From My Nest

rubber egg {mad science with becca}

It's time for more {mad science with becca}. She's been working hard and searching for some fun experiments to share with you guys. Today's experiment is a simple one: rubber egg.

 

Can an egg bounce and not break?

 

RUBBER EGG

materials: 1 raw egg (in the shell)

                    cup

                    vinegar

                    spoon (optional)

                    large bowl (or an empty sink will also work)

 

Place the egg in the bottom of the glass and fill the glass with vinegar, covering the egg completely. (To help keep the egg emerged, we used a spoon to prevent it from floating.)

Wait at least 15 hours. I know this is hard, but it is so worth it.  (You can tell when you have waited long enough by feeling the egg. If the shell is still a bit hard, you need to keep it in the vinegar longer.  If it's soft and rubbery, it's done!)

Once it's done, remove the egg from the cup. Try dropping it in the sink or a large bowl.

 

GOO {mad science with becca}

Welcome to Mad Science with Becca! First we will show you how to make Goo.

This is what you will need:

1 cup of corn starch

1/2 cup of water

any color of liquid food coloring

large bowl

First you pour the corn starch into the measuring cup and add it to the bowl.

Then pour the water on the corn starch.

Add four drops of food coloring.

*WARNING: The color may stain your hands and stay there for awhile.*

Then you mix it together and play with it. We learned that it is easier to use your hands than a spoon.

*WARNING: The Goo may stick to your hands.*

 

Things to notice:

#1 When you squeeze it tightly, it turns into a solid.

#2 When you let it go, it goes it turns back into a liquid.

#3 When you hit it with your finger, it turns into a solid. But if you keep your finger on it for a long time, it sinks as if it was a liquid.

Please tell us what you noticed about the Goo.

The End.

 

stick bombs

It all started with this video that my sister-in-law posted on facebook.

 

"We are so doing this!" was the first thought that I had.  The next day we gathered all the "tongue depresser" sticks that we had and learned how to make our own. (We used this tutorial.) Our stick bomb was only about five feet, but it created enough of an excitement that plans are in the works to make a longer one (it seems that everyone has the same idea and I can't seem to find a store that has sticks in stock).

Here's the basic structure of the one that we chose to do. There are many different variations, but this particular one "lifts up" as it explodes (like the one in the video above).

Of course we had to make our own video of our very first stick bomb. My kids helped me edit it and it has all the fun slow motion and fast forward effects that the YouTube videos have. Enjoy!

 

::dinosaur poster:: part two

I know it's taken awhile, but here are the files for our Dinosaur Poster and a simple how-to on putting it together.

To make it you'll need:

1 standard sized poster board

colored cardstock

5 brads

Con-Tact paper

2 small binder clips

1 large binder clip

Sticky-back Velcro

2 sheet protectors

glue

Dinosaur Poster Cards

Dinosaur Name Cards

Dinosaur Name Meaning Cards

Dinosaur Favorite Facts Sheets

Dinosaur Coloring Sheets*

First I printed everything out on different colors of cardstock then used my handy paper cutter to cut them all out. 

Since my laminator is not working, I decided to save money and use Con-Tact paper instead.  I only laminated the fronts and it seems to be working nicely since the cards aren't handled a lot. To attach them to the poster, I used sticky-back Velcro that I had purchased at a thrift store. 

To make the "It is smaller/bigger than an Elephant" and the "Carnivore/Herbivore/Omnivore" cards, I punched holes and inserted brads to make them movable. 

To hang up the poster and attach the fact sheets, I used binder clips.  The background paper is just glued on to the poster - just make sure you don't glue where the binder clip needs to go (you could also use the same technique to attach the cards to the poster instead of Velcro).

The coloring page is inserted into a sheet protector that has been attached to the poster with brads and I created a frame to cover it up and attached the frame with sticky-back Velcro.

 

So that sums it up.  It's probably a pretty lousy tutorial, so if you have any questions feel free to ask.

 

*I got all the coloring pages from First-School website here.  I didn't like the way their version printed out so I used their images to make my own worksheets and added the names of the dinosaurs on them.  We also didn't use all their Dinosaurs, I let my kids pick their favorites.  They also have links to information about each of the Dinosaurs on the link that I gave you. 

 

::dinosaur poster:: part one

We've been studying dinosaurs right now in science and I wanted a quick, simple way that we could introduce new dinosaurs everyday but still be able to learn about all the other aspects of dinosaurs at the same time.  Thus our dinosaur poster was born and this is how it works:

 

Each day we start off with a new dinosaur to learn about and color in the coloring page.

 

We then look them up in our Visual Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs book (if you want to do this with us and don't want to buy the book, I found that Wikipedia is a great free source for dinosaur facts) and put up the corresponding cards on our poster according to the specific dinosaur we are learning about.

 

 

I have my children write down (or dictate) their favorite facts about that dinosaur.

 

When we are ready to learn about the next dinosaur, the facts page gets glued onto the back of the coloring page and then it is placed in their dinosaur notebook.

 

Want to do it too? Well, so this post did not end up being given an award for the longest post ever, I decided to break it up.  I'll be sharing the downloads soon along with some of our favorite links and books that we discovered.