Future Learn: Basic Science ~ Understanding Experiments

We have begun our very first Open University course this week.  It is ideal for home educators, and involves simple household equipment.  This is the link if you are interested in joining in:

This was our Potato experiment.  Trying to work out the water content of a potato.  We discovered this potato was fully dehydrated after 6 minutes of cooking in the microwave, when it promptly burst into flames. Using simple calculations derived from the mass difference we established that the potato had a water content of 90%  This was the children's first experience of using a simple xy axis analysis graph.

In the next experiment we looked at what happens to cucumber when allowed to rest in saline solution and distilled water.  We were left with a flabby and lighter cucumber slice in the saline and a denser heavier cucumber slice in the distilled water.  We have yet to discover why....

We have begun our very own field journal, where notetaking is made.  Quite exciting to have something like what the researchers use. We look forward to the next 3 weeks of the course, and probably courses in the future on other subjects.

When looking over the results and the notes we discovered that we were learning about the process of Osmosis and how liquids like to be at an quilibrium but if there is a semi permeable membrane in the way there is a possibility that the liquids cannot pass through from one place to another because the size of the parts are too big - we used a sieve and a colander to demonstrate this on a practical level.

WEEK 2

This week we learned about properties of solids and liquids, and their corresponding densities. Using an ice tray and some liquids as well as a freezer.  See the picture below for our results.

We learned that whilst water in its solid state (ice) decreases in density, and therefore floats, this is due to the hexagonal structure that is created when it freezes which takes up more room than the water molecules in their liquid form.  This is, however, unique to water, and is not found in other liquids, whose solids would sink in their liquid form.  Sadly, as both the extra liquids we chose were water-based - despite my best efforts to persuade them to use other liquids, we only saw this difference in Olive Oil.  The demonstration on video showed this happen with honey though, so the children witnessed this, even though it was secondhand.

WEEK 3

This week we are looking at conditions necessary for living and thriving.  We are doing this with really basic organisms - yeast.

Science day - Plants

Today, with another family, we did a number of explorations and experiments to explore plants and how they grow.  To plan for this day we have been growing beans with different variables changed.

#1 - Demonstrating oxygen evolution during phosynthesis using Cabomba pondweed

This was such fun, we followed a number of the experiments in the linked to page.

#2  Exploring the variables affecting growth on a bean plant

Excitingly our beans planted at the same time about 3 weeks ago showed differences depending on their environment.  The plants germinated at Su's house (warmer and brighter) grew really well, whilst ours failed to thrive. The photographs give an indication of what they were like.  The bean which had been left without water failed to germinate at all, whilst the bean with water but no light germinated and grew quite well, but the small leaves which grew remained small and yellow.  The plant appeared to try hard to find light, seeking out fractions of light at the edge of the cupboard it was in.

#3 Exploring the different parts of a flower

#4 Hapa Zome - Exploring the colours found in plants

Hapa Zome printing is the process of extracting the colour from a plant by bashing and thereby transferring the colour onto fabric underneath.  It was the most wonderful satisfying experience and everyone enjoyed it, including me and Su.

University Science Day

This Wednesday, Evan had the opportunity to visit the Chemistry department at the University for some experimenting in the School's lab and an Electricity lecture.  During the evaluation he said he had an amazing time and he thought all of it was brilliant.  I was surprised at this, as the afternoon was a lecture on Electricity, which, whilst interesting and interactive, Evan appeared to pay no attention to as he was obsessed with making his newly made slime, touch the floor.  However, my husband mentioned to me last night, that Evan gave his own lecture on Electricity to him with all the elements that were discussed using all the terms correctly and giving examples.  He seemed capable of not showing any outward signs of engagement in a topic, whilst actually taking it all in and understanding the concepts clearly.  He is a keen scientist, so the subject matter helped,  but the level at which his mind is working on these ideas seems beyond what I am capable of fully understanding.  Today, I have been reflecting on my role with this.  Everything we come across to do with Science he seems to understand instantly.  Do I, therefore, provide him with as many opportunities as possible to take on board new science things, or continue allowing him to pick things up when the moment or situation arises that it feel pertinent?  I am not really sure.  My instinct tells me that he will find his way to all the learning he wishes in time, but what stops me is the fact that a lot of the learning that he could do with science may require external skills that he has yet to require, therefore needing me to be more proactive in my approach.

I toyed with the idea of postponing the density exploration until science club next month, but decided instead to do it today.  He said to me on the Science day that he has been inspired by the day and want to do more Science work in the future.  He is most keenly attuned to the fact building rather than experimenting at the moment.

Thank you to all involved in the Science day, it really has given us a lot to think about.

Exploring Density

After spotting the experiment on Nina and the Neurons, Evan said that he would like to explore the liquids that float and sink.  So today was the day.  I started by doing a little research, and found this great video demonstrating density towers.

Good as the video was, I felt that simply replicating it would miss a lot of learning opportunities, so decided to get Evan to create his own density tower by exploring the comparative densities of different liquids he found.

He found:
Water
Milk
Apple Juice
Tomato Ketchup
Sunflower Oil
Vinegar
Washing up liquid
Hair Conditioner
Shower Gel
Aloe Vera Gel

I helped him to explore the comparative densities of the the liquids, all, initially compared to water.  So in glasses we poured out water and each of the liquids.  Before each time, I asked him to make a guess, or hypothesis of what would happen. He varied whether he put the water in first or the other liquid.

As I had watched the video, I had noted that it is important to be careful when pouring on some liquids to prevent inadvert displacement of lower liquids.

We decided to use a blue food colouring in the water to see the distinction between the liquids more clearly after a few liquids got mixed up.

We wrote a chart as we went which placed the different liquids on a scale according to their density compared to each other.  Once we had done this we found a few of the liquids were almost the same density as water and mixed up so that neither colour were distinct any longer.  Namely, vinegar, milk and apple juice.  So we decided to use plain water instead.  Next it was time to differentiate between the liquids which had a greater density than water to see which one we should put on top of each other. Evan guessed that tomato ketchup has the greatest density, so trialled this with putting what he thought was the next, which he thought would be the shower gel.  All his guesses were correct, as it goes, and we simply added them in turn on top of each other, even though we had planned on doing separate little experiments to find out which had the greater density out of two liquids at a time.  Here is the result.

We followed this by exploring the density of solid objects so started by exploring whether objects sunk or floated in water, and then moved on to adding oil on top to see if any of the objects had a smaller density than oil.  This was followed by exploring the greater density objects and liquids together with our findings as shown below.

We both loved looking at the different colours that sat together in this way, and Evan loved it so much he decided he wants a photo of the tower from all angles printed out and stuck onto a tube next for him to have near his bed.  We both noted how amazing the colour of the oil looks, particularly as there appears to be a very strong separation between the oil and water, a kind of film makes the oil base iridescent and very golden.  I think we might go on to have a go at home made lava lamps as an extension of this activity.