Homeschool Discoveries

I’ve been meaning share about Miss M’s Robins lapbook and our unit on backyard birds for a while, but I just haven’t gotten around to it.  🙂  This year Miss M (age almost 9, 3rd grade) took an interest in the robins we were observing in our yard and she decided she wanted to learn about them in more depth.  We were only able to find one book solely devoted to robins at the library (that was available — we were on a long waiting list for a couple others that didn’t arrive in time).   Even though Miss M was most interested in robins, we took this opportunity to get books about other birds we see in our yard, as well as a few other nature-related books:

The books in the picture were some of Miss M’s favorites:

• Backyard Birds: Cardinals
• Robins
• Backyard Birding for Kids
• Sparrows
• Why Do Birds Sing?
• John Muir
• Girls Who Looked Under Rocks

We also checked out a few assorted field guides — the most useful one was a guide for kids that focused on birds from our state.  We might buy a copy of that one.

Miss M also requested a lapbook on Robins.  I was beyond thrilled to find an excellent, free lapbook from Dynamic2Moms (Scroll down toward the bottom of the page to see the Robins unit).    Most of  Miss M’s lapbook came from that file:

We also found inspiration and information from the following sites:

American Robins @ Animal Diversity Web

Robins Lapbook and Unity Study @ Homeschool Creations

American Robin @ Journey North

American Robin @ Kidzone.ws

Various youtube videos of baby robins (I forgot to bookmark which ones we watched, but if you search terms such as “baby robins hatching”, you’ll find some neat videos!)

Miss M’s bird unit will culminate with an Ornithology class this Friday at a nearby nature area — though I guess it is really more of a “continuation” of her interest in birds.  Though our formal study for school on birds is finished, she can often be found in the yard or at one of our windows observing what the robins are doing in our yard.  🙂

Linking up with Science Sunday @ Adventures in Mommydom!

Our first few years of homeschooling were not very “sciency”.  Despite our best intentions, we were only half-way successful at implementing a very challenging-to-implement science curriculum called Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding (BFSU).  I tried teaching the lessons, but had a hard time knowing what to do.  We tried having Family Science Nights with Tony teaching, and did have a fair number of those, but not as many as we would have liked.

It also started feeling like science was in a bit of a “box.”   It was a subject we could only learn about at certain times — when Daddy was around, and we had time for a BFSU lesson and everyone was ready to listen attentively.

In the late spring or early summer it really hit me what I found most difficult about BFSU — it was not JUST that it was hard to look through the dense text of the lessons and figure out what to say — but also that there were no visuals or printables at my fingertips.  After complaining to various people about this, I finally thought of my own solution collaborative Pinterest boards (linked to my blog post about it) for BFSU users to join together and find these resources!

Looking through great resources on Pinterest led me to spend more time looking through the lessons, and I eventually decided that maybe BFSU wasn’t so intimidating after all.  And in general, I found myself more excited about science.   And in general, one thing led to another and I realized we were already having a very “sciency” year and liking it very much!

So here are 10 “sciency” things we’re doing (and maybe a few things you can do too!):

1. We’re making the most of the curriculum we already have. For us, that means we’re still doing BFSU volume one. I will be stepping out and trying to teach more of the lessons myself…But I will still ask Tony to help out with some of the demonstrations!  We have only a handful of BFSU Vol. 1 lessons that we haven’t done at all.  But there is so much depth in Volume 1 that given the ages of the kids, we will hang out in Volume 1 for a bit longer.  I also have to admit that after taking a brief look at volume two I am a bit intimidated.  You need Real Science Stuff like a microscope and a balance.  I’m not quite ready for that.  Maybe in 2013!

2. We’re adding some science that Miss M can do on her own.  I heard about Sassafrass Science Zoology late this summer, and I was very intrigued by it.  The price was low enough I decided to make the leap and try it out.   So, far so good!  Now even if life intervenes and I don’t get to as many BFSU lessons as I would like, I know Miss M has something she can work on pretty much on her own.

3. Reading Science Biographies — Starting with Scientists Through the Ages.  Miss M requested this — we’ll be reading one or possibly two of these short biographical sketches each week, and then Miss M will complete (with help) a notebooking page.

4. Interest led science topics (especially for the boys). The boys have been nuts about volcanoes and space recently.  I’ve been finding them printables and books and encouraging them to draw pictures about what they are learning and thinking about.  I love that they are so curious and it’s pretty easy to find resources to keep them happily learning about their current topic of interest.

5. Writing down questions the kids ask — to ask Daddy later or to research.  Despite having had college level science classes, there are so many things I’ve forgotten and many things I’ve never learned about science.  Right now, Miss M wants to know why people yawn and why people (especially young kids) rub their eyes when they are tired.  That reminds me, I still need to ask google the answers to these questions.  🙂

6. Doing “Science-y” fun activities — We did solar oven cookies this summer.  The kids did their own “mad scientist” demonstrations recently.  Tony helped the kids build model rockets last week.  The boys are also perpetually requesting to build robots, so that may be on the horizon as well. I’m putting Snap Circuits on the kids’ Christmas lists.  All these activities bring up fun science topics of conversation.

7. Watching science-related shows/videos – the kids are currently loving Magic School Bus and SciGirls.  I also bought a subscription to the videos at The Happy Scientist through the Homeschool Buyers co-op.  We’ve only watched two videos so far, but the kids liked it (and remembered things from the videos days later!), so I think we’ll definitely get our money’s worth from that purchase.

8. Reading books — I’m actively encouraging the kids to browse through the entire shelf I already have of science-related books, plus looking for new books at the library of course!

9. Random nature study/observation opportunities as they occur (and other outdoor activities like stargazing!).  We found raised monarch caterpillars over the summer, found an amazing big green caterpillar and watched a spider earlier this summer too.  Today the kids brought a “pet ant” inside in a homemade habitat (we’ll see how that goes!).  Nature observation opportunities in the city aren’t quite the same as the opportunities those who live in less urban areas have, but we try and make the most of it.

10.  Science at our co-op.  Not only does Miss M have a science class which she tells me she absolutely loves, and Mr. E will be doing some science/nature topics in his K class at co-op…I am teaching a science class.  I am still surprising myself that I am doing this.  🙂  I am teaching a 1st/2nd grade science class!   I have nine kids to teach for 45 minutes twice a month.  I am going to rely heavily on science lessons that Tony already did with the kids from BFSU, but I am putting some together myself.  I did a “new to me” lesson for the very first co-op meeting, and it went okay!  I haven’t done much group teaching in the past, so I am new to “classroom” dynamics, but I think we’re going to have a lot of fun.

I’m linking up with:

We ended up having a science-y sort of week this past week.  That wasn’t really planned!  I had intended to ease back into the school routine by just adding in history and spelling.  Of course, our science learning this week was mostly just a lot of fun!

Mr. E found the gigantic green caterpillar in our yard on Thursday night.  We had never seen anything like it!  After I very helpfully searched Google Images for  “Giant Green Caterpillar”, I was able to determine that it was most likely a Polyphemus Moth caterpillar. (This blog post was helpful — theirs looked just like ours!).   If it completes its metamorphosis it will become a very large brown moth.  We spent quite a while that evening watching it and letting it crawl on our hands.   We then let it go back on its merry way.  We haven’t seen it since then, but I am hoping it decides to make its chrysalis somewhere nearby so we can continue to observe!

Last Monday the kids planted seedlings while we were at the MN Children’s museum.  They sprouted on Friday and are now even bigger than they were in this picture.  We did a little bit of study of plants last spring, but we ran out of steam before the kids did any activities or demonstrations involving planting seeds.   They have been thrilled to check on the progress of their seedlings each day, and we aren’t even sure what kind of plants they are.  😉

And finally, I am so proud of myself for turning a random question into a real learning opportunity.  Miss M asked me while we were driving in the car on Friday, “Mom, why do pop cans explode when you put them in the freezer too long?”  She was remembering a time a number of weeks ago when Tony put a can of Dr. Pepper in the freezer and it made a giant mess.  It would have been really easy to just google the answer for her (since I didn’t know exactly off the top of my head, other than it probably had to do with the water expanding too much).

But instead, I asked her why she thought it might happen, and how she could teat her ideas.  At first, Miss M thought that maybe it was because soda pop might have baking soda in it, and that maybe things with baking soda are more likely to explode (like a baking soda/vinegar “volcano”!).  She figured out she could investigate that by reading the label on the can.  No baking soda there!  Next she suggested it was perhaps because it was too fizzy.  We couldn’t think of a good way to test that, so I hinted at other ideas.

Finally, she came up with the idea that maybe the pop might take up a different amount of space when frozen.  This is something we could test!

Our Hypothesis: A liquid expands in the freezer and has a greater volume when frozen.

Materials: Water, pop, clear glasses, baking soda (to also test Miss M’s baking soda idea with water), and a marker for the glasses

Procedure: We filled one glass with water, one with Dr. Pepper, one with water and baking soda, and one with “water and baking soda and salt and pepper” (at Mr. E’s suggestion!) 😉 We marked how full each glass was with a marker.  It was hard to see on the glass with the Dr. Pepper, so we added a mark with tape too.  We checked the glasses after two hours and also the next day!

Results: In the glass with the pop, the liquid seemed to expand the most, and not evenly.  The water and water plus additives expanded slightly.

Conclusion: The pop expanding might be enough to cause the can to pop open.  We didn’t know why the water didn’t seem to expand very much.  We didn’t know why it might or might not spray or “explode” out of the can.

Luckily when our resident scientist came home from work, he was able to point out a bit more information.  For one thing, we should have put lids on the glasses so no water could evaporate into gas.  Also, the carbonation of the pop might in fact have something to do with it.

Further internet searching after our experiment was over revealed that if the freezing water takes up more space, not all the pop in the can may be frozen yet, causing some to spray out of the can when it is suddenly popped open.  An “ask a scientist” feature at the DOE website points to the carbonation being a factor as well: “Soda pop is a super saturated solution of carbon dioxide (plus other ingredients). When it is frozen the CO2 and other dissolved substances are excluded from the ice that forms. So one is confining the CO2 to a smaller and smaller volume of “head space” in the bottle or can. If the bottle or can is not strong enough, the CO2 pressure will rupture the container. “

Apparently this may be wrong information: This page at ehow and this site don’t agree with what the “Ask a Scientist” website suggested…I guess we still have more reading to do to learn exactly what is going on with these pop cans! 🙂

Fascinating stuff!  I’m linking up with Science Sunday @ Adventures in Mommydom!