Family Science: Science Crafts

Many families take a long break at Christmas and New Year’s Day.  Would you like some science crafts?  First up is Benzoic Acid Blizzard in a Bottle.  (Snow globes). Home Science Tools sells benzoic acid.  Little kiddos can make glitter snow globes.  Grow Alum Crystals, Borax Crystals, or a Salt Crystal Garden.  Here are several winter, science experiments, including a snowball catapult, designed for younger kiddos.  Here are instructions to write your name in binary code.  Little Bins for Little Hands has a host of winter activities, including binary, winter words, such as ‘frosty’.  One last idea—Melting Ice Experiment.  Freeze ice in a plastic bowl.  Drop salt and paint over the ice globe.  I have used tempera paint successfully for this experiment.  Merry Christmas! 

DNA Sentences

 Okay, Making Sentences of DNA is a means to help kids understand DNA Transcription and Translation.  Here is a good slideshow.  Guess what?  This concept, the Central Dogma, is hard to understand.  DNA is locked inside the cell’s nucleus.  mRNA transcribes the message from DNA, exits the nucleus and travels to the ribosome (which has proteins and rRNA) to translate the message into a string of amino acids, a protein.  The activity takes a DNA sentence.  The kids write the mRNA message, encode the tRNA, then match the tRNA anticodons with words to make a sentence.  I took pix.  Yes, the activity has a key.  This really works to help kids understand the process.  Yes, it is overkill.

DNA Models on a Budget

 I have pricey kits because I teach Biology to the local Co-op regularly.  There are inexpensive models which work well.  First is this DNA model made with construction, paper toothpicks, and washable markers.  Label the construction paper backbone with phosphate and deoxyribose.  Make a key for the model.  Here is a model with gum drops.  Here is an origami model and a paper model.  I think the first model from construction paper and toothpicks, labeled works well.  If your teen is struggling to understand the construction of DNA, make more models.  Invest time explaining and identifying each part.

Hands-on DNA Models

 Whoooaaa! We completed Another Mitosis Mini-project and nearly completed the Lab-aids DNA and its Replication.  Like Lab-aids Molecules of Life kit, the DNA set is pricey, about $120.  Home Science Tools  has several DNA model kits for less.  Amazon has a model for $9.  I have one; it’s not bad.  I have one pictured below.  Take a look!

Another Mitosis Mini-project

 Every time I teach Biology, the kids make cell cycle paper plate wheels.  Here is a unit with activities about the cell cycle, including the cell cycle paper plate wheel.  I started the lesson with this presentation.  The kids Google ‘cell cycle paper plate project’ to see different models.  Then they make their own. The purpose is to make a model to help understand how mitosis is part of the cell cycle.  Cells are in the process of growing or getting ready to split.  It helps to see the process as a whole. The wheel is another study aide, like the Mitosis Models.  The cheap paper plates are easier to cut.  We fasten the two paper plates with brass brads or paper fasteners.

Mitosis Mini-Projects

 The kids make yarn projects for mitosis.  The kids literally copy and label diagrams for the stages of animal mitosis.  Why?  The more kids see, do, hear, etc, the more they learn.

DNA Extraction

Update:  We had the best results using 90% isopropyl alcohol, Dawn detergent, and iodized salt.  BTW, I keep my DNA supplies in a kit.  The meat tenderizer is supposed to be good for a year.  I’ll check next year when I teach Bio again.

Today, the Bio class is extracting DNA.  Here are instructions to extract DNA from just about anything.  The key is to use fresh meat tenderizer.  We use split peas.  Additionally, this lab is more inquiry-based.  I have two types of dish soap and different percentages of alcohol.  When I have a large group I add ionized salt vs sea salt, rubbing alcohol vs ethyl alcohol, and chilled vs room-temperature alcohol.  The kids can form a hypothesis.  For example, one group might hypothesize that sea salt will produce more DNA than iodized salt or chilled ethanol may produce more DNA than room-temperature ethanol.  My kids are using this lab for their third, formal lab report since they need to write at least four for several online schools to receive lab credit.  This lab might take two class periods to complete because kids need to perform two tests for each trial.  The white threads on top of the pea solution are DNA.

Macromolecule Food Tests

Every time I teach Biology we do  food tests.  Identification of Biomolecules.  This lab has a good data sheet which allows students to mark down their predictions.  Biomolecules are also called macromolecules.  Here is a Google slide deck demonstrating positive tests for carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins.  These tests require Benedict’s solution and biuret solution.  Home Science Tools has both.  What is the point?   I like to reinforce concepts.  This lab introduces kids to identifying substances with test reagents.  (BTW, the orange beakers are for wastes.)

Chemistry on a Budget: Colorful Lather Prints

 I just saw a cool take on Colorful Lather Printing.  Try making prints with wooden ornaments.  The video from Albina Manning Art is below.  Usually, we use food coloring in the shaving cream.  But, I’ve used tempera paint as a substitute for the food coloring.  You can combine Science with making homemade Christmas ornaments.

Biomolecules

 We finished working through the questions in the Lab-aids kit.  It takes three class periods to build and run through the questions.  This worksheet has the main components of the worksheet from the kit.  It helps enormously to build and synthesize the molecules.  

My never ending quest for an inexpensive molecular modeling kit.

I use molecular modeling kits for Bio and Chem.  I’ve collected several kits because I teach Bio and Chem regularly and consider the kits an investment.  But many home-school families only teach Bio and Chem once or twice.  These families need an inexpensive kit.  One reason my kids get through Biochem is because we take the time to build the molecules.    We’re in the middle of Biochem.  So I built molecules with both kits.  My test molecule is D-glucose.  I bought both kits from Amazon, October 10th.  One kit arrived October 19th and the other Oct. 25th—fairly timely.  Sometimes very inexpensive kits do not arrive for months.  Neither kit had enough atoms to build D-glucose.  The $6.95 kit had enough carbon and hydrogen atoms.  I had to substitute three oxygen molecules with another atom.  The hydrogen atoms are orange.  Weird.  Usually hydrogen is white.  The $11.98 molecule kit did not have enough oxygen atoms for D-glucose.  Boooooo!  The $6.95 kit is sturdy.  You might want to just make your own molecules.  Here is the CPK color chart.  Scroll down to see the colors for carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen.  Make the hydrogen atoms small; the other atoms are usually the same size.  Link the clay atoms with toothpicks.  Meanwhile I’m still looking for cheap molecule kits.

$6.95 and $11.98

Cheap and Easy Chemistry: Metal Reactivity Labs

 Are you familiar with the Metal Reactivity Series?  Here is a lesson and Activity of Metals Lab we do in class.  However, AACT has this Virtual lesson, Metals in. Aqueous Solutions, with lessons, and Teacher Notes for this lab simulation.  You and your teens can do the simulation and decide whether the expense of the lab materials are worth an investment.  Lab simulations stretch your budget and allow more extension activities for your kids.  Treat the simulation like a lab and add it to your digital portfolio.

Biomolecules Introduction: Carbohydrates, Fats, Proteins, and Nucleic Acids

 Biomolecules are really one aspect of Biochemistry.  This is a tough unit.  Here is how I approach this material.  I do a crash course in Organic Chemistry with this packet (10.4 Answer Key and 10.7 Answer Key).  Here is a note summary about naming organic molecules.

Now that you are overwhelmed, let’s start again.  We start with this slideshow introduction and follow with this Biomolecules activity.  I ordered the two kits below from Amazon to review.  The kids will start Thursday building the molecules with the Labaids Molecules of Life kit.  I want to test the inexpensive kits to compare their quality with Labaids and more expensive molecular modeling kits.  I’ll update with results.

The kits were $6.95 and $11.68.

Orbeez Bead Lab Update

 The Bio class  soaked for two days in three solutions.

Cheap and Easy Biology: Cell Transport Labs

 Today, the Bio class did three labs about cell movement or transport.  The first is this Diffusion Lab. The questions are good for explaining the selective permeability of cell embraces.  Use the pix from Biology Place’s Diffusion Lab if you like step by step instructions.  You need iodine, cornstarch and baggies.  The cheapest baggies work best.  (Traditionally, dialysis tubing is used for this lab.  My colleague, Wendy, told me to use cheap baggies instead.)  Next we soaked growing spheres in three solutions to do the lab, Simulating Osmosis with Orbeez Water Beads.  Lastly the kids made Gel Beads, using these instructions and these to test yeast balls in hydrogen peroxide.  This last lab is more expensive and uses sodium alginate and calcium lactate.  It is also more of a pain to set up and conduct.  

Sodium Alginate and Calcium Lactate Gel Beads Lab

Diffusion lab

Water Beads