Science Experiments (Connor)

WE recently did a model of blood!!! WE learned abought the three  different parts there

are in blood!! We used candy to display the different parts! First we put in corn syrup which was to

represent Plasma. Plasma is actually 90% water and the other 10% is little Plasma Proteins which carried

to different parts of our body, And Plasma also carry’s waste !! And the second component was Red

blood cells we used Red Hots for those!! Red blood cells are 40% of the stuff in our blood they are the

reason are blood is Red!! They also help carry Oxygen With little things they make called Hemoglobin !!

For Hemoglobin we used sprinkles and Hemoglobin as I just told you carry’s Oxygen!!!! Hemoglobin also

is What makes are blood cells red!! And last but not least we put in the White blood cell!! For the White

blood cell we used a white jelly bean!! The white blood cells jobs are to protect your body from invaders

in our body such as germs and bacteria!! Did you know every 700 red blood cells there is one white

blood cell!! Well I had much fun with this model of blood and I can’t wait until  the next experiment!! 

Three Science Experiments By Rus Tert and Filia (Aidan, Connor, and Shaila)

~Science Experiments~

Hi. This is Rus Tert and Filia. We want to tell you about some fun experiments that we have done. First was an egg experiment showing how much weight empty chicken eggs can hold. We put lots of books on six eggs that weighed 12 and a half pounds. This shows how eggs can hold up even the largest of birds. This makes it so chicks don't go extinct from being crushed by the mothers. Birds have hollow bones making them very light weight. Leo then took some heavy weights and laid them carefully on one egg. This egg alone held up to fifteen pound total! This shows that full eggs are very strong.

We tested the strength of eggs in other ways too! We all were given eggs to squeeze. If we spread the weight out around the egg, then they were impossible to break. If we focused our strength on one part of the egg, it would shatter. Have you ever wondered why mother birds fluff out their feathers before laying down on their eggs? They are balancing their weight on their eggs so as not to break them. Another way eggs cannot be broken is if you squeeze the very tip and bottom of the egg. This is literally impossible. This shows how God designed eggs to be very sturdy.  

We also learned about bats in science. A mother bat can smell her babies even in nurseries with millions of baby bats called pups. She can also hear her pups' special sound. For a few minutes we turned into mother bats. Mom dipped cotton balls in different scents and we chose our own "baby bat". Mom spread them all over the rug. Some smells were pleasant, and some...not so much. Some made our heads ache, and some not. We found our pups after a little sniffing, and searching. This experiment God designed mother bats very well. I'd rather leave smelling to mother bats!

Owl Pellet Dissection (Aidan)

Hi. I’m Rus. Two days before Mom and Dad’s anniversary, we did a very fun science experiment. We are studying flying creatures in our science this year, and one of the experiments was taking apart owl pellets. Connor, Shaila, and I waited a while for them to arrive in the mail, and we were very excited when they did. We could not wait for the evening when we could dissect them. I had never seen an owl pellet before, and I was surprised to find how much fluffy stuff was packed into it. Before we started dissecting, we laid newspaper out on the table, and took out Ethan’s dissecting set that he used for his science labs. Mom bought five owl pellets, so Ethan showed how to open them up with the extra one. We all took a pellet and began to dissect. As I slowly opened it layer by layer, I found many more bones than I had ever expected. My greatest find was a few jawbones and an almost complete bird skull. After I had ripped the whole pellet apart, I searched through the pieces for bones. Most of my time was spent searching, and finally, I could not find any more bones. I noticed while I was dissecting that the kids had taken off their gloves. They had not been so sure before, but they were very enthusiastic now. Ethan identified many of our discoveries, and he dissected two pellets because of his meager finds in his first. I laid out my pellets in one long line. After I finished my line, I sorted the bones onto paper. We had a great regional meal after that (Mom wants me to mention that we SCRUBBED the table first! J), but that has been posted about already. We had a lot of fun with our owl pellets.

By: Aidan
Age: 11 (6th Grade)

Happy 10th Birthday Rus/Dry Ice Volcano Cake! (Siobhan)

Rus' 10th Birthday and Dry Ice Volcano Cake

Here is Rus's account of his fantastic birthday:

I ate doughnuts for breakfast and opened a present. After a light school day I went out to Smoke Shack with Dad and got root beer, burgers and fries. We then drove to a sports center where I met my friend Caleb. They had a huge obstacle course where one thing I did was jump through tires. Then I pulled myself up over a wall that was probably over 5 feet tall. Another thing we did was jump on uneven vertical logs. Then we climbed sideways on a wall that had little squares that were tilted in different directions. Another thing we did was climb on really high monkey bars. We also climbed up a ladder into a raised tunnel. Then we dropped around 4 feet to another plank then down to the floor. Then we climbed under low logs then over high logs. After that I went up a very steep ramp then down using a ladder made up of long planks of wood almost a foot apart. Then we had a relay race with the other people there. We did a bear walk for about forty feet and came back to the start. Then we did 30 jumping jacks and 15 burpies. Then we did the crab walk for about forty feet and then came back to the start. Then we did 30 jumping jacks and 15 burpies. Then we climbed under low logs and over high logs and under wire and up the ramp with the rope then down the rope web to the starting line.  Then we went around the whole gym running backwards. All five of us did this in 20 minutes. Dad and I then went down stairs and played football and soccer. Then we stopped to get a drink on the way home. When we got home we brought the volcano cake Siobhan made and put dry ice in a water bottle inside the cake ( dry ice is  -190 Fahrenheit)! We poured water in it so the dry ice would evaporate and make "smoke." Then we hit a piñata full of candy. Then we went inside ate tetrazzini and cake. Then we opened presents. I had a really fun birthday!

~Pinata~

~Dry Ice Volcano Cake~

This year I made Rus a dry ice volcano cake, inspired by this cake tutorial. The awesome thing about this cake is that it involves both cake decorating and science. We all had so much fun with it!

I made mine a little differently; instead of making the cake more like an island, I made ours to be just the volcano.

Rus wanted to learn how to make fondant leaves, so I taught him and Tert how to roll out the fondant and cut/form leaves for the trees. We made these a couple days ahead so they would have plenty of time to harden.

I don't have lots of different sizes of cake pans, so I just used what I had. I trimmed the cakes down to different sizes and then I built them around a plastic water bottle. I just cut an opening in the middle of each layer so that I could stick the water bottle through it. Then I took leftover cake and made a cake pop mixture out of it by mixing it with frosting. I put this cake in between the gaps so that the cake was round like a volcano, and not tiered. 

Here it is! I frosted the cake while it was still frozen and then I sprinkled graham cracker crumbs around it for sand, and we attached our leaves to pretzel sticks with frosting dyed green.

The top of the cake is open, and you can see the water bottle in the cake. The water bottle provides a place to put your dry ice in, so that you can still eat your cake! 

To create this incredible dry ice effect, Dad bought dry ice from New England Dry Ice. We put a piece of dry ice inside the water bottle and poured hot water over it.

I didn't get a great video of it, but this gives you the general idea.

Dry ice is -119 degrees Fahrenheit, and it does 'evaporate' very quickly. Typically dry ice lasts about 12 hours before it is gone! It is best to get it the day you are using it. Dad bought 5 lbs. of it (it's about $1 a pound) and we had a lot of fun playing around with it. Dry ice is not dangerous, as long as you use tongs or gloves when handling it.

Happy 10th Birthday Aidan!

Periodic Table Fun By: Siobhan

Rus and Tert have been absolutely loving their science curriculum for this year, which is Apologia's Young Explorers Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics. They recently studied the Periodic Table of Elements. One of the experiments was making the periodic table out of cookies. I gave them a little help piping the elements on the cookies, but they frosted them all by themselves.

 Supplies: Shortbread Cookies, Frosting, Decorating Gel, and a Copy of the Periodic Table of Elements

I counted out the number of cookies for each color that we did, and then I divided the cookies between Rus and Tert to decorate. We only did one color at a time, or else it would have gotten crazy.

Filia did the blue and red cookies, and Rus and Tert did the yellow and brown. We had frosting to do more colors, but we ran out of time and cookies. :) 

 Our Periodic Table

Great Job Guys!

Volcano Project with Leo and Rus

 Here are some pictures of a model of Pompeii that Leo and Rus made.

 Here is peaceful 'Pompeii.'

!!!