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sMiLeS,

Apologia General Science, Module 10, Classifying Life

►Videos and resources for M10
To see more in depth about any of the 5 kingdoms, click the Biology tab on either blog.

5 kingdoms!
Some are easy, and the kids knew those right away - animal kingdom and plant kingdom.  And after they thought a bit, one boy remembered bacteria.  Yep, I told him, there is a kingdom for bacteria.  But I didn't tell them the scientific name yet.
There is also a kingdom for fungi.  It's scientific name is.... kingdom Fungi.  =D

But when the kids heard of kingdom Protista... they kinda got a glazed look in their eyes.  That blank look that homeschooling mamas know all too well.  =D
I had a couple of Apologia Biology books on hand so we could look through those for more pictures.
Kingdom Protista is made of two subkingdoms: algae (which is a familiar word) and protozoa.
I got the blank looks again.

But pictures help a lot, and they were familiar with the name amoeba (see images).  So that was a start to understanding that subkingdom protozoa is primarily unicellular (only one cell) organisms that live in water or at least in moist areas.
An amoeba moves by using its jelly-like cytoplasm to squish into one end of the cell, and draws up and re-extends itself forward.  Like a caterpillar, but not.  =)
Another protozoan is a paramecium (see images).  Its shape is somewhat like a moccasin, or this traffic island!

We see this "paramecium" on our way to piano lessons every week.  haha!

If you look closely, you can see the grass growing around it... just like the "hairs" on a paramecium that are called cilia.  The paramecium uses cilia to help it move.
(Hmmmm... wonder if the city would let me paint it like a paramecium???)  lol.
If you look at some of the images at the paramecium link above, you will see that a tiny paramecium, made of a single cell, has a lot going on inside it!  It has many tiny organs called organelles.  They each have a job to do.

We also talked about subkingdom algae, and that it is not a plant!  There are quite a few differences between algae and plants, and you can read a little about that on this printable reference chart I typed up.


Note: 4 of the 5 kingdoms have cells with organelles, and as such, their cells are called eukaryotic cells.
Their DNA is in an organelle called the nucleus.
All cells are either eukaryotic or prokaryotic.  All cells.
Some organisms are made of only one cell - the tiny ones that can only be seen with a microscope; and some are multi-cellular - all the living things you can see.
But all are either eukaryotic or prokaryotic.  Having organelles or not having them.
Bacteria do not have organelles.


The kingdom that is made up of bacteria is kingdom Monera.
This kingdom is the only one with prokaryotic cells.  There are no organelles.  The DNA is not in a nucleus (an organelle), but is visible throughout the cell.  (see images)
Most people think of bacteria as only pathogenic - causing disease.  And a lot of bacteria do cause disease, but some are helpful.
The good bacteria that is most commonly talked about in textbooks are the bacteria that is used to make penicillin, the bacteria that is used to make some cheeses, and the bacteria that lives in your large intestine and makes vitamin K.  Some good bacteria  in your large intestine actually keep pathogenic bacteria from growing and reproducing there!

Experiment 10.1, Factors that Affect Bacterial Growth said to dissolve a chicken bouillon cube in 1 and 1/3 cups of hot water.  Then divide this into 4 small glasses.  I told the students to bring glasses on which there were no designs, and something they could easily see through because they would need to look through them later.
They were to add 1 tsp. of salt to one glass, 1 tsp. vinegar to another, one was to go in the refrigerator, and one was to have nothing done to it.  It would be the Control.  Each glass was labeled.
Anything that is done differently than what is done to the control is called a variable.  Salt, vinegar, and cold were the variables.

Hypothesis

I had started my experiment 2½ days earlier so that they could see my results and make predictions for their lab report.
I showed them my 4 glasses (that were labeled on the underside so they couldn't see), and they made their hypotheses as to which one of theirs would have the most bacteria, the next most, all the way to the least, based on the amount of bacteria that they thought would contamine each glass.
I had removed the cold one from the fridge about an hour before they got to class so that they could not tell from condensation on the glass which one had been in the refrigerator.

I placed a biology book behind the glasses to help with the visibility comparison.

Chicken bouillon cube in water left out for 2½ days, uncovered.
Each glass has a different variable so it could be compared to the Control.

We also talked about kingdom Fungi.
"Wait!" you say.  "What about the results of the bacteria experiment?"
Oh, I shan't give that away -- you'll have to do it and see for yourself.  =D
Kingdom Fungi has both single-celled (unicellular) organisms, and multi-cellular organisms.  But all are eukaryotic, meaning they have organelles.
One example of a unicellular fungal organism is yeast.
Mushrooms and mold are examples of multi-cellular fungi.
Fungi are not plants.  They are in a separate kingdom from plants because their cellular structure is so different, and because they do not make their own food as plants do.  (see reference chart)
Fungi feed on other dead organisms, such as decaying animals or dead leaves.  Fungi are helpful in this way because they are decomposers.  They decompose dead organisms.



Being a part of kingdom Fungi, yeast is also a decomposer.
Experiment 10.2 called for yeast to be put on a slice of banana.
← This is after 2 days, and nothing has really happened.  I'm assuming the yeast is supposed to do something significant, but so far, only the other slice has changed any that we can see.
It takes about a week to see results.  You should try it yourself and see what happens.  =)






Kingdom Plantae is self-explanatory.  In kingdom Plantae, there are.... PLANTS!
"Wow," I can hear you saying.  "I never knew!"  =D
Nearly all plants are multi-cellular, and actually, I don't know which ones aren't.  Just that nearly all are.  =)  I've never come across a plant that was so small I couldn't see it, hee hee.  =D
Plant cells have three things that pertain specifically to plant cells.  They are a cell wall, a large central vacuole, and chloroplasts. 
►See image (source)
The plant-like cells of algae have only one of these - chloroplasts.

When your plants wilt, they need water.  When plants don't have enough water, the large central vacuole in each of the plant's cells is depleted, making the plant limp.
After you water the plant, the water is taken up through tubes called xylem.  (This is caused by water evaporating from the leaves, causing suction.  Sort of.  Here's the technical explanation.)
As the water vacuoles fill, they press against the cell walls, making the plant become more rigid.
This rigidness is known as turgor pressure.

Turgor Pressure is sooo gone!

 Experiment 10.4, Turgor Pressure calls for limp celery.  So I let some sit in the sun for an hour.
←Is this limp enough?  =D
Ha, the celery isn't even touching the bottom of the glass, because it kept falling in.  So I just put it hanging over the side.

We placed our celery in water with blue food coloring, and we were to wait overnight.

Yep, this is the same celery!  Turgor Pressure!

After 24 hours, my celery still wasn't crip-looking, so I left it another day.  It looked much better by then, and I could clearly see the blue food coloring that had traveled up the xylem to the leaves.  ↓

After water and minerals make their way to the leaves, photosynthesis is carried out in the leaf.  After the food for the plant is made (called glucose), it will travel out of the leaf through tubes called phloem (flow'-em) to all parts of the plant for nourishment.
Just remember, up the xylem, down the phloem.



And last, we have kingdom Animalia.
Most likely the most familiar of all kingdoms, this one includes us!
No, we are not animals, but we have animal cells.
We most certainly do not have plant cells; we are not algae or protozoa; we're not bacteria, nor are we fungi.
We have animal cells, so we are placed in that kingdom.
But we look nothing like animals.  However, many of them do not resemble each other either!
Fish, butterflies, chipmunks, alligators, elephants, octopuses, birds, turtles, lions, tigers, bears, oh my! 

Butterfly on my son's finger

Just look at this awesome animal cell.
See the many organelles?
In the center is the nucleus. And in that nucleus is DNA.  Each strand of DNA is twisted up into an X or Y shaped chromosome.
►See image of tightly coiled DNA (source)
Humans have 46 chromosomes in each cell.  (So 23 pairs - XX or XY)
Each of these DNA strands, if unwound, can be about 6 feet long!
That's a lot going on in the nucleus of a cell.
But wait.  There are about a hundred trillion cells in your body!
Not all cells are the same shape and size, but about 2,000 average-sized cells can fit in a line across your fingernail.
Oh. my. word.
That is just so incredible!

But wait.  Think of this.
If we, and all animals, have animal cells... what makes us different?
Well, for starters, humans have 46 chromosomes in each cell.
An onion has 16 chromosomes in each cell, a horse has 64, and a carp has 104.
So how do humans, who all have 46 chromosomes, all look different from one another?
Think of it like the alphabet.  How many words can be made from the alphabet?  And how many sentences, and how many books...
Instead of letters, there are nucleotides (also referred to as nitrogen bases, or simply bases) in our 6-foot-long strands of DNA, and the nucleotides are in pairs.  Adenine with thymine, and cytosine with guanine.
And in the sequences (order, pattern) of nucleotides on our strands of  DNA, is the information that makes up who we are.
Except for identical twins, everyone's sequences are different from anyone else.
Fantastic!

How can anyone think that evolution did this?  Ever since I started really getting into science a couple of years ago, I have just been continually amazed at the complexity of God's creation!  As I study through a module, I discover how intricate His creation is, and yet each new module brings more discoveries to amaze me yet again. 

sMiLeS,

Apologia General Science, Module 9, What is Life?

►Videos and resources for M9

Well, we made DNA.  Yep, we did.
This was a fun experiment, but we did some learning, too.

Courtney's DNA

We learned that the red licorice sides of the DNA are the backbone, and are made of several different kinds of atoms.
The marshmallows nucleotides can only link together with certain other nucleotides.  Adenine can only link with thymine, and cytosine can only link with guanine.

So we chose a different color to represent each nucleotide while we were building our DNA.

Having DNA is one of the 4 criteria (requirements) for life.  If something does not have DNA, it isn't alive.
If an organism doesn't meet any one of the 4 criteria for life, it is not alive.  It has to meet all four.

The 4 criteria are:

1. All life forms contain DNA.
2. All life forms have a way to take energy from their surroundings and convert into usable energy that helps them live.  
3. All life forms can sense changes in their surroundings and respond to those changes.
4. All life forms reproduce.

So #1 is easy to understand.  Every living thing has cells, and in those cells is the DNA that makes that organism look and act the way it does.
So what about the rest?

#2 is easy to understand when thinking of humans and animals eating food.
But what about plants?  They make their own food by photosynthesis.  But they do take energy from the sun to be able to do this.

For #3, we did an experiment that the girls didn't much care for.  Well, my girls.  Well, one of my girls.  lol.  (Can you guess who???  Here's a hint.)
The experiment called for putting earthworms in a bright light, then to check them again in 30 minutes.
I just happened to have recently acquired this neat lamp that attaches to things.  Great for reading in bed!

30 minutes later, sure enough, the worms had gone underground.
The worms will dry out if in high heat, so they responded to this change and went where it was cooler.
Well, that seems natural enough, so we also had to make them come back out.
Earthworms breathe through their skin.  So if you pour a cup or so of water in the dirt, they'll respond to this change and come up to be able to breathe.  You'll frequently see lots of earthworms after a rain.  Apparently, earthworms don't like to drown!
And... when they come up, they start climbing out of the bucket, so keep a good eye.  ;)

We all respond to change.  If hungry, cold, or tired, even if we can't do anything about it, we sense this change, and our body responds to it.  Some people show it more than others (like 2-year-olds), but we all feel it and respond to it.
Now if a rock is pushed near the edge of a cliff, and it falls off, did it respond to a change?
Yes.
Maybe.
I mean it didn't actually do the responding...  But did it sense the change?  No.
So a rock is not alive.
(Whew!  Glad I cleared that up!)

Now for #4, most will think, of course!  But then if they start thinking... (sometimes we think too much, yeah?)
What if a person cannot have children?  How can they meet criterion #4?
There is one thing in every living organism that is always producing, even if that organism cannot produce offspring.
And that is cells.
Cells are always reproducing, always replacing old cells.

I also did a fruit-fly experiment for this criterion.  But it looked nasty, so I didn't take a picture. (Someone say thank you.)
Just think of a mushy brown piece of banana in a clear plastic cup, with gnats flying around in it, and tan maggots (that will mature into adult gnats) on the banana and sides of the cup.
Nasty.
This is metamorphosis.
For those of you that do this at home, it is nearly impossible to get gnats to stay in a cup while you quickly place a nylon knee-high stocking over it.  I just put a piece of saran wrap and punched holes.  Like I do when I'm trying to get rid of gnats w/ apple cider.
I wanted to be sure they got enough air, so I placed the nylon over the top of the cup, covering the saran wrap, and reached under to tear/pull out at least part of the saran wrap.
►And you also might need to know how to get rid of any strays.  ;)

The "plant cell" we made last year in Biology.

We learned a little about cells in this module.  Just a few basic things.  A little more will be taught in module 10, and a whole lot more in Biology.
There are three basic kinds of cells:  animal cell, plant cell, and bacterial cell.
They are basic, because everything in nature doesn't fit neatly into categories.  Some cells are animal-like, and some are plant-like, and some don't really even fit in any one place because they have differences that kind of overlap the categories, but certain things are left out, so they don't actually fit very well where they are put.

The "animal cell" we made last year.

All cells have a membrane, and in the cell is a jelly-like substance called cytoplasm.  This is like a balloon filled with jelly.  (So not like our flat pizza or cake "cells" at all.)
In the cytoplasm of animal and plant cells are tiny "organs" called organelles.  One of these organelles is the nucleus, and it holds the DNA.
►See images
We learn more about the differences of the basic types of cells in Module 10.

sMiLeS,

Hillbilly 10 Commandments

sMiLeS,

Apologia General Science, Module 8, Uniformitarianism and Catastrophism

trilobite fossil

►Videos and Resources for M8

Try a Bite of Trilobite!
This was a very cute and fun activity.  =)
We were learning about what evolutionists and uniformitarianists (believe the earth is billions of years old) think of  as the geological column, and in the layers, there is this real critter called a trilobite.  [try-luh-bite].
Whew!  He looks like some ugly lobster-bug thing, doesn't he!



Well, usually foreign-sounding names like this tend to be forgotten later, so to help the kids remember what a trilobite was, we had to try a bite.  =)
We did this at the beginning of class and put them in the fridge for a bit so they'd harden back up in time to eat them.
We used Pepperidge Farm lemon cookies (closest thing I could find that resembled any type of bug), melted chocolate, and mini m&m's.
I laid down wax paper and wrote their initials w/ a sharpie so we'd know which cookies belonged to whom.

             They turned out so cute!  =)

The trilobite was thought to be extinct, which is the only way it could be part of the "fossil record."
The fossils in the geological column are called index fossils because they are used to figure out the ages of the layers of rocks.  Oh, and they use the rocks to tell the ages of the fossils... Circular reasoning!  (Not too smart, eh?)
Actually, after this science book was written, there were some living trilobites discovered, so they need to be thrown out of this contrived, so-called fossil record.  There actually is no "record" --  the index fossils in the geological column are organisms that all died in the Flood, and are not a record of time periods.  They do not "index" anything.

Then we learned about the so-called geological column.  I say so-called, because it doesn't actually exist in any one location on earth.  There are layers of the same type of strata that have different fossils in them, and they have been placed within the geological column as different layers representing different times.
Some of the same type of fossils are in more than one type of strata; and some of the same types of strata have more than one type of fossil.
And there are not many fossils that can even be conceivably accepted as a missing link.  Most of the so-called ones only have a few parts that are found.  The rest of the animal is fabricated.

Did you know that carbon dating was not done until AFTER the arrangement of the geological column?
If there were no geological column, scientists would not know what to expect in their results of carbon dating.  Carbon dating of anything over about 3,000 years old is highly inaccurate.  Tissue and bone from the same animal have been dated millions of years apart.  (Guess he was evolving? haha)  Usually several tests have to be done just to get the desired results that line up with this geological column!
Pity they won't believe the Bible.
God caused the Flood that fossilized many animals in layers of strata.
When there is moving water, sediment will be laid down in many layers, simultaneously! 
The fossils in the layers do not represent the "evolution" of higher and higher life-forms.

So, I wanted the kids to understand how uniformitarians construct the geological column, so that we could discuss a few of the problems here.
The layers of the Grand Canyon for instance, were supposedly laid down when the ocean had covered the land we now know as Arizona for a few million years, and sediment sank to the bottom.  Then the ocean receded from Arizona for some reason, and that layer of sediment hardened.  Then the ocean came back and laid down some more sediment, then receded, and the next layer hardened, and so on for billions of years.
Hmmmm...

Left: "master" column; Right: columns from 3 diff regions

I showed them three stacks of legos with a few colors missing in each.  This represented different areas of the earth where there are layers.
By the way, the missing layers are thought to have totally weathered away.  Um... that is so odd!  That layers only weather away entirely.  No remnant left at all.  Seems to me that could happen occasionally, but entire layers in places all over the world?
hmmm....
We discussed how one could figure out an order to these layers, then put together a master column.


The problem with this, is that in many places on the earth where the layers exist, there are many of the same types of layers in different positions.  The uniformitarians simply put those layers into the geological column several times.  They also ignore the fact that some of the same fossils appear in more than one layer.
On the other hand, a catastrophist believes there was a large-scale catastrophe, the Flood, that caused all this.


Then we used pictures.  I taped them up in 3 columns, and the kids drew a geological column on paper.  They drew the pictures or simply wrote the names of the pictures in the order of what one would think a geological column would look like.




I'm glad I also did this instead of just the legos.  Everyone did great with the legos, but with pictures, some got stuck.  I purposely used different images of starfish, leaves, trilobites, and mammals.  I didn't want it to be too easy.  After all, if one were actually looking at fossils, they would not all be exactly the same.












There are also paraconformities.  We learned in Module 6 that an unconformity is a surface of erosion between two layers of strata, distinctly showing that there are two layers.  We learned about angular conformities, nonconformities, and disconformities.
So what is a paraconformity?  It is actually imaginary.  Non-existent.  It is ONE layer that has fossils that, according to uniformitarianists, should be two different layers.
Oh my!  This poses a big problem!  So.... what do these uniformitarians do?  Why, they invent something called a paraconformity.  In other words, there must be a layer to divide these fossils; it's just that no one can see it.  They say it is invisible.
Hmmmmm....
(ha, I seem to be doing a lot of hmm-ing, eh?)

More stuff to think about:
• A fossilized fish giving birth has been found.  It doesn't take millions of years to give birth.  Fossilized animals have been found in the middle of taking in food.  Fossilization can happen quickly!  
• Fossil "graveyards" have animals from various climates in the same location, such as the Cumberland Bone Cave in Maryland.
• Mt. St. Helens showed that stratified rock can form in less than a day.  It did take longer to fully harden (which is why layers can be bent), but layers do not need millions of years to form.
• There are hardly any fossils that can even be thought to be an intermediate link (or missing link), and those that are, are made up from just a few bones that couldn't even tell you for sure what the animal really was.  You'd think over billions of years, there would be some of these "missing" links.  Just like the average life span is 70 or so, and anywhere you go, you can see people of all ages from 0 up to 90 or more!  They do say evolution happens slowly, but surely something would die now and then before totally evolving for millions of years... There are SO many fossils of un-evolved organisms.
Even Charles Darwin admitted that there was nothing connecting the distinct species by "intermediate varieties" and said this was probably the "gravest... of all the many objections" against his views.

"Geological research, though it has added numerous species to existing and extinct genera, and has made the intervals between some few groups less wide than they otherwise would have been, yet has done scarecly anything in breaking the distinction between species, by connecting them together my numerous, fine, intermediate varieties; and this not having been affected, is probably the gravest and most obvious of all the many objections with can be raised against my views."  (The Origin of Species, 6th ed, 1962, Collier Books, NY, p. 462)

He thought that in time, these "missing" links would be discovered.  But they have not.

At the last of class, we watched part of a video while the class ate their trilobites and the rest of the m&m's.  Oh, and I had some lemonade on hand.  Great with chocolate, right?  =D

sMiLeS,

Rebekah's 17th Birthday =)

The cake:  

1 chocolate cake mix, 3 York peppermint patties, half a bag of chocolate chips, 2 cans of creamy icing, and 2 boxes of chocolate covered cherries.

Very chocolatey!

The bakers and the birthday girl:

Abigail, Rebekah, Bethany

Siblings, Cousins, Friends:

sMiLeS,

Apologia General Science, Module 7, The Fossil Record

►Videos and Resources for M7

Fossils, fossils, fossils!  There are many different kinds, and many of them do not contain actual matter from the original fossil!  Such is the case with cast fossils.

Casts and Molds
We used homemade playdough (directions) to make molds with the items the kids brought to class (use a little smear of vaseline to keep from sticking), then poured in plaster of Paris to make fossil casts.

The lego mold was a little warped, causing the fossil cast to be a little warped.  =)

The cast will always be the shape of the mold.  So if a clam gets buried by sediment, after the soft tissue decays and sediment settles and hardens around the clam shell, if the clam shell eventually weathers away and the mold is filled with more sediment, that is what kind of fossil cast a paleontologist might find one day.

(I do not like blank spaces!  So I am writing something to fill it in..... blah, blah, blah!)
LOL!




Petrifaction
We made a petrified log!  Kind of.  =)
Actually, a real petrified log comes from when mineral-laden water seeps through a log and hardens there, and as the log decays, the minerals stay, eventually totally replacing the log!  Minerals are what rocks are made of, so the result is a large, log-shaped rock!
If you were too scared to move, you might say you were turned to stone, or petrified!
We mixed Epsom salts with water and laid our paper towel "log" in the mixture and rolled it over so that all sides were wet. (directions)  We kept in in the sun for two weeks so that it would dry and harden from the minerals.  This is like a petrified log in that there are minerals in it, but unlike a petrified log in that the original materials (paper towel) remained.
Then we tried to burn it.
Petrified anything will not burn!
Just watch:

We also tried to get a Carbon Residue or Impression by placing a green leaf between two sheets of paper, and applying pressure.  I demonstrated in class by weighing a 2-gallon water cooler that we were going to place on the leaves.  It weighed 17 pounds!  Much more than the book required, so I figured we'd get a good result.  We placed the leaves between the sheets of paper, then placed those between two very flat boards and the water cooler on top.  We did not move it for 3 weeks, but still we only had a slight impression, and a very faint green color where the stem was.
Well, my niece and nephew had placed theirs under 2 large bags of concrete -- 160 pounds!  Theirs was the only good results.

Other kids only used a few books or other similar weight as called for, but there were no results.  Literally.
Their papers looked like... nothing.  =\
 I think I'll try this one again, and just leave it there a little longer.
(Similar directions to what we used - but they suggested a fall leaf.)

We also learned about Remains in Ice and Remains in Amber.
At the beginning of class, I showed the class a frozen chunk of ice in a bowl, and placed a rock on top of it and put it back in the freezer.  At the end of class, the rock had sank down in the ice a little and was frozen there.  This is one idea of how animals become entrapped in ice.  Um... idk if this is right, because large animals can take 5 days to totally freeze all the way through and their insides would be rotting by then.
If an animal were actually buried quickly by snow and ice, then it would freeze quickly, preserving much of its remains.

For the insects trapped in amber, I came across a neat idea of using orange jello with insects inside.
I just knew this would be a hit.  I heard ewwww! from several girls, even though I had washed the li'l buggies beforehand.  [innocent voice]  =D
The only insects I could find were bigger than I was expecting, so I used 2 packages of jello to cover the insects for 8 treats.  Some wanted to float up out of the jello, so I used forks on those, precariously perched, holding down antennae or legs, lol.  I did remove the forks before the jello got too firm.
I did see a few girls take a taste or two, but most was left uneaten.  lol.

This module was mostly about the fossil "record," so we did learn about fossils.
We also learned more about the uniformitarianists' view and the catastrophists' view of how the geography of the earth came to be the way it is.
But we also learned four very important features of the fossil "record."
1.  Fossils are usually found in sedimentary rock.  Sedimentary rock is washed and laid down by water.  (Does that tell you something about the Flood?)
2.  About 95% of the fossils found are clams and other hard-shelled creatures - not wooly mammoths or other large animals.
3.  Many of the fossils that are found are of plants and animals that are still alive today.  So... nothing changed from "billions" of years ago to today!  =)
4.  Different kinds of fossils can be found in two of the same kind of layers of stratified rock.  This shows that layers of the same kind of rock do not represent time periods of different fossils.

sMiLeS,

Awesome pics of the moon! =)

http://www.pixheaven.net/galerie_us.php?id=22

sMiLeS,

Apologia General Science, Module 6, Foundations of Geology

►Videos and Resources for this module

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,