Carnival of Homeschooling for the Week of March 4, 2007

This weeks Carnival of Homeschooling will be held at Tammi's Blog be sure to check it out.

Fun with physics

Last week we began using the curriculum from Bite-Size Physics, and have been not only learning but having a great time doing so. Mr. Mueller's first lesson is about the Scientific Method and is presented that in such a way that I can only hope that children are being taught this in the schools because if they were, they'd never forget the five steps: observation, hypothesis, test, collect data and report results. Jim teaches that we do the steps involved in the Scientific Method (the steps, not necessarily a scientific experiment) just in everyday life. For instance (following used by Jim Mueller): You want to write something down and you *observe* that you need a pencil. You then *hypothesize* where one can be located and perhaps a drawer comes to mind. The next step is to *test* your hypothesis which is done by going to the drawer. When you open the drawer to look you are *collecting data* (i.e. whether or not there is indeed a pencil in the drawer). If one is not found, you *report results* to someone that there are not any pencils. However, if one is found then your result is that self evident.

I truly believe that if children understood from early on that not only are they using these steps daily but also using physics everyday (i.e. when riding a bike and determining when to brake, turn, etc.), that they wouldn't be so intimidated by science, KWIM? If children were allowed to experiment the majority of the time, instead of trying to memorize a bunch of facts, science would more than likely become loved, fun and exciting for many people. However, if like me, many of these children are trying to learn from dry texts and always watching the teacher/parent do the experiments...they'll probably have a bad taste in their mouth for science just like myself and many others who have went through the system. Funny, took me into my late 30's to actually find science enjoyable and fun. Thank goodness for home educating or I'd still probably not have found that out. Then again, some children (despite being schooled) LOVE science so much that not even having a monotone teacher for an instructor can deter them from advancing in science and thats great.

Now, onto the main subject...We've had fun with our experiments this past week and Z and B have a firm grasp on the steps involved with the scientific method. Last night they didn't even have to use the mnemonic device for remembering the steps, which Mr. Mueller presents in his materials as: "Orange Hippos take classes regularly."

Our first experiment, The Underwater Presidents, involved seeing how many drops of water a penny could hold on both the heads and tails side. The children observed their coins and droppers and hypothesized how many drops they thought that the penny could hold and wrote that down. Next they tested by dropping water. Z did tried three times on heads and three times on tails and B did four tries for each side. They then collected their data by making a chart showing the coin used, what side was used, and how many drops per side and then averaged. They reported their results to me. The highest Z had was over 20 drops and the same for B...how many can you get? Please feel free to share your findings!















Next we did the Diabolical Diaper Experiment using the Scientific Method (I forgot the camera). Anyway their guesses were spot on for the smaller diaper...both held 2 1/2 cups of water. The brand was Parent's Choice for babies 16-28 pounds. However, the larger diaper by White Cloud held about 5 cups.

Our next project was Balancing the Bird and I'd say that this was the funnest of all the experiments. Using card stock, you draw a variety of bird like shapes with a beak, placing a dot on where the beak will rest on your finger. After that, you start your observation and take note of the weight and shape of your bird, and paper clips. Then, you guess and mark where you think that you need to put your paper clips in order for the bird to balance (via beak) on your finger tip. This is tested by trying and either succeeding or not. You can make a mental or paper note on what worked and what didn't and then report your results via telling, writing or showing your results. As you'll see below we had much success...and our 9yo dd B had fun for over 1 1/2 hours playing with these birds. 12yo Z made his, had success, but was finished upon achievement, lol.

**B had tried four birds previously that didn't work and she credits her success in the picture below to the fact that it worked because she colored and designed her bird...lol




Next week we will be learning about constant and changing variables using makeshift pendulums with various weights, I cant wait. :-)