BPP: Science Experiments

One of the most fun things on my blog is doing science experiments. Some of the best ideas we have had we got from Education.com. Last Fall I won their Challenge and I got a $100 gift card. I got a Udraw with that money. It was very cool to win. 

 Education.com Challenge
 I won!

I have a bunch of new experiments lined up for this summer but me and my family have done a bunch of fun ones all ready.

Science Is Fun! (rainstorm on a spoon)

Balloon Blast Off 

Magic Soap! 

Super Science! (light bending)

Annular Eclipse (pinhole viewer)

Water Bottle Sub


What I like best is making videos. Here are some of the funnest.

Balloon Powered Car

 Like Molecules

We even added a couple of videos I made before I started blogging

My super favorite is when we played a joke on my Granny. She is super cool and doesn't mind when I put her on my blog. In this video we were showing that air takes up space. We didn't tell her that my bottle had holes in it, so it seemed like she was doing something wrong.

I can't wait to show off what we have planned this summer

Annular Eclipse

Tonight we got to see a partial annular eclipse. It would have neat to be able to see the best of it. Mom wouldn't let me look right at it it but Dad found a way we could see it with the supplies we had on hand. We also took some shots with our video camera. The color outside was pretty but it looked the sun was broken. Our video looks like it has an effect on it. We had a great time watching it. It's cool that my dad knows all this stuff to explain it. 

Here are a couple of websites I found that talk about the eclipse. They both have great pictures.

http://www.astronomynow.com/news/n1205/16annulareclipse/

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/skywatchers-get-ready-for-the-ring-of-fire-solar-eclipse/

 

Super Science!

Yesterday, I went to an online science class, Supercharged Science. It was about light waves and so much fun. I learned how to make a microscope out of two magnifying glasses. Did you know that there is an owl on a dollar bill? I found one with my microscope.

 The teacher told us why a pencil looks broken in a glass of water. It is because light waves change speed when it goes from air to water. It looks different with different liquids because the light goes at different speeds in different liquids. I used water and dish soap for my experiment.

She also showed us how to see radio waves using a tv remote and a digital camera. It doesn't cost much but we can't afford to pay for the course every month. I wish I could though, there are so many neat experiments to do.

Making School Fun: Making A Cave

Today I made a cave. I love caves they have so many great shapes and colors. This project was for my January science portfolio. Every month I send in assignments from every subject to prove that I did the work and I am learning. My teacher grades those assignments and tells me and mom what I need to work on. 

For this assignment we studied limestone and cave formations. The patterns that water makes as it carves out the cave and deposits minerals is super neat.  My favorite formation is a pool spar. It looks like a gem flower. Here is my cave

A- Stalactites
B- Stalagmites
C- Column
D- Pool Spar
E- underground pool
F- Cave Bacon (very cool)

Here is a link to learn more about cave formations http://www.caverntours.com/KIDSPAGE_Formations.html

Mount Vesuvius Day

Today is a day to remember the eruptions of Mount Vesuvius in Italy. Close to 7000 people were killed when it erupted in 79AD and again in 1631.It is sad that people died, but volcanoes are so neat. My school has neat on line resources about volcanoes but my favorite thing is my baking soda volcano. We use equal parts baking soda and vinegar. To get the red color we add a few drops of food color.

I love Connections Academy!

Since we got our pool back I have been so busy having fun I keep forgetting to write about it. I will soon though. We got our submarine to work and we made a pop rocket and I am building another rocket car. And guess what! My school books came today. I got a real text book for math like big kids get not like the ones you tear out and write in like little kids have. They also sent me a whole art kit in a case and a spiral sketchbook and markers. Plus I got new goggles for science and there are three story books for English not just two. One is about Ben Franklin. I can't wait to start third grade. Well, I can wait because I am still on summer vacation but it is going to be so awesome!!!

Magic Soap!

We did an experiment with red pepper flakes that was so cool. We made a bar of soap magically move them through water. You need a dish with water, red pepper flakes and a bar of soap. 

Float the flakes in the water. They stay on top because water molecules stick together and creates a skin of water. Put the bar of soap into the middle of the dish and the red pepper floats away like they can't get away fast enough. It happens really fast. It's because the soap molecules bond with the water making the tension not so much. So the pepper floats to where it can stay up.

In science for school we did this with black pepper and dish soap. It really looks like the soap can magically make the pepper move.

I am going to add a video to the Science is Fun page. Watch for it.

Balloon Blast Off

 













I finally learned how to blow up a balloon. We spent the whole afternoon remodeling our balloon taped to a straw to try to get it to fly across the zipline. I love how fun it is too see the balloon take off under the air pressure. I love spending time with my mom. It didn't really work well at first but it's how you attach the balloon. Our first ones didn't work because there wasn't enough pressureforce coming out of the balloon The way we attached the balloon had too much friction. There was a lot of wind too. The straw would fly across the line all by it self in the wind. But we did it and it flew all the way across the yard so fast! You can see the video we made on the Science is Fun page. We did this before as part of a science lesson on force but we couldn't make it work then either. I am so happy we got it too really zip.

 

Granny Is The Best

Tuesday I got to go to Bunny park with my granny. She is my favorite person ever. She even helped me with my science video. It was the best day of summer. You can see the video on the Science is Fun page.