Good Ole Vinegar and Baking Soda

Our chemistry study continues, and we couldn't resist this one. Blowing up a balloon with vinegar and baking soda, who could?!

Making Rust and Other Science Fun

 So we've been working our way through the book shown above this year. I decided last year that our science curriculum would be experiment based. The children love it! Each week we do a different experiment and journal about it. This year we are studying chemistry and it's been going awesome. The crew love the experiments and can't wait to see what we'll do next week after week.

 In this experiment, we made rust. Using a jar filled with water, a tablespoon of vinegar, a tablespoon of bleach, and some steel wool.

After only a couple days, we had rust. The vinegar strips the protective coating off the steel wool and the oxygen in the bleach mixing with the iron forming rust. Rust forms when iron, oxygen, and water are combined.

Our Family Caterpillar Dissection

My dear, sweet husband found a caterpillar at work and decided to create a homeschool dissection lesson.  out of it. So he researched, wrote a lesson plan for the body parts and their functions, drew worksheets by hand, and facilitated the dissection! Let's give it up for this awesome homeschool dad!

Chemistry~Things that go poof!

We have officially begin studying the science of chemistry. Fun, fun, fun. My approach to teaching science is like my approach to teaching almost anything else, hands-on and experiment-based.  I have a huge book of experiments and I plan to do at least one each week. First up was a couple of tried and trues, baking soda and vinegar reactions and making bread. We've made a couple volcanoes and played with soda and vinegar a lot, so this time I demonstrated and explained what was actually happening to create the bubbles and fizz. We haven't made bread in a while (grasp!), so they enjoyed this and we learned about how yeast works.

Sea Life Aquarium

Deconstruction!

We've gone to taking apart old electronic equipment here at the Muhammad household. Who knew it was this much fun? The children love it! They got to use screwdrivers and pliers to dismantle a vcr/dvd player and a printer so far. Tariq has been able to explain many of the inner workings and the parts. I'm on the look out for more things to deconstruct for my little scientists.

Science Blast 2010 Wrap-up

The Science Blast was an outstanding success! The children had a ball. We began by dissecting cows's eyes that I purchased from Home Science Tools which is considered a high school level lab. I used the guide that came with the kit to help the children along. They worked in groups of about 2 or 3. Next, we created our own veggie pizzas. Then made ice cream in a bag. This was a big hit. They keep asking, "Is it ready?, is it ready?". I would tell them, "No, keep shaking." The children then made ice cream sundaes with chocolate syrup and sprinkles. The smoking punch was fascinating. I added dry ice to fruit juice and foamed wonderfully. Last on the agenda was the rocket launch. After a brief lesson in the laws of motion, we all went outside. Everyone was waiting with baited breath to see our little rocket go, go, go. It didn't go. My husband and I followed the directions perfectly, it just would not work. We tried and tried to no avail. So I sat all the children down outside and explained them there would be no rocket blast today. They of course understood. Children are so forgiving. We went around the circle and everyone commented on their favorite part of the party. Each child left with a certificate of participation and two homemade chocolate chip cookies. Watch out for Science Blast 2011! I'm already collecting ideas.

Science Blast 2010