Science Resources and Competitions

Our family attended Science in Indiana last weekend and picked up lots of great information on science resources available to anyone. I thought I would pass this information along to my readers.

Resources

Entomology at Purdue: tons of resources including forensic entomology
Purdue University The Nature of Teaching: lessons plans, printables, photos, and workshops

Science News: concise, credible science news
Science News for Kids: for kids ages 9-14

You Be the Chemist: Activity Guides for K-4 and 5-8 (cost is $10)

Competitions

Broadcom MASTERS (Math, Applied Science, Technology and Engineering for Rising Stars): for 6-8th grades
Intel International Science and Engineering Fair: for grades 9-12
Intel Science Talent Search: for high school seniors top prize is $100,000
You Be the Chemist Challenge for 5-8 grade students

Exploring Music and Science with a Wind Organ

I love recycled crafts especially those that cover multiple areas of study. These recycled wind organs cover music, art, and science. It took us a while to collect up enough plastic bottles because we are not big plastic users, but we finally gathered enough plastic to make this cool wind organ.

A wind organ will make music when the wind blows. Our wind organ did not make a loud sound, but you could hear it if you were standing about 1-2 feet away from the organ which was a nice treat when we were working in the garden.

We used alcohol based markers (Sharpie®) to decorate the bottles. The marker seems to be holding up well even after getting wet.

You can use these wind organs for some science exploration for your children. Some questions to ask them as they blow into individual bottles:

1.       Which bottles make a high pitch sound?

2.       Which bottles make a low pitch sound?

3.       What do you notice about the holes of the bottles with a low pitch sound?

4.       What do you notice about the holes of the bottles with a high pitch sound?

We ended up with a nice discussion on how our simple wind organ works vs  a pipe organ.

For more information on a how a pipe organ works, please visit Pipedreams® website. 

For more information on wind organs including sound files from different wind organs please visit Pastorgan. 

Materials inspired by Plastorgan

Assorted plastic bottles

Knife

Scissors

Sharpie® markers

Twine or string

Directions

1.       Have an adult cut a skinny rectangle up the side of a bottle. I did this by inserting the knife in the bottle, then using scissors to cut the rest of the rectangle. You can cut different sized rectangles with varying heights but keep the width at the top and bottom the same to make the science questions are easier to understand for little children.

2.       Color designs on the bottles with the markers.

3.       Tie the bottles to a pole using twine. I found the easiest way to tie the bottles is to tie a loop around the neck of the bottle then tie another loop around the pole that you are attaching the wind organ to.

Posted on Simple Lives Thursday

Mushroom Hunting

We went on a super cool field trip this morning. We went mushroom hunting! We did not find a lot of mushrooms, but we had a blast. We had an excellent guide that knew every plant that we came across on our hike. Here is the fungus that we saw on our hike:

Unidentifiable little brown mushroom:

Rhizomorphs which kills trees, so this is bad news for our forest:

Phellinus robiniae growing on a black locus tree:

Paper Mâché Bluebirds

We have been continuing to work on our bluebird studies. I decided to take a big leap and have us attempt paper mâché bluebirds.  For me this is a big step in our homeschool because I am not particularly artistic, and this is a very messy multi day project. I was nervous to say the least, but how could I turn down trying the beautiful paper mâché birds as seen on Art For Small Hands?  Little BBQ had been requesting more three dimensional projects, so I thought this would be a nice creative project to attempt. Our birds came out surprisingly cute even though we forgot to use card board for the tail feathers.

We used regular all purpose flour and water for our paper mâché, and we attempted to fill in some of the holes left by the newspaper with dryer lint pulp mixed with our mâché paste. The dryer lint pulp was also good for forming a beak. We used Crayola washable tempura paints to paint the birds which did not completely cover the newspaper which really bothered me at first, but then I realized that seeing the newspaper under the paint gave the bluebirds a Jasper Johns feel. We did not put wire legs on birds because I did not feel that Little BBQ had the coordination to bend wire right now without hurting himself. Instead we opted to put our bluebirds on nests made from paper Easter grass.

For bluebird inspiration we used the kids book from the North American Bluebird Society, a photo from the blog Content in a Cottage, and a gallery on 12 beautiful bird photos. 

Materials

Newspaper, cut into strips and 1 whole piece for the body

Thin card board

Scissors

Half inch masking tape

Bowl

All purpose flour

Water

Dryer lint

Crayola washable tempura paint

Paint brushes

Rinsing bowls

Paper towels

Card board box large enough to fit the bluebirds

Goggles or safety glasses

Spray polyurethane

Easter grass

Directions

Day 1:

1.       Wrinkle the whole sheet of newspaper into a ball to form the body of the bird. You can shape the ball into more of a tear drop shape which is close to a bird shape than a ball.

2.       Cut the wings and tail feathers out of cardboard using the scissors. Use your bluebird pictures for inspiration. We cut a semicircle for the wings which was probably not the best shape to use. Next time I think I would cut each wing individually.

3.       Tape the wings and tail feathers to the newspaper body of the bird with the masking tape.

4.       In a bowl, make a paper mâché paste with flour and water. We used 1 part flour to 2 parts water for our paper mâché paste. You can make your paste a little thinner or thicken depending upon your preferences.

5.       Dip the newspaper strips into the paste and wipe off the excess paste. Drape the newspaper strip on the bluebird.

6.       Continue with step 5 until the bluebird is completely covered.

7.       Dip the dryer lint into the paper mâché paste to form clay like substance.

8.       Use the dryer lint putty to fill in holes in the paper mâché and to form small details like the beak.

9.       Allow the bluebird to dry. We dried our bluebirds on a plate. We dried the bluebirds on their belly which was a mistake because we ended up tearing a little bit of the paper mâché when lifted up the blue birds after they dried. Net time I would have let them dry on the flat surface of their wings.

Day 2:

10.   Paint the bluebirds. We made male Easter bluebirds using photos for inspiration. In general, male Easter bluebirds have a blue head and wings, a white stomach, an orange neck and a black beak.

Day 3:

11.   Place the bluebirds in a cardboard box. Spray the bluebirds with spray polyurethane while wearing goggles or safety glasses. Follow the directions on the spray can for best results.  I did this part for Little BBQ outside because I was not comfortable with him using the polyurethane. Allow the bluebirds to dry.

Day 4:

12.   Display the bluebirds on a nest of Easter grass.


Posted on Link and Learn, Science Sunday, 

Building Secondary Cavity Nesting Bird Nests: Bluebird, House Wren, Tree Swallow, Carolina Chickadee, House Sparrow

We have been studying birds as part of our nature study in the past few weeks. In particular, we have been focusing on the Bluebird. Bluebirds are secondary cavity nesters meaning that they can not build their own nests. Instead they find homes that woodpeckers (primary cavity nesters) or humans leave behind for them. Bluebirds are part of the Sialia genus of the thrush family. Gardeners love Bluebirds because they are primarily insectivores (insect eaters) and dine on garden pests.

The trouble is that many other birds will also reside inside of a Bluebird house, so it is important to be able to identify birds by their nests. Some other birds that can make their home in a Bluebird house are House Wren, Tree Swallow, Carolina Chickadee, or House Sparrow. For the Bluebird enthusiast, there is only one type of bird that really poses a threat and that is the House Sparrow. The House Sparrow is not native to the US and is very aggressive. The House Sparrow can and will kill a Bluebird. The House Sparrow has been partially blamed for declining Bluebird numbers along with humans destroying their habitat.

To help Little BBQ learn about potential birds that can make their home in small cavities we decided to do a hands on project where a built sample nests from secondary cavity nesters. Each type of bird has an unique nest. We built out nests in foam cups with one side cut open so you can see inside the "cavity."

Eastern Bluebird Nest

Materials:

dry grass
pine needles

The details:
One or both types of materials maybe used depending upon availability. The nests do not fill up the entire cavity, so there is plenty of head space in this cavity.

House Wren

Materials:
twigs
finer plant material (we used crumbled leaves)
feathers (we used paper feathers since we could not find any real ones outside)

The details:
The bulk of the nest is composed of twigs with some feather and finer plant material lining the inside of the nest as well. The cavity is usually filled to the top.

Tree Swallow

Materials:
grass
feathers (we used paper feathers)

The details:
The bulk of the nest is made out of grass with feathers lining the top. The nest has lots of head space and does not fill up the entire cavity.

Carolina Chickadees

Materials:
moss
very fine plant fibers (we used crumbled leaves)
animal hair
dryer lint

The details:
A Carolina Chickadee is flexible about what type of material the bird is willing to use to build its nest. We used animal hair, dryer lint, and crumbled leaves for our nest since we could not find any moss in the backyard. A Carolina Chickadee builds small soft nests that are meticulously built. A Carolina Chickadee is most likely to settle in a Bluebird house.

House Sparrow

Materials:
straw
paper
string
cloth

The details:
The House Sparrow will fill their cavity to the brim with a wide assortment of found materials.

References
"House Sparrow Kills Eastern Bluebirds" Journal of Field Ornithology. Summer 1984. pp 378-380.
North American Bluebird Society Educational Packet: information on nests found on pages 18-19

Photo Credits
All "nests" were taken by me
Bluebird Photo: Ken Thomas released to public domain
House Wren Photo: Calibas released under GNU Free Documentation License 
Tree Swallow Photo: John Benson released under Creative Commons
Carolina Chickadee Photo: Dan Pancamo under Creative Commons
House Sparrow Photo: Photo by DAVID ILIFF. License: CC-BY-SA 3.0

Freezing Art

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For Christmas I got the kids some liquid water colors because I was tired of struggling to get the water color pellets to produce nice vibrant colors that I had seen on so many art teacher blogs. Our first project with the new liquid water colors was a science experiment on freezing. I got the idea from the book, Science Arts by MaryAnn Kohl and Jean Potter. The book is fantastic. The book uses art projects to explain science concepts. This book is great for a child who loves art or a child that is weary of science.

In this experiment, the concept of diffusion is explored when children paint on a wet piece of paper with water color paints. Diffusion is when the paint molecules spread. Then, the concept of freezing is explored when you place the painted piece of paper is placed outside in freezing temperatures or in the freezer. When freezing occurs, the water molecules line up into organized structures to create sheets of ice. We took the experiment one step further and watched the paper thaw again in the house. In this case you can watch the paint become more diffuse again causing the intensity of the paints to diminish as the pigments in the paint spread out over the piece of paper.  I recommend taking pictures of your paints before freezing, after freezing, and after thawing to see how much the paint diffuses. The results with liquid water colors can be really stunning. This experiment is appropriate for preschool to early elementary aged children. My toddler also participated, but she does not have a concept of diffusion yet.

Science concepts explored in this experiment: diffusion, freezing, states of matter (liquid and solid), thawing

Materials modified from Science Arts p 101

White paper

Water

Liquid water colors

Cookie sheet

Plastic wrap

Freezer or freezing temperatures outside (we put out paintings outside)

Directions

1.       We the white piece of paper. You want the entire paper wet.

2.       Paint the wet piece of paper with liquid water colors. I recommend taking a picture of your work after this step. Observe how the paint diffuses outward as you paint.

3.       Place the piece of paper on a cookie sheet and place a piece of plastic over the painting.

4.       Place the painting outside or in the freezer.

5.       After 12-24 hours, remove the plastic wrap from the painting and observe the ice crystals. I recommend taking a picture now.

Miss Bubbles': painting a wet piece of paper

After freezing:

The ice up close:

After thawing:

Little BBQ's painting:

After freezing:

After thawing:

Posted on We Love to Paint

Crystal structures and catching CO2 with Sponge Candy

I really love science, and I love cooking, so it seems natural that I keep teaching Little BBQ lots of science in the kitchen. This time I took my Daring Bakers challenge which was candy this month and turned it into a science experiment for Little BBQ. Sponge candy is a very simple candy to make with lots of interesting science.

Basically sugar is heated to a high temperature where it turns into the “soft ball stage” then baking soda (Sodium bicarbonate [NaHCO3]) is quickly added to the hot sugar. The heat from the hot sugar causes the baking soda to release carbon dioxide bubbles. Then, the candy is quickly cooled and the carbon dioxide bubbles get trapped in the candy and the sugar does not have time to line up into ordered crystal structures. Another trick to sponge candy is that you add an interfering agent that contains high levels of fructose like corn syrup or honey. The interfering agent helps to prevent the sugar from lining up and making hard crystal structures that gives some candy a grainy texture.  Instead the sugar will look glassy and disorganized under a microscope.

For our little experiment we took microscope pictures of sugar as our control. Then, we made the sponge candy. We made sure that we had holes in our candy. Then, we placed the sponge candy back under the microscope to see if the sugar had enough time to make organized structures. It appears that we made our sponge candy properly because we found air pockets from the CO2 and glossy, disorganized sugar structures.

Little BBQ got so into this experiment and the science behind it that he wanted to know more, so I drew a picture of sugar at the molecular level. I let him color all the carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen atoms different colors, and we counted how many bonds each atom has connected to it to make general rules about hydrogen bonds, carbon bonds, and oxygen bonds. I am very proud of Little BBQ on this experiment. For the sponge candy recipe, please see my cooking blog post on sponge candy.

More microscope images of sponge candy:

Field Trip: Indiana Medical History Museum

Our family decided randomly to take a day to trip to Indianapolis to visit the Indiana Medical History Museum, and we are glad that we did. The museum is nestled in a rougher part of Indianapolis. In fact when we were driving there we were wondering if we wrote down the directions wrong or if we got the wrong address, but sure enough the museum was actually there inside of a fenced in property on a run down side of Indy. The museum is housed in an old pathology building built in 1895. The building was part of the very large Central Indiana Hospital for the Insane that at one point treated between 3,000-3,500 people at one time.

The museum costs $5 for adults, $1 for children 6-18, free for children under 6, and $3 for university students. The museum is open from 10 am – 4 pm Thursday through Saturday with the last guided tour starting at 3 pm. Group tours of 10 or more are allowed on Wednesday-Saturdays if scheduled in advance. Everyone who enters the museum will receive a guided tour because the museum curators do not allow people to walk around by themselves. The museum was well worth the money. There are many artifacts and the curators know a lot of information and are more than willing to share what they know.

The museum mainly houses pathology equipment, but it does house some other medical related artifacts like an infant iron lung or negative pressure ventilator to treat polio (poliomyelitis) when patients become paralyzed and are unable to breath by themselves.

infant iron lung

The building also houses a seated auditorium where medical students listened to lectures. Older medical institutions had standing lecture halls where students would stand while listening to medical lectures.

auditorium

Once a person enters the pathology building, they had already passed away, and they were there to have their body dissected to determine the cause of death and to perform any research. A body would be placed on an exam table that was tilted slightly so any fluids released during the examination would drain off the table and onto the floor. The fluids would eventually find their way to the drain in the floor. The fluids would be released directly into the city sewage. During the examination, the physician would speak his notes into a pipe that lead upstairs for another person to take his notes during the procedure. During the early 1900s, there were no standards about record keeping; so many notes are missing a patient’s gender, age, and cause of death (all records are sealed due to HIPPA so no records can be browsed at the museum).  

dissecting table

The physicians who worked at the pathology building did tremendous amounts of work. These physicians had to be some of the hardest working and skilled people that I have ever seen. The quality of their slides is impeccable. Their preserved brains are in fantastic condition. Many of the medical instruments were hand cranked. Today we take a few tubes and plop it into a centrifuge that has controlled temperature settings, speed setting, and time settings. Many of the centrifuges in the early 20^th century were hand cranked. The museums curators hypothesize that psychiatric patients would come down and help hand crank the instruments in exchange for minimum wage.

During the early 20^th century in Indiana, psychiatric patients were wards of the state. Their medical care and meals were all paid. If the patients worked in the hospital, then they also received minimum wage. The curators noted that most of the “mentally ill” were not ill in the same way that we envision mentally ill today. Most of the patients were overwhelmed with their situations. For most patients, if they did not grow enough food, then their family died. This is a stressor that is unknown to most of America today. Patients who entered the hospital in the early 1900s were rehabilitated mentally and were also given the opportunity to learn a new skill or earn money as a patient to help their families. Patients would learn bread baking, clerical work, and other skills.

Looking at the medical equipment, you can really appreciate how far we have come in the medical field. Cryostats are used to slice tissue into equal sized slices so they can be mounted on slides. A modern cryostat has a light and a temperature setting. You can take your time when slicing your tissue. In the early 1900s the cryostat has to be sharpened by hand. Then it had become cold. The curators hypothesized that the instrument was made cold by placing it in a freezer. The tissue sample had to be frozen as well and mounted on a piece of paraffin. Then, the tissue sample was sliced very quickly before the instrument warmed up too much and the sample turned to mush. Working a cryostat was a work of art. A single cryostat had over 1000 page manual on the operation and maintenance of the instrument. Whole medical school lectures covered the topic. The curators hypothesized that the physicians that worked at the pathology building had figured out ways to put down on the number of steps suggested in the manuals because they felt that there were physically too many slides and samples documented to be done by the book. Once the sample was placed on a slide, it was died with many of the same procedures that we use today. Physicians back then even worked under hoods like we do today. Of course our hoods have advanced filtration devices mounted on top to keep harmful chemicals out of the air supply. Once the sample was dyed and the cover slip glued on, the sample can last almost indefinitely. The slides were analyzed under microscopes. These microscopes have no light source, so the samples were analyzed by sunny windows.

cryostat

tissue samples

One of the interesting things that the curators learned from reading the physician’s notes and records is that they felt like they were missing something. These physicians were beginning to understand the role of genetics in mental illness. The first question that a patient was asked upon checking into Central Indiana Hospital for the Insane was about family history. The patients could site many generations of people in their family that had trouble with mental illness. These reoccurring patterns intrigued the physicians but they were unable to come up with any coherent hypothesis. Sadly, the records of these patients that could help us better understand the genetics of mental illness have been sealed since the enactment HIPAA (health insurance portability and accountability act). Previously in Indiana, medical records could be used for research purposes after 70 years of date of death, but now these historical records have been sealed up and no one can see them so all that is left is the personal journals of the physicians who worked at the pathology building. I think this is an unintended consequence of HIPAA that has lasting effects.

If you are every in Indianapolis, then I encourage you to visit the Medical History Museum of Indiana. It is an intriguing museum that is off the well beaten path.

Other photos of items of interest

freezer

hood

microscope



real skeletons



Melting Experiment: Molded Crayons

It has been a rainy week here in the Midwest which means lots of energy has been flowing through our house. We decided to make some molded crayons in spring shapes. My mom did this project with me as a kid. As a kid we did the project as an art project, but I decided to use this opportunity to teach Little BBQ about melting. Melting is simply changing a solid to a liquid by using heat. This leads to a discussion about what is solid and what is liquid? We ran around the house and found examples of both solids and liquids.

To get the pretty spring molded shapes we use a candy mold. The crayons were all broken already peeled crayons, so this was a frugal rainy day activity. We heated the broken crayons in the microwave. We sorted the crayons into different containers for each color. It took about 4 minutes to melt the crayons in the microwave. Using oven mitts Little BBQ poured the liquid crayons into the molds. The first time we melted the wax in the microwave we made the wax too hot and melted part of the mold, so you want to take crayons out of the microwave as soon as they become liquid so you can preserve your candy mold for later use. Once the crayons were dry we flipped the mold over and the crayons fell out. Little BBQ went a little nuts pouring the wax on top of the mold and over filled some of the molds, so we broke off the excess crayon after we took the crayons out of the mold. You can remelt the excess crayon again. To clean out the dishes that you melt the crayon inside, microwave the dish for about 30 seconds and wipe away the warm wax with a paper towel (I did this part).

This was a fun project that we all enjoyed. Miss Bubbles enjoys coloring with the large butterflies because they fit into her hand easily. Little BBQ thought that they were pretty. I think we will do this project again when we accumulate more broken crayons.

Materials

broken crayons with papers removed
microwave safe bowls
oven mitts
candy mold

Directions

1. Sort the broken crayons by color. Place the different colors in a different bowl.
2. Microwave the crayons until just melted, about 4 minutes on high.
3. Using oven mitts, carefully remove the melted wax from the microwave.
4. Pour the wax over the mold. You can add several different colors to the mold.
5. Allow the wax to cool.
6. Turn over the mold and pop out the new crayons. Any excess wax can be trimmed and remelted.