Apologia General Science Experiment 7.2 Sinking In Ice

Apologia General Science Experiment 7.2 Sinking In Ice

We have the first edition of this book, and I noticed this experiment isn't in the new book, but a dissolving salt experiment is instead.  We might do that one too, but this is what our book has for experiment 7.2

The day BEFORE you plan on doing this experiment, you need to find a plastic bowl and fill it up half way with water and freeze the water.  The next day you can have your student/child put a rock on top of the frozen water.  You must wait at least two hours before you come back to see the results.

Here Dd is putting the rock on the ice, and then 

She placed the bowl, with rock, back in our freezer.

Two-three hours later we were surprised to see the rock had sunk down into the ice

The rock was really stuck / frozen to the ice

I told Dd to really pull the rock....and the whole chunk of ice came out!

Unlike anything else on Earth, when anything is pushing down, or weighing down on ice; the ice will melt a bit.  By being in the freezer, the melted ice (water) would refreeze again.  But, in the meantime, the rock was still continually pushing down, by it's own weight/gravity, and melting and re-freezing.  The rock ended up fitting into a little groove in the ice that the rock had made through this process.

This experiment was showing us how things can get entombed into ice, especially when it is snowing, and the snow is sealing the top, and the ice is sealing the bottom, of whatever was/is laying on the ground.  Our book used a mammoth as the example of a thing getting entombed and survive fairly intact until found.

This experiment was VERY easy, and fun.  

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Apologia General Science Experiment 7.1

Apologia General Science Experiment 7.1

This was a VERY easy experiment, and one that my Dd really enjoyed doing.  Module 7 is talking about fossils---so we made a mold in play-doh and poured in some Plaster of Paris to make a cast.  Dd learned which is which--the mold and the cast.
I found a great video on YouTube on how to do this experiment, which doesn't normally happen, so you can watch it if you go to YouTube.  If not, you can see the basic steps below---really easy experiment to do! and fun!

Just a reminder of the Student Notebook that you can buy to go along with the text book.  I really like how we have to discuss, think/talk, and write in key points.

I also buy the kit with all the supplies for the experiments, as I have previously not done many experiments b/c I didn't have one simple item.  We actually had all of today's ingredients, but that isn't always the case.  

Items Needed:
 plate, play-doh, vaseline, shells or rocks, Plaster of Paris, water, spoon for stirring, teaspoon for measuring water, and water.

 

The directions said to pick ONE item to make a cast of...but Dd couldn't just pick one!!!  Roll out your play-doh on your plate, rub vaseline over your shells (so the plaster doesn't stick to the shells), press the shells deeply into the play-doh, then remove the shells from the play-doh and mix up the plaster.

The kit has ziplock bags with most of the necessary ingredients.

Stirring the water and the plaster together.

You can see the imprint from the shells into the play-doh.  The vaseline on the shells made them come out perfectly.

Pour the plaster over the grooves.

HOURS have gone by, and now the plaster is dry and hard.  Dd carefully pulls the play-doh off the plaster.

This is what our plaster cast looked like after pulling off the play-doh.

Dd washed off some of the gunk.  She now wants to do a lot more casts this week---she is inspired!

Advise:

You can mess up in two spots, that I saw--1) Careful to add just the right amount of water to the plaster.  Our kit said to add 3 Teaspoons to the plaster; and me, being me, added Tablespoons!  Luckily we have a big tub of plaster on-hand and could add in a little more plaster to get it goopy enough. 2) Make sure you wait until the plaster has really hardened and dried---a few hours---before taking it out of the play-doh.  We did fine on this, but I've done a fair share of plaster work and knew to make her wait longer than she might have.

Here is what our resources look like (below).  I know you can buy these items at Apologia's website http://www.apologia.com/, or Rainbow Resource http://www.rainbowresource.com/, or Christianbook.com http://www.christianbook.com/ 

Exploring Creation with General Science Text Only

General Science Notebooking Journal

General Science Lab Kit

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Sonlight Core G Week 23 “C” March 20-27, 2016

Sonlight Core G Week 23 “C”

March 20-27, 2016

Giz and Grampy Visit

The tomb is empty!!!  Happy Easter!

Hello Friends!  Giz and Grampy are back in Indiana, unhappily sick with our bug!  It was a very lovely visit, and we are so glad to have new memories with them.  The week went by in a complete flash, and they ended up staying a day longer than they had planned.  They left on Thursday morning, right before we headed to our last classes at LINK homeschool Co-op.  I thought about not counting this as a homeschool week, since we didn't have our noses in our books, but, really, she learned a LOT about so many things that I can't do it.  So, I am counting this as a homeschool week, just in subjects we don't always do.  I wish we had more weeks like this, more often; laid back "doing" weeks. Dd worked with Grampy, Giz, and Dh---not me---which was great for her.

Board Game Evenings:

Each evening we played games together at the dining room table—“Pit,” “Skip-Bo,” Yaytzee, and “Life.”  

Grampy's Work:

The other major (and expensive) issue this week, while G&G were here, was our refrigerator died!!!  Good grief!  We have not had two weeks go by that we haven’t had an unexpected and large expense occur!  I guess we are in a season of expense!  It was great having Grampy here to hook up the water (and unhook the old water) to the refrigerators.

Grampy tried to fix our refrigerator, but it was already gone...he did try!

Grampy fixed not one, not two, but ALL three toilets for us!  He had put new parts in two of the toilets when we first moved here, but the old parts broke in the six months that has gone by.  It is hard to believe all three toilets broke down at relatively the same time.  They each still worked, but they ran and ran and wasted water unless we took the top off and held down the flapper. We sure did keep Grampy busy from morning to evening each day. Grampy worked on the truck almost every day.  Dh and Grampy did fix the transmission hose problem, and took the truck for a quick drive around the drive-way, and the BRAKE hose broke!  They lost brakes to the front of the truck!!!  So thankful it happened on our property, and not on the highway!  So, they had to make numerous trips back to Auto Zone and other car places for multiple tools and parts.  The “flair” tool they bought didn’t work, and had to go buy a second one, that did work.  Dh is back to working on the truck by himself again!  We had been waiting on the truck to buy all the wood and things we would need to make the chicken coop, but Dh and Dd used our mini-van and got the things to make a chicken tractor instead.  We need to buy big sheets of plywood for the coop, so that will probably be on hold while we wait for the truck to get repaired.

Outside Classes/Activities:

Dd had Band and Choir classes, her 1:1 private sax lesson, and her last Government/Nursery/and Cake Decorating class.  We also went to the library twice.  Dd had another big test to take, for her homework this week, in her Government class.  


Seeds, Planning, and Planting:

The organic medicinal herb farmer : the ultimate guide to producing high-quality herbs on a market scale

Dd and Giz went to SEED shopping and started four containers of seeds for her future garden.  She has done a good job keeping her seeds misted with water and quite a few have already sprouted. 



Giz and Dd brought in a long table into the “Sun Room” for her new plants.  Dd has checked out “The Organic Medicinal Herb Farmer..” and has been planning out which herbs she wants to grow this summer.  She has been really studying this, and very keen to get started.  It was really nice of G&G to buy her the soil and seeds, so she could get going on it this week.

Fires and Grilling: Dd also made and grilled hamburgers for us all. 

 She loves making fires and kept the wood stove going in the outbuilding for Grampy, to keep him warm while he worked on the truck, and doing well on her grilling.  *Some people* get black on their hamburgers, and it is her goal to not burn any!  She does a good job getting them just right!

Work Tour:
Dh took all of us to his work and gave a tour.  He showed how various machines worked, and turned things on for us.  It was like a mini field trip, for just us!

We took Giz and Grampy to church with us last Sunday, and they enjoyed our little congregation.


Genealogy:

Dd got G&G to go through tons of photos and write down who was who on the back.  Dd has been very keen to study the family genealogy, and they were happy to spend hours with her on it.

Giz and Dd had an afternoon at the sewing machine.

Music:
Each day Giz and Dd spent a good amount of time together on music.  Giz has long been Dd’s favorite piano teacher, and Mrs. March gave Dd a few songs to work on, on the piano.  It was a VERY musical week—at least two hours of music per day. 

Dd showed Giz how "Smart Music" works.  You can see how well or correctly you are playing, and get a score of your performance.  This is a really cool, high-tech thing that blew Giz away---super impressive.  

 Dd knew she had a “challenge” to play at Band this week, so she played extra for that as well.

Dd is reading her assigned “Reader,” 

The Saga of Erik the Viking

Aug 1, 2013

by Terry Jones and Michael Foreman

The Saga of Erik the Viking---almost done.

The Force Awakens (Star Wars)

Jan 5, 2016

by Alan Dean Foster

Fun Reader: Star Wars, the Force Awakens---she is super excited to finally get this at the library.

BIRDS:

Robins and Red Winged Blackbirds

 arrived on March 19^th!

Phoebe’s (Fly-Catchers) arrived on March 21^st.  The Barred Owls have been calling to each other quite often throughout the day.

Kefir: 


I got a batch of Kefir from my friend, Michele, and it was a good batch.  The kurds and whey separated on time, and was easy to see that it was good.  The batch I received from Kim never did that (separated), so I didn’t taste/try it.  I am so glad to have my own grains and can make my own.  I had bought one drink from Aldi and it was almost $3 for one!  It is SO much cheaper to make your own...once you can find someone who has some!  I'm putting it in my smoothies.

Kombucha:

Doing really well, and the SCOBY was getting so big!  Michele told me if your SCOBY gets too big that it makes your Kombucha too acidic.  She told me how she takes off her older SCOBY layers and feeds them to her chickens, so I did that too!  And the chickens LOVED it!!!  I didn’t think they would love it so much, but they did!  My GERD/heartburn had been really bothersome for the first part of the week, so I stopped drinking my Kombucha to see if that would help my symptoms to die down some.  I’m trying new supplements now too.

A major bug has been going around in our area.  We had a lot of people missing from band/choir and co-op.  I’ve had 9 days of it, and am feeling better now, but have a horrible, yucky cough.  Dd has had it  14-15 days and is still trying to shake it off.  Poor Giz managed our company for five days before she woke up with it.  I hope it doesn’t take her as long to get over it as it took us.

Fun Reader:

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

This was a week of ‘electives’---gardening, cooking, building, reading, and genealogy.  It was a really good week.


Some of the dishes Giz made for us:

Pumpkin Pie

Cabbage and ham

Some of the dishes Dd made:

Asparagus with lemon juice

Chicken Tractor:Dd also co-made a Chicken Tractor this week with Dd.  She really likes making things, and this was right up her alley.









Happy Easter! 
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Making Chicken Tractor March 26, 2016

Making a Chicken Tractor 

March 26, 2016

After two months of minor migraines, I had three days of major migraines and being laid up in bed.  Dh and Dd kept themselves very busy making the chicken tractor together.  They spent hours and hours getting it all done, and learning a lot.  I figure we will make another one or two like this one, so we can keep our chickens outside and move-able around our property.  

They came up with this plan together.

They got the plastic netting, instead of the metal kind.

Dd got to do a lot of the work.

They put up the netting on two sides, and left the top and bottom empty.  I'm not sure what the plans are - for their time in the garage they get a cardboard bottom and top--especially to keep the heat in.  It is still very cold here, and they have the two heat lamps on all the time.

I think this is the only picture I took without the cardboard on the cage to help hold in the heat.

The chicks get a warm side and a cool side, so they can go where they feel most comfortable.

They put a cardboard door on each end, that can fold down for us to reach in.  We put cardboard on the tops and sides to help hold in the heat.

You can see the food trough fairly well in this picture.  They are eating the "Chick Starter Food" still, plus I am putting in lettuce, spinach, celery, and any other odd veg I have.  This week I have been cutting up Kombucha SCOBY for them, and they LOVE it!  I was amazed at how they ate that right up each time I offered it.

Here is bowl of cut up (like thick spaghetti) SCOBY from my Kombucha jug.

Can you see the metal feeder trough? it is on the right side of the picture, with a chicken eating out of it.  It works really well.  I like how it can feed all the chicks at the same time.  If I put it in the middle of the cage then they can all fit around it.

See the two clear glass BALL jar water dispensers?  Giz and Grampy brought about four or five of them from the family farm for us to use on our new little flock.  We had bought a plastic one to use before they got here.  The biggest difference between these ol' timey BALL jars and the ones we buy now-a-days is that the old jars are thick and heavier.

Giz and Grampy brought this old chicken cage.  They use to sell off their two year old chickens, and they would put all their flock in these wooden cages and they would stack them up in a truck to travel.  I don't know that we need this, but it is nice to have.  I know appreciate having our chickens use the old family items.

This is another item G&G brought----it is a feeder.  I can see how it would be nice that the chickens can't stand in the food and poop in it.  We haven't used it yet, as we have been using the long metal trough, it fits better in their cage.

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