Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Physics: Extreme Makeover - Home Edition
So I have this really nice dollhouse. It's 3 floors, with like 6 bedrooms, an eat-in kitchen, separate dining room, living room, and a HUGE yard. Okay, so there's no basement, but there's a den on the ground floor, just off the kitchen. Problem is, it's old and needs a lot of work. You know the story...do I knock it down and start from scratch, or try to fix things up on my own? Lucky for me your kids have been spending the past couple weeks experimenting with different kinds of circuits, so I hired them to do a MAJOR shiputz! They designed and installed fans, light fixtures, alarm systems, door-bells, and other cool stuff!
General Science: 200 grams of furry love
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
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
Friday, September 19, 2008
Physics: Build a battery
This week we investigated batteries: how they work, how to measure their voltage, and what happens when you put them in series.
My original plan was to have them build circuits, but wouldn't you know it...all my AAs were dead. Pretty embarrassing the first week and all! Luckily I had just gone grocery shopping and had plenty of lemons and potatoes, and the fruit on my grapefruit tree are ripe.
Why was this lucky? No, I did not distract them with lemonade and french fries ... it turns out that with a few strips of copper and zinc, wires, and various produce, you can light an LED.
Your kids are now ready to guest-star on any of McGyver, Lost, or Gilligan's Island.
-Rebecca
My original plan was to have them build circuits, but wouldn't you know it...all my AAs were dead. Pretty embarrassing the first week and all! Luckily I had just gone grocery shopping and had plenty of lemons and potatoes, and the fruit on my grapefruit tree are ripe.
Why was this lucky? No, I did not distract them with lemonade and french fries ... it turns out that with a few strips of copper and zinc, wires, and various produce, you can light an LED.
Your kids are now ready to guest-star on any of McGyver, Lost, or Gilligan's Island.
-Rebecca
Physics: Quizshow Pt. II
This week the kids finished their quizboards - hopefully by now you've see them, played them, and hopefully not broken them!
This was NOT an easy project. It took a lot of patience and attention to detail, checking and rechecking connections in the circuits, but in the end it paid off. "Operation's" got nothing on these quizboards.
I've posted this week's quiz. http://www.scienceinmotion.co.il/blog/
Please encourage your kids to take the quiz and not to forget to sign in at the end. No, you won't be inundated with spam as a result. Signing in just allows me to track their scores, so they can get prizes. What are the prizes? Something between a taffy and a trip to Hawaii.
If you haven't already, please register your kids and send in checks next week. Those kids who aren't fully registered by next week will have to work off their debt at the Large Hadron Collider where they will be forced to collide opposing beams of protons (one of several types of hadrons) with very high kinetic energy in order to explore the validity and limitations of the Standard Model, the current theoretical picture for particle physics.
Have a great week!
-Rebecca
This was NOT an easy project. It took a lot of patience and attention to detail, checking and rechecking connections in the circuits, but in the end it paid off. "Operation's" got nothing on these quizboards.
I've posted this week's quiz. http://www.scienceinmotion.
Please encourage your kids to take the quiz and not to forget to sign in at the end. No, you won't be inundated with spam as a result. Signing in just allows me to track their scores, so they can get prizes. What are the prizes? Something between a taffy and a trip to Hawaii.
If you haven't already, please register your kids and send in checks next week. Those kids who aren't fully registered by next week will have to work off their debt at the Large Hadron Collider where they will be forced to collide opposing beams of protons (one of several types of hadrons) with very high kinetic energy in order to explore the validity and limitations of the Standard Model, the current theoretical picture for particle physics.
Have a great week!
-Rebecca
Physics: Quizshow!
This week the kids started to build quizboards.
What's a quizboard? A quizboard is a game in which you try to match up questions with the correct answers. If you succeed, a light bulb turns on, and if you get the question wrong, nothing happens. Interestingly, all my groups, without exception, wanted to add features to the quizboard that would punish players with a beep or even a shock for wrong answers. Needless to say, we went with the simpler design. Anyway, psych experiments aside, the kids had a great time, and next week they'll be finishing up and bringing their quizboards home.
What's a quizboard? A quizboard is a game in which you try to match up questions with the correct answers. If you succeed, a light bulb turns on, and if you get the question wrong, nothing happens. Interestingly, all my groups, without exception, wanted to add features to the quizboard that would punish players with a beep or even a shock for wrong answers. Needless to say, we went with the simpler design. Anyway, psych experiments aside, the kids had a great time, and next week they'll be finishing up and bringing their quizboards home.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
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