underwater viewer

I love projects that I can play with a lot. I really wanted to do this because it looked like fun. We got the idea from my second favorite website, Education.com. It would be my favorite except that even though they have fun stuff to do and we won their contest last Fall, they also have lots of school worksheets. They are fun to do, but they are still school. The project was for preschoolers but we thought if we took video under our pool it would make it more for kids my age. http://www.education.com/activity/article/underwater-viewer/

What you need for this is a coffee can or oatmeal container, plastic wrap and rubber bands. It is really easy to make. Just cover the open ends of the container with wrap and make it tight with rubber bands.

It is hard to see down under water because the light refracts in the water and in the ripples on the water surface. The viewer lets us see what is underwater with all that happening. In my refraction experiment you could really see how much the light bends in still water. The moving water adds more distortion to it.

We did have some problems with the video because the sun was so bright we couldn't see the image of what we were recording on the camera monitor. When we uploaded it to the computer, I was really happy to see that so much of it came out great. We really could see the bottom of the pool easy in the video. I still use it. Mom says we can make another one out of a coffee can and it won't get soggy. We don't drink coffee so I had to wait for my awesome granny to give us a can. 

Ka Blam

Last Summer we did a lot of experiments with fizzy stuff. Things like baking soda, antacid tablets, yeast and fizzy drink tabs.We didn't always get a chance to blog about it.

 This is one of my favorites. We tried all afternoon to get a balloon to self inflate and explode, using Nuun drink tablets and water. 

The water and the tablets reacted so we were sure it should work but it always fizzed out before the balloon inflated all the way.  Dad finally came up with the idea to add water to the tablets instead of the other way around and the reaction was humungous. It was so cool when the balloon popped.

Later this summer we are going to try this again with vinegar and baking soda. I can't wait. I love messy experiments.

How Polluted is the Air?

For Take a Look Back Tuesday, I visted again a science experiment I did at the end of the first school semester. I love my science class because we get to do experiments almost every week and most of them are a lot of fun. I have to write more now but doing it is still fun.

For this experiment we put petroleum jelly on four pieces of paper and tied them up in four different areas. We put one on the road, it is really busy, near the pool, in the parking lot and by the trash area. We let them stay up a whole day and then counted how many particles they trapped. 

I didn't think they would catch anything but they all got dust and bugs. The funny thing is that the one by the trash was the cleanest of all and the one by the pool had the most dust on it. 

I really had fun with it. I want to do it again because the city cut down a lot of trees by my house and I can see dirt blowing around now.