This past week we applied some of the principles of measurement to a real life question: How can we study a kitten's growth?
Some back-story is necessary...a very cute kitten found its way into my yard, and had the good/bad fortune to be abandoned by its mom, lose its brother/sister, and fall asleep next to my automatic sprinkler. If it hadn't been quite so pathetic, maybe I would have had an easier time ignoring it. Anyway, here I am feeding a 3 week-old kitten with a bottle. Go figure.
Seemed like an excellent opportunity to learn something about cat development. The kids decided to make the follow observations: weight, eye color, tail length, as well as how much it eats and how well it walks. There were a few other characteristics, but Cucumber was getting a little tired, so we decided to give it a rest. The kids used this opportunity to learn how to use a triple beam balance (a kind of mechanical scale) and to think through how you measure something that's kind of frisky (wrap it in a towel, weigh the cat and the towel, then weigh the towel, and subtract the weight of the towel). Hopefully, Cucumber will still be around Oct 28th, next time we meet, so that the kids can do some follow-up observations. I did warn them, however, that there's a chance that Cucumber might not make it, as kittens, like all babies, do much better with their moms, plus we are looking to find him a new home, since Danny is allergic!
Anyone want a kitten?
You can have a peek at http://tinyurl.com/3vxvx4 (These are pix from my PHYSICS groups last experiment in which they "renovated" my dollhouse - see if you can find the kitty!)
Chag Sameach.
--Rebecca
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