Anita Renfroe - The Mom Song! =D

sMiLeS,

Happy Father's Day! =)

sMiLeS,

My kids at Grandma's =)

sMiLeS,

Hilarious Cats!

I love the one walking on its front feet!!!


sMiLeS,

♫ ♪This song is stuck inside my head...

HAHAHA!  Have a good day!
sMiLeS,

Biology, Module 15, Kingdom Plantae: Physiology and Reproduction

We grew this bean several years ago.
It grew unhindered from any tropism
experiments and was in the sun, so
the leaves grew large and green.  =)

Videos, etc. for M15 
Quizlet Vocabulary Game, M15 

Well, I have been putting off posting about this module, because I was doing an experiment with a pinto bean.  Actually, the whole class was, but no one got the results I was hoping for.

►The first bean actually did the best (as you can see in the pictures below), but I messed up on the timing to start the last step. So I was trying to do it over to get a different end result.  

Then the beans all decided to revolt!

On my second try, the bean didn't even sprout. =\
So I did it once more with three beans, and got vastly different results than before, but still a far cry from what I wanted.  I finally gave up on getting the preferred results, and decided to post what I have so far.
So... it was a true EXPERIMENT.
Now I think I know what to do next time.
Like raising kids.  Or homeschooling.  Or choosing curriculum.
When you're about done, THEN you know what to do next time, lol.
Shoulda-coulda-woulda.  =D

Experimenting with Tropisms.  (TRO-piz-mz)
A tropism is a growth response or a movement response toward a stimulus.  The stimulus might be gravity, water, the sun, or an object that the plant touches.
A vine growing around a branch that it touches is an example of thigmotropism.
Roots growing toward water is hydrotropism.

I needed babyfood jars, or something clear with straight vertical sides, but I had these clear cups that were larger at the top than at the bottom.  And that is all I had.  It had to do.
We folded paper towels into thirds and wound them around and taped them, then added on another paper towel, adding on and adjusting the best we could (which was not too great) to make a wedged cylinder shape.
(Is there such a shape???)
We needed it to fit against the sides of the jar cup.
We then put one dry pinto bean in the side about halfway down.  It needed to be wedged in.
Then we watered the paper towels, but not so much that the bean was sitting in the water.  If you soak the paper towel, then you can tilt the cup to drain all the excess water.

After a couple of days, the bean will be swelled right much larger than it was originally.
Ideally, the bean needs to be vertical with the "dot" on the side, as I sadly was to learn (in the last experiment).  Growing pinto beans in a cup apparently doesn't work as well as growing them out in the good ol' dirt!
This dot is from where the root will grow, and then the stem.

Root growing downward

The plan was to NOT put the bean in direct sunlight initially, and watch the root grow downward, demonstrating gravitropism.  This would be positive gravitropism since the root would grow toward gravity.

The green is the stem.

In a few days, the top of what looked like the root began to bulge upward, but this part was green.  This was not the root, but the stem.  Since the plant was not in direct sunlight, but it was growing upward away from gravity, this was evidence of negative gravitropism.
Seeds that are buried in the dirt will grow roots down, stem up, all without seeing the sun.  =)

Plant will soon begin to grow upright.
Testa is split, but has not fallen off.

After the stem began to grow a little, I moved the plant into the sun, keeping the paper towel moist.

The testa (bean covering) came loose from the cotyledons (cot-uh-LEE-denz) -- the two halves of the bean that is the first food for the plant -- and should have stayed inside the cup and up against the side.  If planted in the dirt, the testa would likely have stayed below ground.  The tapered cup didn't hold the seed firmly enough, and it grew on up with the plant for a bit, which was no problem.
(Remember, a bean has two cotyledons, and is a dicotyledon, or dicot.)

Evidence of negative gravitropism as
plant stem curved to grow upward.

As soon as the plant reached the top of the cup, I placed the cup on its side with the bottom of the cup toward the window, and in just a few hours, the plant stem had curved like this, demonstrating heliotropism. (movement, not growth, toward light.)

I then sat the cup back upright and put it in an upside-down square kleenex box with a small hole at one corner, and placed it in the sun.

The idea was to show phototropism -- growth toward sunlight.  But my box was short, and my plant was already nearly to the top, so instead of growing out the hole (as I saw on a video on youtube), it wound round and round in the top of the box!  haha.







I had resisted the urge to open the taped-shut box, and instead tried to peer inside with a flashlight, but couldn't really see much.  When I finally took the plant out, it had a very curvy stem!  =)

Shriveled cotyledons on stem.  Testa below, on the table.

The cotyledons stayed with the plant for quite a while (might have done differently in direct sunlight?), but were shriveled once they had supplied the plant with its first food.  God designed it this way so that a plant can have food even before reaching the surface of the ground and before growing it's first "true leaves" with which it can make its own food by photosynthesis.
These first leaves are called true leaves because the cotyledons resemble leaves on the stem.

But I found from my class that some plants didn't fare so well.  They weren't even be able to do the box part of the experiment.

One had a moldy bean that didn't grow.  (I think it might have been in the dark, and maybe I should have clarified that it just can't be in direct sunlight, but in the kitchen, etc, is fine.)
One just simply didn't sprout.

Curly root - top left.  It showed up
more before it got into such a tangle!

Um... where are you going, little root?

My kids had grown a pinto bean plant several years ago (pic at top), and had success with one try, so it didn't occur to me all the ways this experiment could fail.
And, as I was soon to discover, there are even more ways!

See the true leaves on there?  And
it's still in the cup!  Also, somehow the
stem grew through the paper towel.

On the second try, the bean didn't sprout, so with my third experiment, I determined that I should put in three beans around the sides of the cup.  I would keep the best specimen and throw out the others.  (yeah, right!)

My, my...  Those little beans were determined to thwart me! Not one did well, and on one, the root curled upward, then round and round, defeating my ideal of gravitropism!  haha.

After 3 weeks, they are still not above the rim of the cup!

Well, next time (which should be 3 years from now when my twins do Biology), I will make sure I have babyfood jars on hand from somewhere.
No, I do not plan on having more children just so I can utilize my vast knowledge of child-rearing, thus proving I have learned much with my three experiments wonderful teenagers, lol.
No, next time I will find a younger mom who will donate her babyfood jars to the cause.

Rebekah's bean plant.  She was in and out for several days
and neglected the gravitropism part of the experiment.
See the true leaves emerging from between the cotyledons?

More things I would change:
I do believe if the bean is held firmly against the side, it would do better.  And I will make sure the beans are in a vertical position with the dot on the side.
Since the in-the-box part of the experiment failed, and since some beans didn't grow, I decided that next time (yes, hindsight is 20-20), I will have the kids do three cups with several beans each, and go ahead and place one cup in the box as soon as one bean begins to sprout well, one cup will be the experiment for gravitropism, and one will grow in the sunlight, unhindered from any tropism experiments.
I had started my experiment a couple of weeks before the kids did, so from my error, I learned to have them tape their cup to a square of cardboard cut from another kleenex box to keep the plant from getting turned inside the box.  This is placed over the oval hole where the kleenexes come out, and the cup will not fall through.  The square of cardboard will not turn and does not need to be taped  to the box itself.
Also, this experiment takes more time for some beans than others, and I will begin it halfway thru module 14 when we are learning about monocotyledons and dicotyledons.
Next time... yes, next time, I will be smarter and wiser!  lol.

sMiLeS,


P.S.  I did have a video on here of my girls and their cousin singing, but they got older and more self-conscious and asked me to take it off, lol.
It was The Bean Song.  I think they had heard it on Zoom a long time ago!
♪♫ "My dog Lima likes to roam, one day Lima left his home.
He came back, nice and clean, where, oh, where has Lima bean?
Lima bean, Lima bean, where, oh, where has Lima bean?"
Other verses include Pinto bean, Coffee bean, and even Human bean! =)


All my bean plant pics (cause I know you want to see them!)

Marcel the Shell

For ONE video upload:
Nearly 23 million views, over 51,000 subscribers, and over 1,000 comments on the channel asking for another Marcel the Shell video.

sMiLeS,

Who's on First?

Love Abbot and Costello in this routine!  =)
This is a video response to my mom's comment on The Ins and Outs of Baseball.
Routine starts at 1:20


sMiLeS,

Ellipsograph/Reciprocator/Trammel of Archimedes

Remember a few weeks ago, I had asked for help figuring out what this object was?
Well, it really is more than just a fun gadget to play with.  =)
Real ones are called an ellipsograph or recipricator, or on Wikipedia, a trammel of Archimedes.
It is used to draw or cut ellipses.
Wikipedia also says that what I have is a toy, or novelty item, sometimes called a "do nothing machine," hahaha!
See what this ellipsograph was used to draw!  →



sMiLeS,

Funniest Mother's Day Gift

It was a card that Rebekah made for me when she was little.  It was right after she learned that "ou" can say the "u" sound, as in country.

The card read, "Happy Mouther's Day." =D

She is 16 now. 
Yesterday she wrote this same note on my fb page. 
I saved the email notification. < sniff > =)

It was also one of my sweetest gifts as well.
sMiLeS,

Happy Mother's Day

sMiLeS,

♫♪ Moments Musicaux No. 3

Rebekah has been learning this piece, which is one of six short pieces for piano solo, the
Six Moments Musicaux, or musical moments.
These were written by Austrian composer Franz Schubert (1797-1828).
This piece is played in F minor.


sMiLeS,

The Ins and Outs of Baseball =)

This is a game played by two teams -- one out, the other one in.  The one that's in sends players out one at a time to see if they can get in before they get out.  If they get out before they get in, they come in, but it doesn't count.  If they get in before they get out, it does count.

When the ones out get three outs from the ones in before they get in without being out, the team that's out comes in and the team in goes out to get those going in out before they can get in without being out.

When both teams have been in and out nine times, the game is over.  The team with the most in without being out before coming in wins unless the ones in are equal.  In which case, the last ones in go out to get the ones in out before they get in without being out.

The game will end when each team has the same number of ins out, but one
team has more in without being out before coming in.

Now... read this to your family.  =)

sMiLeS,

A New Car For Women

Hahahah!


sMiLeS,

Biology, Module 14, Kingdom Plantae: Anatomy and Classification

Quizlet Vocabulary Game, M14

Videos, etc. for M14  

Kingdom Plantae!  Yeah, I know what that is.  =)
This module has words that I recognize, lol.
We learned about xylem and phloem, the "straws" that transport things the plant needs.  Those may be new words to some, but I did already know them. 
We learned about the macroscopic structure of the leaf.  Macro means something you can see with the naked eye, and micro means you'd need a microscope.  Which means your eye isn't naked then -- it has a microscope lens covering it, lol.  =D

palmate venation, serrate margin

Experiment 14.1, Leaf Collection and Identification
We had to classify leaves as well as observe the type of bark and the fruit, if any.

There's a lot of parts to a leaf, including many shapes, as well as various types of edging on the leaf, called margins.  We also learned about the different vein patterns, called venations.

dentate margin, pinnate venation

whorled mosaic

I ended up having the kids to bring small branches so we could also see whether the leaves were simple or compound leaves, as well as be able to tell the mosaic -- the pattern of the placement of leaves along the branch.



We did about 9-10 classifications, including drawing the leaf, and they were to finish the rest at home. 
►Here's the page I typed for them:  Experiment 14.1, Leaf Identification 
(My printer feeds the page back in and prints on the back side, so I just did 2 of the same page in this document so I could print a batch without turning the pages over.  Am I lazy or just very clever?  lol)

We also learned a little about the microscopic structure of a leaf.  Since we have naked eyes, lol, we just looked online.

For Experiment 14.2, How Anthocyanins and pH Help Determine Leaf Color, we just discussed it a little, and looked at pictures from when we did the pH Experiment in Module 5.

Experiment 14.3, Cross Sections of Roots, Stems, and a Leaf
We were to look at the stems and roots of dicot and monocot plants.  The words dicotyledon and monocotyledon  tell how many cotyledons the plants have.  A cotyledon is the part of the seed that contains "starter food" for the plant.  A seed with two cotyledons (like a bean) is called a dicotyledon, or dicot, and can be split into two pieces.
Again, our poor eyes were naked, so we looked at pictures online.
►Links are at Homeschooler's Resources.

We learned some more about classification, and plants that have seeds, and those that don't.  Those that have xylem and phloem and can grow really tall because of the ability to transport food and water through their stems, and those plants that don't have this system, like moss.  And of course, we learned a little about seeds and reproduction.
I really learned a lot in this module.  God's creation is amazing!

sMiLeS,

ning y ning

What is this thing? 

I googled "ning y ning" and all other combinations and descriptions I could think of for this gadget. I bought it probably more than 10 years ago at a novelty store. The store owners didn't know what it was either, haha. =)
My niece wants to buy one from eBay, but we don't know what to call it.
Help, please.

sMiLeS,