so the kids got to see how science really works, not just playing around with a sentence.  First we read a little about beriberi and about a scientist who had a hypothesis.  The kids answered questions about what was the hypothesis, how was it tested, should the hypothesis be supported or rejected based on the results, and should there be a new hypothesis, etc.  Then we read a little about the discovery of penicillin and answered similar questions.
Here is also Scientific Method Explained.




These experiments are simple, but are meant to show that a counter-example can refute a hypothesis, a hypothesis may then need to be changed, and that as you get more information, your hypothesis will change or be confirmed.

sMiLeS,

All the granddaughters sang at my Mom's funeral

They are practicing here.  My camera kept cutting off, but I got part of it.  My brother later recorded the whole song, but this one has all the granddaughters.




v. 1 When I enter Heaven's glory,
And I see my Saviour's face,
I will offer Him ten thousand years of praise.
Then I'll find that special one
In whose life I saw God's Son,
And through tears of joy with trembling lips these words I'll say:

♫ I saw Jesus in you;
I saw Jesus in you.
I could hear His voice in the words you said -
I saw Jesus in you.
In your eyes I saw His care;
I could see His Love was there;
You were faithful,
And I saw Jesus in you.

v. 2 When I stand before my Father
To receive my life's reward,
And my soul is bathed in God's eternal day;
When this race on earth is run,
And God sees the works I've done,
More than anything I long to hear my Father say:

♫ I saw Jesus in you;
I saw Jesus in you.
I could hear His voice in the words you said -
I saw Jesus in you.
In your eyes I saw His care;
I could see His Love was there;
You were faithful,
And I saw Jesus in you.

This was THE perfect song for my Mom. ♥

The next day, the remaining girls sang it again so I could at least get the full chorus.


sMiLeS,

General Science, Module 1, A Brief History of Science

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This was a very interesting first module.  =)
We learned about different scientists from way back, up to more modern times.
In the beginning, they didn't always know why things were the way they were.  The Egyptians were known for their medicine, but most of it was trial and error.  (I sure wouldn't have wanted to be on the receiving end of the error!)  They usually didn't know why certain things helped heal.
The Egyptian doctors and inventors did collect a lot of facts, but historians don't consider them to be true scientists since they didn't use this knowledge to explain the world around them.

This module mentions over 30 scientists!  We learned that some scientists had wrong hypotheses but were believed because they were great scientists, but some who had correct hypotheses were rejected.  Some had writings that were banned (Copernicus), and some scientists were even put into prison! (Galileo)  Some died never knowing their hypothesis was eventually accepted.
"...no scientist's work should be supported because the person was great.  It should only be supported because the scientific evidence supports it!" (p. 9)
Eventually these ideas got straightened out, but in Module 2 we will learn that unbelief caused many deaths.  Most doctors didn't believe what Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis said -- that they should wash their hands before going to each new patient.  Some doctors came straight from the mortuary and went to examine new mothers!!!  This went on for 10 years after it was shown that thoroughly washing hands in a solution did cut down on the mortality rate in hospitals!  Semmelweis was eventually put into prison and died never knowing that doctors finally realized the truth.
People just do not want to accept anything new.

One thing I thought was rather interesting was the alchemists (see the word chemist?) who wanted to find a way to make gold our of lead.  That seems rather silly to us today, but back then they thought they could do it!  They also tried other substances, trying to make something of more value.
During this time, very little progress was made in the field of science.  The culture was just different then, and the "Roman Empire didn't mind inventions..., but had little use for the practice of explaining the world around us."  (p. 12)
"Scientific progress depends not only on scientists, but it also depends on government and culture." (p. 14)

Scientific progress had slowed down, but a lot scientific observations of things had been written down by monks.  These were written in large volumes that were eventually called encyclopedias.  =)
Both Arabs and Chinese also kept detailed records of their observations even though they didn't know at the time what they were seeing.  Later, scientists were able to read this information and know what had been seen!  This information was very helpful to the more modern scientists who had better tools and resources.  "Science progresses by building on the works of previous scientists." (p. 16)

Near the end of the Dark Ages, science began to pick up a little.  The Romans believed in many gods, and believed things happened on the whims of the gods.  We now know that it is God's laws of nature.
A man named Robert Grosseteste believed that the happenings in nature could be explained by laws.  He taught that the reason to experiment was not just to come up with great inventions, but to find the reason things happen the way they do.
He said that scientists should come up with an explanation for why events happened, then perform an experiment to test this explanation.  If the experiment didn't confirm the explanation, a new explanation was needed.  This led to what is now called the scientific method.  Hypotheses do not become theories until they are supported by the evidence of the experiment.  Eventually after years of testing, a theory might become a scientific law.


I have more kids in my science class this year, and it is fun!  =)
We learned about the scientists that contributed to the first inklings of knowledge of atoms.
An object that has atoms that are more densely packed together will sink through more dense liquids than an object with less tightly packed atoms.
For instance, you know a cork floats on water, but a rock doesn't.
Experiment 1.1, Density in Nature
For our liquids, we used vegetable oil, water, and corn syrup.  The kids poured these into a glass in that order and watched as the more dense liquids swirled and collected below the less dense liquids.
Then the kids dropped in a rock, a grape, an ice cube, and a cork.

If you look closely, you can see that the ice is suspended in the oil, not sitting on top of the water.
Per an email reply from Apologia, "... the ice should have been in between the oil and liquid water but if the ice cube has air trapped in it (and you might not be able to see the air) then this would drop the density of the ice cube to be equal to or less than the oil.  Since the ice cube was suspended in the oil then the density of your ice cube was nearly equal to that of the oil."
Thanks, Apologia!  I was wondering about that.  =)
From the top down, we see the least dense items to the most dense items.  Cork, vegetable oil, ice cube, water, grape, corn syrup, rock.

►Next time, we might try this Amazing Density Tower!

A day or so after this experiment, one of my kids wasn't doing her chore...  I opened the door and reminded her to tend to the next step in the laundry (from dryer to living room/from washer to dryer/put in a new load).
Five minutes later I'm not hearing a dryer running, nor do I see clean laundry anywhere.
I open the door again and smile at my child.  She smiles back.  We smile at each other for a bit, she with a slightly quizzical look.  My son finally asks what am I doing, and I said, "I'm waiting on _____ to do the laundry."
"Oh!" my forgetful child laughs, getting up, "Haha, okay."
"Did you really not know why I was looking at you?"
"Well... uh, no."
I grinned, "If I threw all you kids into a pool, you'd sink to the bottom first since you're the most dense."
She smiled, "Hehe, funny science joke."  =)

Experiment 1.2, Atomic Motion
Q:  Which is faster, hot or cold?
A:  Hot!  You can catch a cold.  =)
This is actually true.  Hot atoms move faster than cold ones.  I know I move slower when I'm cold, haha.
The kids had a large glass of refrigerator-cold water and a glass of very hot water, heated on the stove a bit.
After letting the water settle for a minute, they dropped in some food coloring to see what would happen.

More food coloring was put into the cold water so it seems to spread faster.  It is swirling but not mixing as well as it is in the hot water.

Experiment 1.3, Chemical Change
Remember the alchemists who tried to create new substances with chemical changes?
A couple of things that indicate a chemical change rather than a physical change is the change of color, and the creation of a new substance.

First 2 Tbs. of baking soda were poured into the balloon thru the still-dry funnel, and the balloon laid aside.
Then into the bottle was poured 3/4. c. vinegar and ½ c. juice from a boiled red/purple cabbage.
The vinegar and cabbage juice when mixed together produced a new color, which was a chemical change (just like leaves changing each fall).
When the balloon was attached to the bottle and the baking soda poured in, the baking soda and vinegar produced water and carbon dioxide (a new substance).  The bottle and ballon were filled with carbon dioxide instead of oxygen.  After we took the balloon off, the bottle would stay filled with CO₂ for awhile, so Bethany lit a skewer (we were out of matches) and put it into the opening of the bottle.  It was immediately extinguished.
Fire needs oxygen in order to burn.
There are some museums that have special rooms for valuable objects such as paintings, that would be ruined by water sprinklers.  These rooms are designed, in the event of a fire, to shut and seal tightly, and the oxygen is sucked out preventing fire in those rooms.  Just be sure not to be in one when that happens!



Experiment 1.4, Mapping the Paths of the Planets.
This module talks about the Copernican theory, also called the heliocentric theory that says the sun is in the center of the universe.  Now this is something rather elementary, but we weren't just learning about the heliocentric theory, but how that Copernicus wasn't believed in favor of Ptolemy's geocentric theory - that the earth is in the center of the universe.  Ptolemy was more revered at the time than Copernicus.  Remember, "...no scientist's work should be supported because the person was great.  It should only be supported because the scientific evidence supports it!" (p. 9)  The Roman Catholic church prohibited Copernicus's book from being read!  Finally in 1543, his book was published.  Still, it took awhile for people to begin to accept this theory.

Johannes Kepler began observing the heavens in the late 1500's.  His observations were so detailed that he figured out the orbits of the planets around the sun.  He found that planets do not orbit in a circle, but in a slightly oval pattern called an ellipse.
We used two pushpins as the foci (pl. of focus point).  The sun ☼ is one of the focus points.  The other is like the imaginary equator.  It's there, but is not anything physical.


Experiment 1.4, Mapping the Paths of the Planets
To draw an ellipse, we used pushpins and double layers of cardboard (taped together) from an old science display board.  I could not buy 8 little bulletin boards!   (You can't see it under the paper, but it's there.  I had to make them small in order to get 8.)

If you measure from any point on the ellipse to each of the foci (so that your two measurements make a sort of V, even if uneven, with the tops of the V being the two foci and the bottom of the V being any point on the ellipse), depending on how far apart your pushpins are and how long your string is, the sum of those will equal about 4-5 inches.  Whatever measurement it ends up being, you can measure from any point on the ellipse to each of the two foci, and it will be the same measurement every time.

Eventually, Galileo's telescope helped show a lot of evidence for the heliocentric system that Copernicus had proposed.  The Roman Catholic church did not like this and put Galileo on trial for heresy!  He was forced to stop officially promoting the heliocentric system, however he did not stop collecting information!  The heliocentric view was not accepted until well after Galileo's death.

sMiLeS,

╔══╗
╚╗╔╝
╔╝(¯`v´¯)
╚══`.¸.Travis! ♥♥♥


sMiLeS,

Fruit-fly Trap

In a disposable cup, pour about ½ inch or so of apple cider vinegar.
Add a drop of liquid dish detergent.  (This breaks the surface tension of the vinegar so when the li'l critters go in, they go down!)
Cover the cup with saran wrap or a sandwich baggie and poke tiny holes in the plastic with the end of a sharp knife.  Use a rubber band to make the wrap stay on.
►Another way is to make a cone with a piece of paper or a coffee filter, making sure the end hole is tiny.  Tape the paper to the cup so that it doesn't come out.


Make sure no cider gets on the outside of the cup, or they will go there instead of IN.  It takes awhile, and they'll sit on the top awhile before going in, but they will.  The cup should be rinsed and fresh apple cider vinegar and soap replaced at least once a day.  Dry the outside of the cup.
I usually set out 3 or 4 of these cups around the kitchen.
►One more method is to place a bit of banana or banana skin in a ziploc baggie that has tiny holes poked in it, but I don't know if they'll die that way or are just in fruit-fly jail!

(If you're doing Apologia General Science, you might need these instructions after Module 9!)

sMiLeS,

A gallon of tea for $0.45!!!

I figured it up.  It costs us $0.45 per gallon of tea!

Dh takes a 16 oz. cup a day to work, with a few cubes of ice (so that it's not as sweet by lunchtime) so actually he takes 14 oz.
I figured it's less than $0.05 per day for him for tea!
(And to think how much drinks cost!)

So... how do I do it for 45 cents a gallon?

We buy the 48-count gallon-sized tea bags of Lipton tea at Sam's.  It's actually two 24-counts packaged together.
When we boil the water and pour it in w/ a gallon tea bag, I have my daughter to do it awhile ahead and let it soak, then make TWO gallons w/ it.
Tastes the same.  We couldn't tell a difference.
So for about 9.50 or so, we're getting 96 gallons!

We use 1¼ cup of sugar in a gallon, and I figured up that the Great Value sugar we buy is 0.28/cup.  (I did the math, but didn't trust myself, so I measured it out and got 10.5 cups in a 5 lb. bag)
So 0.10 for tea and 0.35 for sugar is 0.45 per gallon of tea.

Just wanted to share!
Have a glass of tea w/ me.  =)


sMiLeS,

Biology, Module 16, Reptiles, Birds, and Mammals

Videos, etc. for M16
Quizlet Vocabulary Game, M16

Well.... it is August.
And I have never written about our Biology Module 16!  I just kept putting it off.
We did no experiments; I made no pictures of the kids -- not even at our end-of-the-year party!  I totally forgot!  =(
So I just was not interested in writing a post.  bleh.
But...
Since Apologia General Science begins NEXT WEEK, I guess I better finish Biology, lol.

This module was about animals with which I am familiar.  No weird words that I had to practice the pronunciation.  Well, at least not many.  =)

We learned about each of the classes of animals listed in the title of this module, and their characteristics.
I know what reptiles are -- I just don't usually think of turtles and snakes in quite the same way, lol.
One, I'll pick up.  The other, not!
Yes, snakes are important for the ecosystem and balance in nature.  God made them, so I guess I like them in a way...  FAR away!  =)
Reptiles are cold-blooded, so they need the sun to warm up each day.  But they also cannot stay in the sun too long if it is really hot.  So if it is really, really hot, and you are in the sun, chances are you won't see snakes or lizards.  But if you're in a cool area, such as the woods, be careful about stepping over logs or rocks.  Snakes like to nestle up against the sides of these.

Remember the experiment we did with an egg in vinegar?  The shell is what retains the water in the egg.  Reptiles have amniotic eggs, which means they have a shell  so they'll retain water and not dry out in hot weather.
Fish and amphibians' eggs are jellylike, with only a thin membrane covering them.  They're much like the egg in our experiment after the shell was removed.




I think the most fascinating thing I learned about birds was about their wings.  They have these sets of feathers on the front of the wing that can be lifted away from the main part of the wing.

This set of feathers is called the alula (al' yuh luh).  Lifting the alula away from the rest of the wing prevents turbulence.
When airplane engineers discovered this, they were able to design "wing slots" in the wings of an airplane to greatly reduce turbulence.
It always amazes me that God knew all this beforehand; and that a lot of the things we humans think up, God had already designed it or said it already in the Bible.

We also learned about the wings of ostriches and penguins.  They can't fly, so what do they do with their wings?
Ostriches run very fast, and they use their wings as "sails"  to help them run faster or to make quick turns.  I think that is so cool!  =)  Penguins use wings as propellors in water.

Would you think of a dolphin, a rabbit, and an elephant as all being in the same class?  They are all mammals. They all have some hair, though it may not be readily noticeable.
Some do not think that humans should be classified as mammals, but rather have our own class.
"The similarities among animals are the result of a common Designer, not a common ancestor."
Apologia Biology, p. 526

We do fit all the criteria for mammals, but indeed, we are in a class of our own even if science does not recognize it.  =)
We are the only living creature made in the image of God.
We have souls.  We can think and reason.
We can decide for ourselves if we want to accept that Jesus is the only way to heaven, and we can also show others the way.  In fact, if we know how to keep someone from hell, and we don't tell them, we are pretty sorry human beings.
If you don't know how to be sure you are going to heaven, then I can tell you.
The first verse I learned as a child was Acts 16:31:  "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."  Pretty simple, right?  Just believe.
It doesn't say maybe.  It doesn't say if you are a good person.
The Bible says, "There is none righteous, no, not one."  Romans 3:10  None of us are good enough to earn our way to heaven!  
Heaven is free.  It is a gift.  You can't even earn your way to heaven no matter how hard you may try!
The Bible teaches that sin cannot enter into heaven.  If we are not righteous as it says in Romans 3:10, then how can we go to heaven?  The only way to enter heaven is if your sins have been covered by the blood of Christ.  He alone is sin-less, and He alone paid for yours and my sins by his death on the cross.
There is ONE way to heaven, and that is by faith, through Jesus Christ.  All you need to do is accept this free gift of salvation.
If you want to know more about how to be sure you're going to heaven, click here.
I'd love to meet you in heaven one day!  =)

sMiLeS,