Simple Circuits Maker Fun!

Yesterday we were in full Maker mode after sitting in on a Supercharged Science teleclass on DIY Robots. Inspired by the example videos we watched and learning about the engineering process we proceeded to put to use some of the electronic materials I got a few months back when Radio Shack was going out of business. They basically learned about how to make a simple circuit using a battery pack, alligator clips, and either LED light or a small motor. 

The first thing I did in preparation for the Makers session was to take some of my wooden trays and place the basic tools we needed to get started on the project in them. I left it up to them to add any other materials or parts they wanted to use out our Makers closet. 

Here we are watching the teleclass before getting started on our projects. 

They were so excited when they assembled their first circuit and was able to get the LED light to illuminate. 

One thing I do with the children is have them work with one another in pairs. This way they are learning about collaboration and communication which are a part of those 21st Century Skills that are necessary in order to be successful in today's economy. I know not all individual homeschool families have enough children to work in pairs like this but I happen to have a large family so it works out. But if you have a smaller family or maybe an only child these sort of Makers project would be perfect to do with a COOP group or with maybe even some of the neighborhood kids. 

Here is our first team working on a propeller car. They used a motor with two Popsicle sticks to act as a propeller attached to a car frame they built. Although they were able to power the propeller with sucess next week they are trouble shooting the issue they had with the wheels and axle to get the car to move. 

Here is team 2 who decided to make a robot with two different colored LED lights for eyes. They successfully got the LED lights to illuminate but they have to use AA battery holders instead of the D they used and they also would like to add a movement component to the robot in next weeks Makers session. 

Here is some footage of our Makers Session. 

Science Olympiad Competition

This year I had the pleasure of coaching an Elementary Science Olympiad team of local homeschool students. We got to compete against 17 of the local public schools. For those of you who do not know Science Olympiad is a hodge podge of scientific events that the students compete in in timed rounds against competing schools. The competition we were in was  a regional qualifier. So the students that placed got an opportunity to go compete at our state competition and then if they win state they would move onto the National Science Olympiad competition. Science Olympiad spans through grades k-12. But this particular competition was just for elementary grades. They offered well over 20 events but our team competed in 13 of them. I was so proud of our students. They worked really hard in preparation for the competition. We had two of our students place 3rd in the "Can Race" event. I was so excited we placed in our first year going.

The schools support their team through support from the classroom curriculum and teacher volunteers. We had the support of our awesome children's librarian at our local public library and the parent volunteers. Our students practiced hard for 12 weeks leading up to the competition. They learned not only skills in science but good sportsmanship, teamwork, leadership, and perseverance. Because we are homeschool team and we tend to be more age integrated I devised a way for all the students and their siblings to participate and help with the team. The older kids were our Team Mentors, then we had the Competition Team, and of course the Jr. Team members. 

On competition day our Team Mentors were a helping hand in making sure the students got to their event rooms. Our Jr. Team got an opportunity to see what they have to look forward to next year when they compete. And of course everyone was there to cheer the Competition Team on!

Here is are the STEAM Powered Homeschoolers all lined up for the Parade before we began the competition. 

Mecca the Great was proud of her partner and her's work in the "Straw Tower" event. 

Mecca the Great is excitedly waiting to start the "Disease Detective" event. 

Kinetic Kid could not wait to blast his rocket in the "Water Rocket" event. 

Let's look at the highlights from the weeks leading up to the competition. 

We entered several of the Straw Engineering events. We practice the Straw Tower, Straw Egg Drop, and Bridge Building. Our Jr. Team even practice some extreme straw challenges. 

Here is Pony Princess holding the big Straw box the Jr. Team was constructing. 

Kinetic Kid had a huge challenge on his hands in the "Straw Egg Drop" event. We cracked many an egg preparing for this one. 

One of the coolest things about the Science Olympiad Competition was the Build- It Sessions where the students got the opportunity to have access to the power tools necessary to build their rocket launcher and construct our paddle boats. They got assistance from the scientist at our local Science Center which is funded through the county. 

Here is Mecca the Great practicing for her very academically heavy events "Weather or Not" and "Disease Detectives". 

Pony Princess and our Jr. Team had a ball making tornadoes in a bottle, cleaning up mock oil spills, and doing mystery architecture challenges. 

Atlanta Science Fest: BioLogue STEM Adventures

This Saturday was the kick off for the 2nd Annual Atlanta Science Festival. The Atlanta Science Festival is a citywide celebration of Atlanta's STEM community. This year there are over 140 events to choose from throughout the week leading up to the big Exploration Expo at Centennial Olympic Park. 

Well we started out the week with the BioLogue STEM Adventures. They hosted a Hands On Hodge Podge of Science event. There was a long list of workshop offerings. They even had a science fair earlier that day. The workshops ranged from every topic from microscopy to coding. 

Pony Princess enjoyed taking part in the microscopy workshop. She was excited to tell me about how much she learned. She was able to break down to me how to prepare a slide to look at it under the microscope. Her favorite part was when she looked at the fish blood under the microscope. She said it looks like pond water.

Mecca the great took the Chemistry of Cosmetics workshop where she got to learn about the chemical make up(pun intended) of the typical cosmetic ingredients. The students got to make their own lip balm with all natural ingredients as a take home gift. Of course you know my girly girl squealed with delight over that. 

Kinetic Kid was given special permission from the event coordinator Ms. Gladys to participate in the Epidemiology and Forensic Science workshops. They were designed for ages 10 and up but I explained Kinetic Kids unique circumstances of being an advance learner. Since Mecca the Great was in the courses as well to keep and eye on him they gave him a shot. It went very well. It was truly a lesson in learning to advocate for your children. I am 100% he got way more out of the advance workshops than he would have gotten in the early elementary microscope stuff. 

I look forward to attending events hosted by BioLogue STEM Adventures in the future. 

Here is Mecca the Great in the Chemistry of Cosmetics Workshop. 

Take a look at my CSI Team in the Forensic Science Workshop. 

Filtering Water Experiment

Kinetic Kid has been working on an environmental science unit in preparation for his

 "Save Our Earth" event in the Science Olympiad competition this year. Well this week we have been delving into water contamination and safe drinking water. He has been experimenting with various methods of filtering dirty water.

We have been using common materials you can easily find anywhere from your kitchen pantry and backyard to your local big box store. Here is a list of the items we used for the experiment.

Materials

Clear/ Transparent Plastic Cups

Coffee Filters

Activated Carbon(You can find this in the pet isle they use it for fish tanks.)

Sand

small pebbles/rocks

dirt

oil

Knife or Sharp Point( This is to cut a hole in the bottom of the cups.)

In addition to creating our own filtration system we also worked on a

                                                     4M Clean Water Science kit as well. 

Take a look at our video for how ideas on how to put together the filter. 

Muscular System Oral Review!

It took us a while but Mecca the Great is finally wrapping up her chapter on the Muscular System, Instead of just doing a chapter test I decided to go for an oral narration approach. Some of you who are familiar with the Charlotte Mason or Classical Education approach to education know the important role narration plays in helping the student develop the ability to reason with the content and teach back what they know. We still have a model of how muscles work and a few more end chapter questions to finish up before we move to our next body system. But I am very please with her progress thus far. Here is the video of our informal oral review. You can hear her siblings in the background listening to cartoons. 

The Bones Book and Skeleton Kit!

Tonight after dinner the children decided to pull out this skeleton kit for a little model building fun. My husband and I came upon this kit by happenstance when we were in Sam's Club the other day. We finished our study of the skeletal system weeks ago but I thought this could be a way to review in a fun way. 

It was really funny watching them put the rib cage onto the spine upside down. We also got a big laugh out of mistaking the pelvic bone for the scapula( shoulder blade). 

Dad got in there and help us get our guy up onto the stand. He said we should get an extra one next time we are in the store so he can have his own.  He really tried hard not to take over the kit from the kiddos. It is pretty hard not to get swept up in the model building mania.  Dad was even talking about painting his kit with metallic gray paint and adding claws to make it look like Wolverine's animantium skeleton. 

Probably one of the best things about this kit is that it came with its own display case. With all the little hands I have around here it is a necessity to keep the pieces from coming up missing or in little folks mouths. 

Look at all my "Mad Scientist"! 

Human Anatomy Unit Study: Skeletal System

We just wrapped up a unit on the human skeletal system. For Mecca the Great and Kinetic Kid it was there second time cycling through the skeletal system. I taught life science in a homeschool co-op 3yrs ago and we did life science(insects, human body, animals, plants). Pony Princess is just like her big brother Kinetic Kid. She is really into science especially the gory things. My little Smallville was able to identify the bones very well for his age. He even learned the different types of bone and that our blood is made inside the bone. He really enjoyed this unit. Mecca the Great went into the greatest details on this one with the vocabulary and learning more bones than the others. They are moving onto the muscular system next. Here is a list of the things we used for this unit:

Booklist

• Essentials of Anatomy and Physiology Fourth Edition( Chapter 6 The Skeletal System)
• The Skeleton Inside You (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 2)(library) 
• The Kingfisher First Human Body Encyclopedia (Kingfisher First Reference)(library)
• The Body Book: Easy-to-Make Hands-on Models That Teach( This book had information as well as reproducible printouts that we used to make our own skeletal system poster)
• Human Anatomy Coloring Book (Dover Children's Science Books)

Projects

Pasta Skeleton Project(Pinterest)

Experiments
(This experiment came from the DVD we checked out from the library)

Busy Body Experiment
What happens when minerals are take from your bones?
What we used:
2 chicken bones(from cooked chicken)
2 jars
water
vinegar
tape and label for jars
pencil
science journal
What we did:
Place each chicken bone in its own jar. Cover one bone with water and the other with vinegar. Leave them to sit for at least 4 days. You can check back periodically and notate any changes in your science journal. 
Results
What should happen is the one is the vinegar will demineralize and become flexible and the one in water will stay firm and rigid.

Worksheets/ Printables
Label Human Skeleton 

Media/ Websites
Human Body in Action Skeletal & Muscular System DVD( library)
Make Me Genius The Skeletal System
Bozeman Science Skeletal System