Start with a Book!

 I’m a fan!  I love to center a science lesson around a book.  Start with a Book (SWAB) has hundreds of ideas.  Explore Topics, such as Cooking and Food.  SWAB encourages families to use both fiction and nonfiction books—like a cookbook!  Read, grow food, cook!  There are Book-Based Activity Kits to try, such as Bird Buddies.  Here is the activity kit, replete with ideas, such as a bird walk, parts of a feather, habitats, pix of common birds, such as a robin, writing exercises, bird calls, and books!  Just gloss over the political bits and educational jargon in favor of interesting ideas.

Mole Day!

Mole Day is actually Friday.  We’re celebrating today.  Why?  Three teens attend class on Tuesdays and stay after class for 80 minutes to complete Thursday’s lesson.  I don’t want these three teens to miss the fun!  (Yes, we make all kinds of accommodations.)  We are having a modest Mole Day celebration.  I did make Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies or Mole Hole cookies. (No, not molasses cookies.) I tried the candy eyes; Rob and I both thought they looked goofy.  I have prizes for the best mole toy, for both the high school and middle school classes. I did sew a little bandana for the porch goose, too.  I’ll add the mole pix Wednesday.

Food Science

 Food Science makes a great elective or unit study, especially for tweens and teens.  It’s also one of those topics which can be adapted for a wide age range. 4-H has a 436 page Food Science Curriculum.  It’s comprehensive!  You could spend the year wading through this program as a family. There are recipes, questions, activity sheets, experiments—a complete home study.

Younger Kiddos: My American Farm has this teacher’s page with lessons such as Beef Up Your Nutrition, Built From Beef, an activity sheet, and Beef Heritage, an E-Comic.  Try one activity to see if your younger kiddos like the resource; it’s a little goofy.  Their Science Day Camp includes Crazy for Compost, Kick the Can Ice Cream, and Parts of the Plant.  I think the activities would work better for a unit study than a science camp.

Tweens: Food Science Files has Oatmeal Bread, Color Changing Noodles, Garden Lab, Polymer Power, and Salad Dressing Study—just enough for a unit study.  It’s has brief lessons and student hand-outs.  Food Master has both math and science booklets. Yeah!  You do NOT need to send them your information and email.  Look at Milk and Cheese and teacher’s guide; kiddos make cheese from scratch.  Try Fruit’s Math; here are the answer keys for all of the Food Master math units.  Your family can do activity sheets and try recipes.  Food Master can ba adapted into a lesson, a unit, or just a Friday Fun Day!

Teens: Food for Today is a textbook focuses on food science.  Here is the teacher’s guide with answers and experiments.  Once you have a textbook, experiments, and a solution key, you have an instant course.  Since it’s an older textbook, you’ll need to make modifications.  For example, one recipe, Substituting the Sugar, calls for saccharin and aspartame.  Substitute Sucralose and Stevia instead.  BTW there are other Food Science textbooks, typically older books, designed for high school cooking classes.

Apologia Chemistry: Nomenclature

 Next week, the Chemistry Co-op class is beginning Module 3, Nomenclature.  Here are the lesson plans, including Putting Ions in Their Hands.  BTW this is a key module.  Here is my introductory slide deck.

I have used Putting Ions for many years—including the college classes I taught.  It works that well.  One tip is to print the positive and negative ions on to different colored card stock.  (I use a third color card stock for the ion chart, too.  Originally, this was a Flinn kit—with red, blue, and yellow card stock.)  Students may use the ions as long as they need them to name compounds.  At the same time, my kiddos are working on memorizing about 50 key elements on the Periodic Table.  

Be sure to practice!  This practice sheet has practice problems for days…with answers.  Flinn’s ion formula chart has most—but not all of the ions.  This periodic table chart of ions has more.  This ion chart should cover any other missing ions and their names.  One more resource…The Chemistry Name Game.  It use cards with hole punched—much like the numbers of electrons which are actively bonding.  It’s worthwhile if the Flinn ions aren’t working.  Here’s hoping this is helpful.  I know from personal experience just how hard it can be to go ot alone!

Don’t buy expensive science kits. Just do more labs!

 Wow!  The social media influencers are pushing more kits and more subscriptions.  Hold on!  Before you panic shop, pause.  These kits are promoting hands-on science.  You can achieve the benefits of hands-on science by just doing more labs, trying more experiments.  Are you using Apologia’s textbooks?  Just do the experiments in the textbook.  Find a project which interests your kiddos, such as casting wildlife prints or build a catapult.  (We shoot ping pong balls.  This time of year you can find ping pong balls with eyeballs.)  Borrow an armful of science experiment books from the library.  Pick three which are achievable—those which won’t require any special equipment or materials.  Don’t feel as though you are short-changing your kiddos because your budget isn’t elastic enough to buy $500 worth of kits.  Any hands-on lab gives your kiddo more STEM exposure.  

Skip a module or chapter?

 Here we go again!  I’m going to ruffle a few feathers with a bit of heresy.  Sometimes it’s okay to skip a module or chapter.  Are you wading through Module 2 of the second edition of Exploring Creation with Chemistry?  Is your teen in tears over specific heat?  (A few of our kiddos have come close.)  Skip it and move on to Module 3–especially if you did Experiment 2.1 and most of the questions.  Really.  The third edition moved Module 2 to Module 12, which should tell you something.  Rob and I are working like crazy one-on-one with teens to get through specific heat and problem sets.  Both of us have loads and loads of experience.  (Rob teaches math.)  This is a hard concept!

You are going to be stumped.  Another example is Experiment 5.1, Measuring the Width of a Molecule.  There is a ton of math and inferences.  If both your teen and you are in tears, stop.  You might want to copy the sequence of math equations from the slide deck to see if the lesson makes sense.  If not, so what?  No one is going to ask if you skipped the experiment.  Ever.

Instead, do your best.  Try to complete two-thirds of the textbook.  Do as many experiments as possible.  Give the tough material, such as Gas Laws a good try.  But, don’t be defeated by a single module or lab and give up on Chemistry entirely.  Put aside the hardest lessons.  Ask friends if they have encountered the same problems.  Did they figure out specific heat?  Could they show your teen and you how to proceed?  Would it be nice to say you worked through every single concept in the Apologia Chemistry textbook?  Sure.  But sometimes you hit a road block. If your teen, your husband, and you have invested hours trying to make sense of a single idea, such as specific heat, without any success, quit.  Stop beating yourself up!  Your teen is still taking a hard subject and you can only do what you can do.

Fall Science Ideas

 If your family likes to use a theme, Fall is a good one.  HEAV has a collection which includes Candy Corn Catapults.  (Some farms open to the public have trebuchets which launch pumpkins. Let me give a shout-out to Belvedere Plantation.  You have to be there to appreciate the pig races or candy cannon.) HST has an Science ebook: Fall Science Projects, which feature colorful, fall leaves.  Be sure to try Leaf Chromatography.  Explain to your kiddos Why Do Leaves Change Colors?  Do you have Littles?  Check out Little Bins Fall STEM.  

The backyard looks more romantic than in reality.  Missing are the three dogs barking next door and the regular thump from the basketball hoop out front—or the two hundred cars in our tiny dog-leg of thr neighborhood.  But, the pond, trees, birds, ducks and geese sold me on this house.  I’m grateful for view!  We wanted a vibrant neighborhood.  There are I’ve one hundred kiddos.  Their laughter outside is like music.

Art and Science

Is there science in Art?  Oh yes!  We like to marble paper and hydro dip painting.  We all had a blast! Below the images are some more ideas.  Let’s layer this year’s science with some art!

Start with some articles: What’s in Your Paintbox? (history and chemistry of pigments), Chemistry and Art (scroll for stained glass glue), Chemistry and Color (experiments with goldenrod paper), and  Chemistry Colors Our World (learn why the sky is blue).  These are collections of articles and activities.

Playtime Paint is perfect for younger kiddos.  What is paint? Pigment and binder.  Make a batch with colorful chalk and glue.  Chemistry of Color has fruity crayons, sweet dyes, and spice painting, etc.  There are brief explanations following each activity.

Apologia Chemistry: Periodic Table

The Periodic Table is central to Chemistry.  Over the summer, my Co-op Chemistry class made element cards, based on this JCE article.  I cannot emphasize how useful it is for kiddos to make their own element cards.  Just writing the names and symbols and adding a sketch helps them learn the elements’ names.

 Here is a copy of my Periodic Table Lesson.  Next watch The Element song.  It’s a classic.

Another activity is Color Code the Periodic Table.  Really, we’re annotating it.   The little kiddos color code.

We do Flinn’s It’s in the Cards.. This lab (with printable cards) is similar.  Below is a video. 

When we go into trends and configurations, I’ll have more posts.  Please stay tuned!

Young Explorers Chemistry and Physics: Chapter 2

 Finally!  I have an update and a few pix.  This year’s Middle School YECP class has seven kiddos. It is lively.  My husband covered my class the past two weeks after I had surgery.  There was no way he would remember to take photos.  Last week, the kiddos made cartesian divers and did the matter wheel.  Rob had the kiddos review all of the terms in Chapter 2.  Today, we did Drops on a Penny (instead of waxed paper).  We also floated yen on a small bowl of water.

Lastly, we put Pop Rocks in the balloon to inflate.  This didn’t work particularly well.  So, we inflated balloons with baking soda and citric acid, which works as well as vinegar.  However, you can add citric acid to the balloon, put the balloon on the bottle and dump in the citric acid powder.  

The last thing we do in class is to write down the projects and explanations in the journals.  We even had time to complete ‘What do you remember?’ before class was over.  The kiddos do the vocabulary crossword and copy work as homework.  I promised be would make Oobleck (cornstarch and water) when we made slime.  (That’s when we’ll review amorphous solids.) I got a few pix.  Take a look!

Pool Noodles

I saw Generation Genius’s ad for pool noodle science ideas.  Do you need to pay for ideas?  You already know how I feel.  This is a variation on the Penny Boat experiment.  You may want to just go with an aluminum foil boat and skip the pool noodles.  Although it does look cool!

 Last June, at Maker Camp, we made Pool Noodle Flingers and Pool Noodle Balance Boards.  (Years ago, my kiddos made PVC Balance Boards at Science Camp.  They practiced on the concrete patio.  What could go wrong?)  Both were hits! 

Instead of another pricy subscription, let’s see what else you can make with pool noodles? Consider a Pool Noodle Periscope, Pool Noodle Play House, and Javelin Throw.  Littles might like a set of Pool Noodle Building Blocks.  The next time you see an interesting ad, use the idea as inspiration. What else can you make with pool noodles?

This week in Chemistry….

 We’re plugging along in Module 2 in Apologia’s Chemistry textbook.  (Module 12 3e)  Below is the post with my goals.

Here is the problem set and here is the quiz.  This should be enough to prepare kiddos for the Module 2 test.

I’m anticipating it will take three classes to debrief the specific Heat lab, teach Q=m*C*delta T, and do practice problems.  I’ll keep adding these posts so you can see what we’re doing and where we are in Chemistry—for what it’s worth.

Code—unplugged!

I wrote a post last January with links, including my knit binary scarf.  Is there anything more unplugged than knitting? Okay, binary crochet.  In the face of all the evidence kiddos need more analog activities, let’s revisit fun ways to code.  Make a Binary Bracelet.  If your kiddo spells out his or her entire name it’s likely to be a necklace.  Make a Twizzler Necklace or just code ASCI with two Twizzler colors.

  One of my Co-op students is currently obsessed with Morse Code.  Make a Morse code bracelet.  Go outside and try Morse Code in Nature.  Coding is more fun if you can enlist siblings or find an enthusiastic friend to code messages back and forth.  What about letter ciphers?  Here is another cipher wheel with instructions and a bit of history.  Here are even more secret codes for kiddos to try.  Print the cipher wheels and coding instructions.  Put them aside in a folder for the next time you are under the weather or your kiddos have had an especially productive morning.  No, I do not have any idea where you can hide Twizzlers or beads from your children.  Although, my friend, Irysse, hid her chocolate in the freezer from her kids.

Co-op: Weekly Post

 Chemistry is my favorite class to teach.  Consequently, it’s fairly rigorous.  As a result there are loads of labs, activities, calculations, spreadsheets, and graphing.  It can be a lot and confusing.  I keep current assignments at the top of Google Classroom.  How?  Don’t categorize the topic.  Leave it as ‘no topic’ instead.

I also created an announcement with photos.

Mainly, these resources are for parents.  My kiddos are unlikely to open Classroom and check assignments.  Ever.  I’m still trying to get all of them to upload assignments.  Really.  But, I’ll share any tip which might help you with your Co-op class management.

The History of Science: Make Your Own Unit Study!

My Chem students create Atomic Theory Timelines to add a little scientific history to Chemistry.  Here is a project guide. But I do want to add more history of science and famous scientists next year, when I teach General Science.  Grades 6-8 seem like the perfect time for some old-school research and biographies.

 Apologia’s General Science Module 1 has an introduction to the history of science.  Here and here are samples of module 1.  Both samples have study guide questions.  Use them with this study guide sample, which has a timeline to complete.  Module 1 is already a good unit study—especially with the questions and timeline.

Online are children’s books: Children’s Stories of The Great Scientists, Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Scientists, Stories of Great Inventors,   Stories of Great Scientists, and Famous Scientists. The next stop is the library.  Good Reads Picture Books Biographies of Scientists is a good place to start.  Be selective: Audubon, Mendel, or da Vinci.  

How can you turn stories into a unit study?  You can summarize biographies of three or four scientists with this Famous Scientist Project Worksheet or this simple flap book.   Famous Scientist ‘Wanted’ Poster looks fun.  Go old school and write a report.  Who was the scientist? When did he live?   What were his contributions to science?  What are some interesting facts about the scientist?  You can select one period of time and create timelines.  Let’s go deeper in science and add a bit of history.

Low Prep Labs for the Win!

This is me trying to be encouraging. I’m on the hunt for a huge variety of low-prep, low-cost labs and experiments.  Why?  Many of you are willing to assign science reading or use a science textbook, such as Harcourt Science textbooks.  Apart from Apologia’s Young Explorers series, many science programs or textbooks have relatively few labs or experiments.  For example, Seton’s science textbooks have good content, but little hands-on instruction. What’s the solution?  Add your own easy labs.  First, would it be nice to match labs with the course material?  It would.  But, in reality, any lab provides your kiddos a chance to tinker and trouble-shoot.  They repeat experiments to see if they can change the outcome.  I’m more interested in your child doing science than matching up with the textbook’s curriculum.  (Bonus points if you do select anatomy labs to go with anatomy lessons.) Take a look at Australia’s National Science Week’s DIY Science.  Invisible Fire Extinguisher is cheap, requires household materials you likely already have, and is dramatic.  What a win! Watch the video below, conduct a scavenger hunt in your house, and give it a try.  Your kiddos are going to have the best year yet!

More Heat

 Chemistry is beginning Module 2 (Module 12 third edition) which has two experiments: calibrating a thermometer and measuring specific heat.  My kiddos are calibrating thermometers at home and doing a Heat Curve Lab at home—part of Experiment 2.1 (12.1).  We are starting Specific Heat of a Metal in class Tuesday, Experiment 2.2 (12.2).  This lab is going to take some time.  I have several metal cubes and cylinders: copper, iron, aluminum, brass, and zinc.  Ideally, the kiddos are going to repeat the trials for each metal.  We need to check on graphing by hand.  Spreadsheets are another work in progress.  Teens tend to do a calculation and enter the answer, called ‘hardcoding’.  Determining and entering a formula is tricky—as is remembering to label columns with units.  My class will do some graphing with TI 83/84 calculators, too.  All this takes time, apart from simply understanding just what specific heat, calories, joules, and temperature is.  I’m going further and expecting them to compute word problems.  This is going to be a slog.  I’ll keep you updated.

National Laboratories

 There are 17 National Laboratories.  Do these labs have science resources?  Yes—but they are highly specialized.  The question is whether or not any of these resources are useful to home-school families.  Maybe?  For example, Oak Ridge National Lab offers a newsletter.  If your teen is interested in fusion energy, superconducting magnets, or high heat flux, you’re in luck!  The May newsletter has a solar pizza oven project.  Yes, we’ve all see this project; however the directions and adaptations are fairly sophisticated.  (Focus on insulation or testing variables.)  

Do you have an exceptional student?  I have taught a few.  One student, Jacob, wanted to explore string theory.  He was eleven.  I’m not sure I was aware of string theory when he asked me about it. Does your child quiz you regularly about sundry topics, such as particle accelerators?  Let your prodigy click on a few sites, such as Fermilab or Los Alamos.  National Labs have outreach programs.  If you have a lab nearby, make contact.  Who knows?  Your teen may want to take part!  In any case, the videos and links might open up new avenues of student for your bright teen.

Low Prep: Cabbage Juice Indicator

 Yup.  Another ad.  This time it’s Red Cabbage Indicator.  This lab extracts the pigment from red cabbage leaves and uses them as acid-base indicators.  Indicators are more Chem and Bio—not Physics.  But, if you’re making a cabbage dish, buy a red cabbage.  Kiddos can prepare the indicator solution themselves in a blender—instructions here.  Stand by for a strong odor.

We use powdered red cabbage indicator, instead—even easier to prep.  I have used red cabbage leaves.   The indicator solution is short-lived—only a few hours.  I use powdered cabbage and mix up a batch whenever we do a pH lab.  It’s just more convenient.

If you have one teen making solutions, use the cabbage leaves.  Much cheaper.

Neuroscience (for kiddos)

This year I want to find ideas for unit studies.  In August, my husband and I visited our son, a priest chaplain with the Air Force, in England.  You might be surprised how many military families home-school.  So many approaches!  When it comes to science, families with younger kiddos often approach it as an elective.  Fine.  Many elementary school teachers do the same thing.  Yes, school districts have a curriculum; it’s the last priority when you are teaching children how to read and learn math facts. 

Surprise that critical relative and explain your family is exploring neuroscience.  There are so many fun projects and activities.  The Brain Activity Book has several classic activities, such as Color Overload (persistence of vision) a brain hemisphere hat, and Color Confusion (Stroop effect).   Project Neuron has 60 pages of activities and information, including a sheep brain dissection.  These packets alone are sufficient for a unit study.  Make Neuron and Brain models.  Save egg cartons and make a spine. Neuroscience For Kids has even more experiments,  lesson plans, and Brain Explorers (group lessons).  The webpage has examples of student projects.  I think a clay model of the brain labeled is fine.

Easy Prep: Cartesian Divers

 I hear you!  More low-prep science!  You’re willing to add a few labs if they are low cost and easy to implement.  Make Cartesian Divers with a plastic bottle and a condiment packet.  Haven’t you wondered how to use that stray packet of soy sauce or ketchup?  Try making a diver with a medicine dropper, pipette and hex nut, or a pen cap.  Use a thick walled, plastic bottle—not water bottles which are easy to crush.  I find 1-2 liter bottles work well.  Fun!

Weather Unit Study

 Yes, weather is an elementary subject.  However, it makes a great unit study for your family!  Take one topic and work together.  Read related books.  Do as many activities as you can stomach.  Try at least three activities.  Document!  Which work samples represent this unit?  Summarize what you learned in a list or paragraph.  Maintain a reading and video log.  Take photos. Decide how you want to present your findings?  Journal?  Lapbook?  Video?  Poster?  This fall is going to be great!

K-1 Kiddos: The Smithsonian Institute (SI) has resources for How Can We Ready for Weather?; the resources include all sorts of weather cards, such as Snowflakes or Water Scene Cards. The program is part of a Carolina Biological kit.  Yes, these are expensive.  Just use the free links with the  teacher’s guide and student book for Weather Patterns.  For example use SI Temperature Writing Practice as a copy sheet. Show children Rainy, Windy, and Sunny pix.  The SI images will really enhance the Weather Patterns unit.

K-3 (maybe Grade 4): Weather Wonders is a five-day program from Start with a Book.  Two components in this unit study are a journal and ‘weather walk’.  There are loads of activities: build weather equipment, tornado bottle, writing exercises, weather-inspired art, solar oven, loads.  Be selective and read, read, read!

GLOBE (all ages): GLOBE literally has tens of thousands of resources.  Let’s stick to clouds. Here are 15 cloud activities.  Here is Exploring Clouds, a guide designed for 4H. This 4H guide’s steps are a good outline for a Cloud Unit Study. The issue is navigating anything related to GLOBE. The easiest place to start with GLOBE is in the Elementary section, Clouds, with the Storybook, Do You Know That Clouds Have Names? Teens can use The Cloud Field Guide and eTraining, which have loads and loads of details.  (Nothing with GLOBE is easy to find.)  Here is a cloud chart to use outside. If you use GLOBE resources, this unit study adapts to the whole family.  Kiddos can focus on cloud names and identification; older children and teens can do a deep dive into the Atmosphere resources.

What’s this weird microscope?

 Below is a dissecting microscope.  Before you panic and think you need to buy one before you dissect in Biology, stop.  I used a dissecting microscope during my undergrad in Bio.  That was the last time.  Since then, I’ve dissected plenty of specimens with kiddos.  We spend too much time trying to locate and peel the gall bladder away to identify to worry about putting the specimen under a microscope.  You can take sections and make slides to observe.  You’ll quickly appreciate the value of prepared slides.  Why?  Whenever you look at some chunk from a liver, you’ll ask yourself exactly what am I viewing.  Raw tissue under the microscope looks remarkably the same.  So, you do not need a dissecting microscope.  If you have access to one, give it a try.  Again, I think you’ll find prepared slides more useful.

Pulleys

 I am all about easy lessons centered on a topic with wide appeal.  Pulleys are usually part of Simple Machines lessons.  See what the library has available about pulleys.

 Teach Engineering has a complete lesson, Powerful Pulleys.  You may just want to try Pulley’ing Your Own Weight instead.  Here, here, here, and here are pulleys with different materials, such as a rolling pin, LEGOs, or a spool from thread.  Here is a harder, pulley lesson for older kiddos. Culminate an afternoon of fun with this Pulley Challenge.  Who can lift the most marbles?  Make this the best year ever!                                                                    

Even more ways to infuse more STEM: low prep activities

 I know many families who concentrate on fundamentals with their younger kiddos.  Science is more of an elective.  In fact, many families outsource science completely at Co-op groups.  Instead institute Make it Mondays or Fun Day Fridays.  You’re going to need easy to make STEM ideas.  Browse Frugal Fun’s STEM Archives.  STEM Hub has loads of easy to prep ideas, such as their classic Bridge Challenge. NASA JPL has easy activities for a broad ranges of ages.  Make a Pinterest Board with ideas.  Keep a box of recycled material in a box in the garage or basement.  Make science a priority.  Set a goal of an hour a week.  This is going to be a great year!

Specific Heat Lab Update

 I like to stay accountable to the online schools.  This post is an update in case a representative or consultant challenges me about whether or not we do labs.  (Yes, I do take strong exception!)  

Experiment 2.1 (12.1) from Apologia include the calibration and  (The Heating Curve of Water).  It was a take-home lab.  However, during the Specific Heat lab, one group noted that boiling water was 80 degrees Celsius.  The kiddo decided to calibrate all my thermometers.

Additionally, I wanted the class to graph by hand and with a graphing calculator.

The teens in the Co-op Chemistry class are doing the Specific Heat of Metal Lab in the Apologia Chemistry textbook (2.2 or 12.2).  One family group of three is missing; one family comes once a week and stays after class for another 80 minutes.  Rhys was in California visiting his sister.  13 teens in my basement classroom is sufficient.

This post is a means to document labs.  I know you ask whether or not I really do all of the labs I say I do.  The answer is an emphatic yes!