News Junkie and Algae Experiment

I am a bit of a news junkie.  Towards the end of the school day, the news is on.  If you have been watching the news you know, Ebola, is all over the news.  Yesterday, early morning, my son got sick, and then again later in the morning.  My 10 yr old was convinced he probably had Ebola.  She pays more attention to the news than I thought.  Which gets me to my point.  If I am going to watch the news, which is usually not good news and often embellished, I better be prepared for some weird reactions and questions.  Of course my son does not have Ebola, he was fine after the second incident and we have had no contact, direct or otherwise with anyone from West Africa.  It was probably our Science experiment, because he did not follow the directions clearly.

About 10 days ago, we tried to see if there was anything living in our pool.  There wasn't, but I think things are starting to grow in their now, lol.  Anyway we have a rain collection bucket, that I water plants with.  I had not messed with it for a while, and that did have algae in it.  It also had a tiny ant head, with algae growing around it, that was really cool to look at under the microscope.  We did this on Sunday.  As I was looking I could see little critters moving around.  Our microscope is not super strong, so I couldn't tell exactly what they were, but there was a lot of them.  I told DJ to be sure and not touch his face, before he got to wash his hands, after handling the sample.  He might not have listened.  None of his friends, or us got it, but it could have just been something he ate.  But we all ate the same thing.  I have dumped the bucket and sanitized it, since to dog likes to drink out of it now and then.  From now on I will have the hand sanitizer right there to clean hands, and then wash them with soap and water when all experiments have been completed.

The second experiment we did, was to watch a seed grow.  You need six seeds.  We used Magnolia seeds, because they are all over the back yard.  You soak them over night, then gently remove the out covering of the seed.  It should be slimy and slide right off.  This was really cool under the microscope.  We couldn't get our seed to slice open, no matter how much we tried, so we skipped seeing the inside.  Next you put about 6 tsp of dirt in a ziplock bag and push the seed down into the dirt.  Seal the bag, most of the way, leave a small area for evaporation to occur.  Place it in a sunny spot, and then check it in a few days.  You should be able to see the seed starting the growing process.  I think this would work better in a tight fitting case, like a clear CD case, but we will see how it goes.  These are easy, fun, and educational experiments that anyone can do. 

Even though my son was not feeling well, he made it through the whole school day, Monday, slowly but still, and is all better today.  This week is a normal school week, and then next week we have some fun, educational things going on.  More on those later this week.

DJ Was The Teacher Today!

This morning DJ got to be Caitlin's teacher, because I was sicker than a dog. I am never sick, migraines once in a while, but not sick. I got up feeling normal, did my usual stuff, got the kids up, started laundry, started school then wham it slammed me like a freight train. For the next six hours I was in bed, vomiting, and with a fever. I have no idea what caused it, but I am certainly glad I feel better, though I got nothing done. Hats off to DJ for being the first grade teacher today. I still have a lingering headache but at least I am in the upright position functioning normal.

I thought I would share today some of the more fun things we have been doing for school. I like to add projects along with book work, movies, and other non traditional ways to learn. I found this neat experiment to determine how salt beds are formed. It is easy all you need is a glass bowl you can see mine is a pie plate, 1 cup of water, and 4 tbsp of salt. Put the water in the bowl, then stir in the salt. Allow the bowl to sit undisturbed until all the water evaporates. This took about two weeks here in Florida, but can take up to 4 weeks according to the book. If you click each picture you will see that the salt turns into cubic crystals and look like squares or cubes. The sides are a thick, white, frosty type substance. Conclusion: Beds of salt are believed to have formed from shallow ponds that were close enough to the ocean to collect salt water, and were then cut off from the sea. Slow evaporation of water left behind clear cubic salt crystals called halite. The frosty substance along the side, forms when water rises up the side and salt in the solution crystallizes as the water quickly evaporates. The faster drying along the sides does not allow enough time for the cubic crystals to form as on the bottom.

We did a whole four week lesson on reusing and reducing waste. So when we would empty glass jars, we would wash them and give them to my mom, who paints them. So I figured we could paint some too. I kept a salsa jar, and a pickle jar. Washed and dried them and then let the kids paint on them. The results are shown below. Then we couldn't decide what to do with them. We have pencil containers, odds and ends containers, what to do? Then my husband suggested sugar, and the kids said no we don't use that much sugar. Then one of them said salt! So they are now our new salt and pepper shakers, and they look quite lovely on the dinner table. Good think I kept the lids. Note if you decide to do this don't cut the holes in the lids too big, the salt will really just pour out.