Science on a Budget: US Naval Academy STEM

 Over Christmas break, my husband and I visited the US Naval Academy, located in downtown Annapolis. We took photos from a display about STEM.  The display had examples of activities: drops I had never heard about Flinkers, objects which neither sink nor float.  Scroll down these STEM activities for Flinker.  The lab requires a foam packing peanut.  The second activity, Drops on a Penny Deux, is pictured below.  Here is the standard Drops on a Penny lab.  The USNA is different.  The lab also drops water on to Teflon discs.  Read about all of the properties involved in this simple exercise.  Have your kids look up the terms, such as wetability.  There’s a lot of engineering and material science.  Try dropping water on to wax paper and compare results.  Simple experiments can have great science!

Designer Baby Project

 Update: My Biology class focused more on Bioethics than Designer babies.  Look for the Bioethics post for excerpts.

When I teach Biology, I include a unit on Bioethics. Recently, the Wall Street Journal posted an article,  More than a Million Embryos are in Frozen —hard to imagine.  One good  resource is The National Catholic Bioethics Center. One topic is Designer Babies.  Should couples design their own baby?  Our local  Co-op is Roman Catholic.  (We welcome every family; our perspective, though, is Roman Catholic.). What are the implications of designing your baby?  We look at IVF and embryo selection. But, we consult the Catholic Bishops for Church teachings.  One publication we use is Begotten, Not Made.  This publication explains Catholic teachings especially regarding IVF, which the Church opposes.  The kids will examine IVF, gene-based embryo selection, cloning, preimplantation genetic testing, polygenic risk scores,  CRISPR gene-editing, savior siblings, egg donation, and three parent techniques.  Every time we explore the topic of Designer Babies there are new developments with new ethical challenges, complete with sensational headlines.  My kids are going to work on the project in January and discuss the topic with their families in light of the teachings of the Catholic Church.  I’ll post good samples.  BTW, I send out a letter to the families about the project in advance.  Let’s tackle thorny issues in science!

Temu for Science

Ordinarily, I shop with major retail sites for science goods.  Right now, it’s hard to find inexpensive labware even at Goodwill.  I’ve been testing the waters with Temu, buying yarn and felt bins.  So far, so good.  I researched the site’s safety and reliability before placing a small order.  They sell science goods shipped from China at rock bottom prices.  Plan on waiting two or three weeks for your order.  But prices are low.  Take a look!

Science on a Budget: Measure Horsepower!

 My husband, Rob, teaches Physics.  I help him with lab ideas.  When I teach Physical Science the kids do this Horsepower Lab, which outlines the steps to take for calculations well. The lab is free and helps kids understand key energy concepts.  It’s a lot of fun watching kids thunder up and down stairs.  You can make the lab more inquiry based by comparing a student’s horsepower on concrete, wood, laminate, and carpeted steps.  Do extra trials; there is considerable variability inherent to human experiments.    Rob has the kids report the data in a spreadsheet and write a formal lab report.  Have a blast!

Happy New Year! Science on a Budget: Color Change Experiments

 Happy New Year!  Let’s start with some science experiments!  I like color change labs and demos.  Science Bob’s Rapid Color Changing Chemistry! uses iodine, Vitamine C tablets, liquid starch, and hydrogen peroxide, household chemicals you may have on hand.  (This Unknown Lab uses loads of household chemicals, such as iodine, to test for unknowns.  Do the Elephant’s Toothpaste lab to use up the hydrogen peroxide.). Are your kiddos still small?  Try Walking Rainbow with Mouse Paint or Rainbow Fish.  STREAM adds reading and art to science experiments.  Try making Marbled Cards or the Red Cabbage Acid-Base labs.  I buy powdered red cabbage for pH labs; but it’s pricey.  Try blending the red cabbage leaves in water or rubbing alcohol.  The pigment should be used immediately.  

Let the older kids plan an afternoon of color changing science for their younger siblings.  Borrow several rainbow-themed books from the library to read aloud.  The kids might want to set up a skit to introduce the experiments!  Now you are doing STEM Theatre.  Cap the afternoon by painting together with homemade watercolor paint. Look at you doing STREAM education!

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.