3 Sisters Garden and Water Tension Physics Experiment

The corn for our 3 Sisters Garden, is now one inch high. That means it is time to plant the beans, and squash. However, because we will be having one last coldish snap, I am holding off until next week to plant them. It is not supposed to hit freezing, but 30's at night, so we will play it safe. We got some cute fence to go around our little garden, at the Dollar Tree.

The bird picture, is the Red Bellied Woodpecker that had a nest in our dead tree, a few years back. He still comes and visits our feeders once in a while. At least we think it is the same one, lol. I guess we can't say for sure.


Yesterday, we were supposed to do a Physics activity, make a rainbow, that would have been perfect since it was St Patrick's Day this week. But, of course it had to be a rainy day, lol. So, we did a different Physics activity related to water tension, and why boats move. Below you will see some pictures. The first picture is what your boat should be cut out like, the second two are the wrong way, and the last one is correct. I let them do it wrong on purpose, then tried it and it didn't work. This is what you will need:

Foam board for each child or cardboard which does not work well because it absorbs the water.
A large clean dry bowl. I actually wish we had did this in the bathtub, you might want to.
Scissors
Concentrated liquid dish soap, we used Dawn.
Water

Then it you just have them cut their foam just like the first picture. It is actually a tricky shape to cut, so if they do it wrong, let them try it so they see why that doesn't work. Have them record all observations, and what happens. After they have the shape cut out, put it in the bowl that you have put water in. Then carefully add a drop of dish soap directly where the back of the boat is, at the opening. If you have a correct shape it will quickly, and immediately, push the boat across the water. We actually should have had two bowls of water, because once the water tension has been disturbed the second boat did not work as well. Have them try to tell you why the boat moved. The explanation is that the water tension is very high, before the soap is added. After you add the soap it decreases the water tension, which causes the water at the front of the boat to pull the boat to the front. Very cool experiment, easy to do, supplies easy to obtain. In their project book I had them draw both pictures, of the proper cutout and the incorrect cutout, then explain what happened.

Field Trip to Ichtucknee Springs

Since we finally got our year long state park pass, I want to be sure we use it. Since it is still the school year, we can do a field trip here and there, at least once a month. Today, we traveled to Fort White, to visit Ichtucknee Springs. This spring was named an official historic landmark in 1972. The spring itself is not that large, but the main activity here is the tubing down the Santa Fe River. We did not tube today, but we will definitely return to do so. For Christmas, DJ and I both got water proof cell phone case covers, specifically rated for underwater images. Much cheaper than buying and underwater camera, if they worked. Since his phone was getting replaced anyway, that same day, we used his phone as a guinea pig. It worked amazing, not even one drop of water got in there. Now we need to find some Manatees, lol. If we get to Fanning Springs, before it gets too warm, we will almost certainly see at least one there. This was our first time to this park, and the weather was spectacular. We walked a one mile trail, down and back, and that was just super nice.

I have been slacking on the blogging, again, my apologies. Just been so busy. I will get the Physics activity posted this week, and will probably have another at the end of the week.