What are the science posts going to look like for a while?

This year I’m teaching both high school and middle school chemistry classes.  The upcoming posts will have a great deal of chemistry—mainly because it’s on my brain.  I’ll try to think up more original posts whenever I have the bandwidth.  Meanwhile I’ll post pix of the classes—gritty photos from my basement and all.  I’m sorry to have so few of the middle school class.  They are both enthusiastic and lively!   I barely remembered to take a photo of their moles.  I’ll try to get more pix.  Next week I promised labs.  Stick around!  I’ll do my best to think up interesting posts.  Just beware!  They’ll probably have some chemistry.

Look at chemical reactions under the microscope.

I want to get more use out of my microscopes.  I saw a post in the Chemistry Facebook group about observing reactions under the microscope. Below are some comments.

The main suggestion is to observe precipitation reactions under the microscope.  This web page has videos.  Don’t risk an expensive microscope trying to observe precipitates.  Instead use a clip-on microscope, cheap kiddo microscope, or a USB microscope.  

Isn’t the idea of seeing reactions cool?  Now let’s see if my kiddos can capture some images.  I even want to try this activity with my Middke-schoolers.  Fun, right?

Apologia Chemistry: Balance Equations

 Initially, I invest a great deal of time on foundational skills instead of chemical concepts—more how to than why.  Right after my kiddos learn how to name compounds, they learn how to balance them.  Here is the slide deck I use as an introduction.  Mr.Kent has great resources and videos.  This worksheet has an answer key.  Any resources I have I plan to share.  Below are video lectures with my own tricks to teach how to balance equations.  Here’s hoping these resources are useful.

Happy Mole Day!

 Happy Mole Day!  Mole Day begins at 6:02 on 10/23.  It’s kind of like Pi Day.  My husband, Rob, insists that students should bake and bring pies on Pi Day.

Ionic Nomenclature

 This week the Co-op Chemistry class is beginning ionic nomenclature with Putting Ions in Their Hands.  Three teens can only come on Tuesdays.  The twelve year old finished everything early.  Wednesday, Rhys came for the lesson because he’s taking the PSAT and will miss it.  So, when I say we’re doing the activity this week, I mean it.  Rob’s covering my Brit Lit class so I can tutor Rhys.  I start with this Ionic Compound slide deck.  The activity, Putting Ions, was once sold as a Flinn kit.  Originally, the cations were red, the anions, blue, and the ion chart yellow.  The original kit contents are nearly all gone.  However, I bought card stock in primary colors and print the ions and charts.  I make extra for kiddos to take home to use, too. 

I also made a set of ionic dice.  I just wrote the symbols for several cations on red dice and several anions on blue dice.  The kiddos roll the two and write the formula and its name.  Teens may use the card stock ions with the dice to derive the names.

Chem Kate has a similar idea free on TPT.

Nearly every student who uses the ion set finds nomenclature easy.  Really!  A few need to use the ions for quite awhile.  So what?  Here is a practice sheet with an answer key.  Below are more pix from Thursday’s class.  I want to stay accountable.  I’m sure many of you ask if my class really does all of the activities and labs we say we do.

Birds

 Are your kiddos budding ornithologists?  There are so many fun activities!  I bought a dozen feeder kits for next year’s Science Camp, All the Hits! Lowe’s and Home Depot have kids’ kits.  Lowe’s has feeder and house kits.  My target price is $5 because I use them for Camp. Buy them on eBay. You might be able to build a feeder or house from scrap wood.  We are inept and require a kit, preferably easy, predrilled, with clear instructions.

Have  you heard of Identiflyer?  Cards fit into the device and play bird calls. (Be sure to slide the switch on before you insert a bird card.  Ask me how I know.)  The three year old in our lives, Lily, like to take the Identiflyer on to the deck to see if the cardinals will respond.  She also like to torment the parakeets in the breakfast room with it.  I’m using mine with Camp, next year, too, hopefully in a more educatiinal manner than just a toy.   Berlin Bird ID has bird songs, too.  My goal is to learn the calls for backyard birds-other than the crow.

Cornell have loads of resources: Monthly Lessons, Lessons and Activities, Free Resources (3-5), and All About Birds.  So many activities!

Print and post a Bird List or a Life List.  Look for a local guide and list for your area.  

Feeling ambitious?  After all, it’s only September.  Look at this Bird Unit Study.

Friday Funday: Secret Messages!

 Generation Genius has Secret Message.  (Yes, I saw another ad.  This time I tracked the original.)  This version is different; it uses baking soda and blackberries.  Blueberries or strawberries might work, too.  Try this ACS version with turmeric.  (Make sure you have an ammonia-based window cleaner or use sudsy ammonia.  Many window cleaner no longer have ammonia—a base like baking soda.)  Mu favorite invisible ink requires phenolphthalein.  (It used to be a common ingredient in X-LAX.  Sadly forced fed rats developed cancer.  It’s not expensive.  Don’t lick it.)  Go ahead and include the classic invisible ink recipe with lemons or lemon juice.  HST has even more Invisible Ink Experiments.  Won’t your kiddos have fun?

Moles!

Here are this year’s moles.  There are two classes: high school and middle school.  Yes, a few students owe me a mole on Thursday.  Do you think my students are any different from yours?  The two winners are immediately below.  The middle school winner is a bit shaky.  It jingles.  The prize was a bag of tootsie mole pops and Hershey kisses.

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.