Corrections

My fact checker (my husband) has just informed me that all of the Sharper Image stores were closed by the end of 2008 after bankruptcy.

Take the SCIENCE IN MOTION Challenge!

Today being the last day of science, seemed like a good time to do the Science in Motion Challenge. The Science in Motion Challenge has two parts: a series of questions relating to the experiments carried out over the course of the year and a few fiendishly difficult science dares including:

• Float a paper clip in water.
• Insert a sharp pair of scissors into a soap bubble without popping it.
• Have a catch with a bubble without popping it.
• Make soap bubbles that are shapes other than spheres.

Armed with their intellect, a sense of adventure, and their lab notebooks, the kids made short work of the questions, the dares, not to mention my back yard!

It's been a great year - I really enjoyed working with your kids!
Have a wonderful summer!

Rebecca

Science Fair 2010

This year's Science Fair was a big success! Our general scientists did some excellent product testing, the physicists' inventions will no doubt be lining the shelves next year at Sharper Image, and the biologists planned and executed some fascinating projects on the human body.

Here is a quick summary of the results from the biology projects:

• Spinning with your eyes closed made you dizzier than with your eyes open.
• Doing exercise slowed down drinking capacity, more so with water than with coke.
• The effects of static electricity were observed the most in people with wavy hair.
• The right hand of righties was more sensitive to temperature than was their left.
• Boys had greater lung capacity than girls.

Our scientists had a lot more to say than just the bottom line, so please ask the kids about the challenges they faced carrying out projects with human subjects.

Kudos to all our budding young scientists as well as their supportive families and friends!

Physics and General Science: DIY Ice Cream Maker

This week we did a pretty COOL trick....we made ice cream, without a freezer, using our own DIY ice cream machine. How did we do it and what does it have to do with science?

The kids poured the ice cream ingredients (milk, vanilla, and sugar) into a small plastic bag. Then they placed this bag into a larger bag filled with a lot of ice and a lot of salt. The whole business was then wrapped in a towel and then shaken until the milk mixture solidified. The rock salt caused the ice to melt quickly and reach a sub-zero temperature, so that the resulting freezing salt water could quickly absorb heat from the milk mixture, giving you yummy, delicious ice cream or at the very least, a super-cool milk shake.



Here's the procedure in case anyone wants to try it at home.

1. Pour ¼ cup of milk into a sandwich-size zip lock bag.
2. Add 1 teaspoon of sugar and a couple drops of vanilla extract.
3. Close the bag carefully, while getting rid of the extra air.
4. Mush the bag around to mix the contents.
5. Place this bag in another sandwich zip lock bag, remove the extra air, and seal.
6. Fill a 1-gallon zip lock bag with ice and a half a cup of rock salt.
7. Place the double bagged milk mixture inside the larger bag, squeeze out the extra air, and seal.
8. Wrap each bag in a towel and mix, shake, and churn until the inner bag's contents freeze.

Tips:

* Make sure all bags are closed, especially before you start shaking up the bag of ice and salt.
* Double-bagging the milk mixture is important, to help reduce the odds of salt penetrating the bag and getting into the ice cream (yuck!).
* Err on the side of too much ice and too much salt.
* Try to keep the milk mixture bag in the middle of the ice, and especially in the middle of the melted salt water.
* See what happens if you add different flavors like chocolate syrup or lemon juice.

General Science: Genetics with a smile

This week the kids carried out a simulation in which they explored how traits are passed down from one generation to the next in the strange but cheerful species, commonly known as "smiley faces." The kids flipped coins to see which genes the smiley faces would pass on to their offspring. While the kids observed several differences between smiley faces and us - e.g. smileys have eyes that are shaped like stars (maybe that's why they're so happy?), we also noted the basic principles of inheritance we share.

• individuals carry 2 versions of each trait, one from the mom and one from the dad
• individuals pass one 1 version of each trait to each offspring
• an offspring's phenotype (what he looks like) is the combined result of the 2 versions he got from mom and dad - sometimes, but not always following the rules of dominance
  

Science Fair coming soon!

General Science: Product Testing, Day 1

This week the kids started work on their Science Fair projects.
Their theme for this year is Product Testing aka "Which _____ is best?"

Step 1: Choose a product to test...anything from lipstick to soap.
Step 2: Define "best" for your product.
Step 3: (Now, for the tough part) Figure out how you will measure this quality for three competing brands.

The kids worked in groups of 1-3 and wrote out research proposals for their projects that they will carry out during chug over the next few sessions.

General Science: Plop plop fizz fizz...

After last week's lesson on acids and bases, this week we tested a few different antacids to see which one works best. First we discussed what antacids are and what "best" might mean for an antacid. Then we discussed how we would go about measuring this. The kids ground up each tablet and added it to some hydrochloric acid - that's the same strong stuff you find in your stomach that sometimes causes heart burn. Finally we measured the pH to see which antacid was best at neutralizing the HCl.

This week's experiment was more than just an exploration of antacids. It also modeled the types of science projects the kids will be carrying out for this year's science fair. Working in pairs, the kids will choose some product to test and then design an experiment that will shed light on which of 3 different brands is best by the kids' definition. Stay tuned...

General Science: Indicators for acids and bases

This week we learned about acids and bases and three types of indicators you can use to identify them. We began by using red and blue litmus paper to test different household liquids. We were then able to classify them as acids, bases, or neutral. However while litmus paper is useful, it doesn't tell you anything about how strong or weak a base or acid is. So, for example, while baking soda and bleach, the two bases we encountered, score the same on a litmus test, baking soda tastes mildly bitter whereas tasting bleach will land you in the hospital (hypothetically speaking, of course!). We observed that in order to appreciate this without landing in the hospital, pH paper comes in real handy.

Finally we made our own indicator using purple cabbage juice. Cut up some purple cabbage and boil it for a few minutes. The broth comes out this really funky blue color. Try adding it to different liquids - the results are quite dramatic.

General Science: Chemistry in a bag

The kids started off with calcium chloride, sodium bicarbonate (see if your kids remember this compound's common name...it's baking soda), water, and phenol red, an indicator for acids. They put all of these materials in a plastic bag, the catch being that the liquids (water and phenol red) were first poured into plastic cups, which themselves were carefully placed in the bag.

After closing the bag, the kids allowed the powders and liquids to mix, and that's when things got exciting! The kids observed many changes including: bubbles, the bag inflating, the red liquid turning yellow, and the contents both heating up and cooling down. The real challenge came next when the kids had to figure out which combinations of ingredients caused which results.

General Science: The Case of the Stolen Handouts

There were no two ways about it. I took her call 'cause I needed the money. That case was dirtier than a first grader's back backpack and twice as heavy. The broad that hired me told me a couple a thugs stole some paper, and I ain't talking about the kind with dollar signs. Some handouts on "Why does salt taste so darn good?" Only clues I had were four sets of prints and a pile of white powder.

Called in a favor with a buddy of mine downtown and he ran the prints and came up with a list of suspects with records so clean you could eat off of them. Two teachers: Tammy Lefcourt and Devra Lehman, Asaf, the owner of the local toy store, and the damsel in distress herself, Rebecca Perlin. Each one had his own peculiar attraction to a specific white powder. Tammy and her baking powder; Devra, corn starch; Asaf, sugar; and Rebecca, salt.

I let the boys in the lab take a crack at it. They tested the powder with more chemicals than you'd find in a package of Osem soup nuts. Then they looked at it under the microscope and checked if it could conduct electricity. They compared the results to some similar cases they had a while back, and the answer was clear as day.

That science teacher must have thought I was some chump – turned out she was right. It was her and that other broad, the English teacher. One was in it for the thrill the other for the spelling mistakes. Me, I had bigger fish to fry.

General Science: Let your fingers do the talking

This week the kids learned about fingerprints, you know...dactyloscopy. They used graphite from their pencils and transparent tape to record each of their fingerprints. Then we looked at some common patterns and used these to classify them. Finally the kids produced a single "mystery" print which their partners were challenged to identify using the database of labeled fingerprints.

General Science: Which chip is the greasiest?

Purim is over, and like many of you my house is filled to capacity with chips, candy, chocolate, and other junk. As I sorted through all the snacks I couldn't help but wonder...which potato chip is the greasiest and more importantly, how can I be sure?

Today the kids helped me with these questions by carrying out 3 tests. The first 2 were a touch and a taste test in which the kids rated the chips on a scale from 1-5, with 5 being the greasiest. Then the kids performed a more quantitative test where they crushed 3 grams of each chip on a piece of graph paper and then compared the different oil stains. Some kids decided to weigh the paper before and after smashing the chips, some compared how translucent the paper became, and others did their best to count the squares.

Then we tested our TESTS. We read the nutritional information on the wrappers and reviewed our data to see which test was actually the best. Surprisingly the touch test was the most accurate. The kids concluded that the oil stain test could have been improved by controlling how people crush the chips and for how long.

FYI Osem Chipsy Chips contains more fat than Herr's Ketchup Chips or Pringles (sour cream and onion).

General Science: Whatever floats your boat!

This week the kids were given 6 items to analyze. They were assigned to order them by weight, first by guessing, and then by measuring the weights with a scale. The kids were pretty surprised by how wrong their guesses were. We wondered why it was that some things, like say, a large piece of styrofoam "feel" lighter than others when they actually weigh more. We got some clues when we moved on to part two of the lab: testing each item to see if it floats or sinks in water. Wouldn't you know it, the things the kids thought were light, were floaters, and the things they thought were heavy, were sinkers. However, contrary to our expectations, whether something sinks is NOT simply about weight.

Then each kid was given a lump of clay. After observing that it too was a sinker, they were challenged to build a boat out of said sinking clay, and not just that, but a boat that could carry cargo (any number of marbles, also sinkers). After some trial and error, the kids figured out which shapes worked best.

General Science: Physical and chemical properties

This week we continued our exploration of physical and chemical change by investigating 4 different white powders: sugar, salt, potato starch, and baking soda. The kids used microscopes to collect data on how these substances appear magnified 100X. They also tested and recorded if and in what way each one reacts with vinegar, iodine, and whether or not they conduct electricity when dissolved in water. Each kid now has a fairly comprehensive data sheet on these substances and their physical and chemical properties. If by chance, they should come into contact with some unknown white substance, you can rest assured, they've studied them extensively and will have no problem making an identification.

One never knows when these skills and/or data might come in handy...

General Science: Iodine as Indicator

This week the kids learned how to use an INDICATOR, a compound that changes color when it comes in contact with a particular substance. The kids were given around 10 different foods to test using iodine, an indicator that changes from orange to black on contact with starch. As they made their way through the food samples (testing them, not eating them), they were able to refine guesses about what starches have in common. Finally, we concluded that starches come from plants and are how plants store simple sugars.

Afterward we discussed how simple sugars are connected by chemical bonds to make complex sugars and conversely, how the chemical bonds within complex sugars are broken to produce simple sugars. Try chewing on a cracker for a few minutes (works best with unsalted ones), and you'll notice a sweet taste in your mouth that results from your saliva breaking down the starch into simple sugars.

General Science: It's a gas!

For our experiment this week, we did an oldie but a goodie...
what happens when you mix baking soda and vinegar?

Having some experience with making volcanoes or otherwise messing around in the kitchen, the kids guessed correctly that the combination would produce, in their words, "AN EXPLOSION!!!" (Aren't you glad this happens at my house and not yours?!)

This week we took it one step further to show that the combination of baking soda and vinegar produces a gas that can put out a fire. Passing a lit candle over baking soda had no effect on the flame. Same deal for the vinegar, but when you combine the two, and you get your EXPLOSION (i.e. bubbles), passing the candle over extinguishes the flame. Why does this happen? Mixing baking soda and vinegar is a chemical reaction, and as such, produces something new, carbon dioxide. That's what the bubbles are, and they have the property of putting out a fire and that's why they carbon dioxide in an actual fire extinguishers. Cool, huh!?

Skeletons in your closet

I love chanukah! Lighting the menorah, eating latkas, and of course let's not forget the gifts. On day 6, I received the best gift ever...an animal skull! Two kids were hiking in the Carmel forest and came upon this beauty and managed to lug it home. Too good an opportunity to pass on, we skipped the usual physics and did some skeletal analysis. The kids examined a couple different skulls and mandibles and used their observations to infer a number of things about the animals including: what they ate, how they walked, and what they used more: smell or sight.
Finally they made educated guesses about the identities of the skulls. I will be consulting with my friend Efrat, the vet, to get a final verdict. Look at the 2nd picture to see if you can id the skulls.

General Science: Iron and Sulfur

Last week we started some chemistry. The kids carried out an experiment in which they explored the properties of sulfur and iron using a microscope and a magnet. Then they combined the 2 elements and determined whether they had performed a physical change or a chemical change.

Here are some of the high points of their results:

iron: black, magnetic
sulfur: yellow, smelly, not magnetic
iron + sulfur: grayish yellow, smelly, BUT easily separated from each other with a magnet

Physical or chemical....you decide!

General Science: The Right Stuff

This week the kids had to design a spacesuit that could withstand the intensely high temperatures one might find on Venus. Lacking the funding to actually travel to Venus and not wanting to violate the Helsinki Declaration (ethical principles for research on human subjects), we used shlukim instead of people and boiling water instead of Venus. The kids decorated their cold-blooded subjects and then dressed them in spacesuits they designed from a range of materials including aluminum foil, plastic wrap, and inflated zip-lock bags. The subjects were then placed in boiling water for 1 minute. Afterward, the kids opened up each shluk and measured the liquid's temperature to see which one was wearing the best-insulated space-suit.