A boat is able to float based on the amount of water it displaces or moves out of the way. When a boat pushes against the water, the water pushes back with an equal amount of force. Therefore, a wider boat is able to carry a heavier load than a long, narrow boat. Wider boats displace more water and therefore are held up by a greater water force, enabling them to carry heavier loads.
In this activity students will experiment with how much weight a boat can hold depending on the size of the boat.
Materials:
Large pan with water
Toy boats (various sizes)
Pennies (or other coins)
Instructions:
- Place the boat in the water. Allow students to interact with the boat, seeing that it floats when placed in the water.
- Add pennies to the boat, counting how many are added before the boat sinks.
- Repeat this with each type of boat and compare how the boats differ in size, shape, and the amount of pennies they can hold.
Discussion Questions to Ask:
- What did the boats do when placed in the water?
- How many pennies do you think each boat can hold? Which boat held more pennies?
- If you had to make a boat to carry a heavy load, what shape and size boat would you make?
When teaching concepts related to density, it is best practice to allow students to experiment with different shapes and sizes of objects. Encourage students to explore how long objects can float before sinking, or how long it takes an object to sink when placed in the water. Finding ways to connect the activity to the students’ current interests is a great way to keep young students especially interested in the topic. Additionally, finding ways that this activity relates to the real-world is a great way to extend the science learning beyond the classroom. Looking at how large ships carry cargo, or how small ships can zip through the water very quickly, are easy ways to show how this lesson of buoyancy is applied in everyday life. For more fun buoyancy teaching tips, visit: http://bit.ly/ZrmMgg
For Our Fun Learning Games about other great science activities, you can visit here!
http://www.science-lessons.ca/games/mammals.html
http://www.science-lessons.ca/games/space.html
http://www.science-lessons.ca/games/weather8.htm
]]>
For your Spring Treasure Hunt, have your class split up into groups and start documenting what they find in their notebooks. If anyone has a camera, a photo can be taken for identification to show the class later. Then, have them determine which ones are safely edible and nutritious. Asking locals, or checking in the encyclopedia or library, they can then determine their nutritional value. Differentiate between which species are native to the local flora, and which ones are not. Determine which ones are friendly to the land and neighboring plants, and keep those ones. You can, for fun, dig out and replace them with ones that are – though if they have a bulb for a root under the ground’s surface, the bulb must also be under-dug. i.e. if the bulb is left in when though the flower has been pulled up, the plant will continue to propagate. We found out that Daffodils, Narcissus, and some Crocuses, though lovely to look at are considered best NOT to eat and did not make our edible list. Whereas Crocus Sativa has edible saffron in the middle, other crocuses are NOT edible, such as a different purple crocus called the Autumn crocus Colchicum autumnale, containing an alkaloid called colchicine. Always be sure before trying flowers out for edibles, and do your homework! We also found out that Daffodils are Narcissus, Narcissus being the Latin name of the genus for both, and are native mainly to the Mediterranean region, in particular to the Iberian Peninsula, as well as Northern Africa and the Middle East .
These Beautiful “Grape Hyacinth”, or Muscari, though not a native species to the local land in our yard, is on the other hand, nutritious. In the Mediterranean, and in many other parts of the world, the root bulb can be used both in salad, and as well, used in replace of onion, leek or garlic – roasted in the oven, or minced and sauteed. The skin of the bulbs can be pulled off before cooking http://www.livestrong.com/article/523815-how-to-eat-a-muscari-flower/. The flowers themselves are a brilliant purple and can be tossed in salad and placed on the dinner plate as a garnish http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscari.
At the end of the class note section, return to the grounds and carefully with a clean (sterilized) pair of scissors, cut a handful of the ones that were determined to be edible. Wash the flowers with the tiniest bit of eco-friendly dish soap and water, and then rinse with water. Share and enjoy your tasty treats. Share with the class which ones you like, and what taste thee flowers have – nutty, bitter, sweet, etc. Grape Hyacinth or better known as Muscari, are reported to tase nutty, though we found them to be a bit bitter. Maybe they become sweeter as time grows in the later Spring. We suggest a honey lime and water mixture to pour over them – unless you prefer bitters. We garnished our plates with the hyacinths and the blue-eyed grass, and also made tea. The plates looked so Beautiful!
For more information, we also found a wonderful site for identification and classification of local native flower species:
From UBC, http://www.geog.ubc.ca/biodiversity/eflora/
Blue-Eyed Mary: http://linnet.geog.ubc.ca/ShowDBImage/ShowStandard.aspx?index=14398)
Blue-Eyed Grass: http://linnet.geog.ubc.ca/ShowDBImage/ShowStandard.aspx?index=29656
For Our Fun Learning Game about other great science activities, you can visit here!
http://www.science-lessons.ca/games/mammals.html
http://www.science-lessons.ca/games/space.html
http://www.science-lessons.ca/games/weather8.htm
]]>
The following is a very cool animation video clip demonstrating the geometrics of the Schumann Resonance of Mother Earth: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Schumann_resonance_animation.ogv. By way of transverse and longitudinal waves, Tesla researched ways to transmit wireless power and energy over long distances. He transmitted extremely low frequencies through the ground, and between the Earth’s surface and the Kennelly-Heaviside layer. By this path, he received patents on wireless transmitters that developed standing waves. Through his math experiments, he discovered that the resonant frequency of the Earth was approximately 8 Hertz.
In 1952–1954 Schumann and scientist H. L. König, attempted to measure the resonant frequencies. These researchers confirmed in mid-century, that the resonant frequency of the Earth’s cavity was indeed in this range and later named the Schumann resonance. Since then, there has been an increasing interest in SRF in many fields of study.
For tracking weather patterns across the globe, observations of Schumann resonances document record keeping of lightning activity. The Earth’s climate and Her connection with lightning activity also show global temperature and water vapor in the upper troposphere. Scientists speculate that extraterrestrial lightning (i.e. lightning on other planets) is also observed by the Schumann resonance signatures. The Schumann resonance is also used in study of the lower ionosphere for exploration on celestial stars. Within our Solar System, there are five candidates for Schumann resonance detection besides the Earth: Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and its moon Titan. The latest usage of observing Schumann patterns have been in predicting potential earthquakes.
According to metaphysician and scientist, Gregg Braden, the Schumann Resonance Frequency of Mother Earth has been steadily rising and will continue to until the end of 2012. www.2012.com.au/SchumannResonance.html.
The SRF’s occur at several frequencies between 6 and 50 cycles per second; specifically 7.8, 14, 20, 26, 33, 39 and 45 Hertz, with a daily variation of about +/- 0.5 Hertz. As long as the properties of Earth’s electromagnetic cavity remains relatively the same, these frequencies remain the same. Braden says that “time” appears to speed up as we approach what he calls Zero Point Phenomenon. For example, one 24 hour day seems not 24 hours, but rather about 16 hours or less.
Schumann Resonance is also known as The Heart Beat of Mother Earth. It has been 7.8 cycles for thousands of years, but has been rising since 1980. Presently it is about 12 / 13 cycles. It stops at 13 cycles and is speculated to come to a complete stop on December 21, 2012, the end of what is known also, of the Mayan Calendar, and the mark of the beginning of a new cycle of consciousness on Mother Earth.
For fun Affordable Learning Games Teaching Elementary Science in and outdoors of the classroom visit here: http://www.science-lessons.ca/games/weather3.html
http://www.science-lessons.ca/games/weatherbingo4.html
http://www.science-lessons.ca/games/weather8.htm.http://www.science-lessons.ca/games/planetsbingo.html
]]>- Their eyes may be blue, unlike albinos, and have white fur, meaning, they are leucistic;
- Some rare genetic conditions cause the calf to be born white, though turn brown within a year or two.
- If they are albino, they will be without pigment color throughout their lives, just like albinp people.
- Sometimes farmers have crossbred cattle with bison, and the cross-genetics of white cattle is what causes the white fur to result.
The National Bison Association estimates the occurrence of White Buffalo being born is one out of every 10 million births.
This white calf was born in Janesville, Wisconsin on The Heider Farm, and was named Miracle, the first one born since 1933. She lived to be 10 years old and during her life, had several calves. http://whitebuffalomiracle.homestead.com/Miracle_and_Calves.html
http://whitebuffalomiracle.homestead.com/
http://whitebuffalomiracle2.homestead.com/
The Sacred Lakota People have within their family who is known as The White Buffalo Calf Woman or Pte Ska Win. She is a Sacred Woman from Pure Spirit origin, who equals The Female Messiah / Shekinah. In Lakota Spirituality, it is She who brought forth their Peoples’ Seven Sacred Rites.
This link is a photo of a Most Gorgeous Sculpture depicting The White Buffalo Calf Woman with Her Calf. Sculpted by Artists Lee Leuning & Sherri Treeby, this piece was the winning sculpting in 2009 for the Avero organization: http://www.avera.org/img/mckennan/sculpture/12-White-Buffalo-Calf-Woman-large.jpg.
Other Buffalo Facts:
Female African Buffalo, in particular, are notable for their apparent altruism. Female buffalo express a sort of shuffling behavior – in which during resting time, the females stand up, shuffle around, and sit back down again. They then sit in the direction they think that they should move, and after an hour of further shuffling, the females move to travel in the direction they finally decide on. This decision 
is communal and not based on hierarchy or dominance. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_buffalo. If hunted by a predator, The Buffalo Herd huddle close together to build their strategy, as like other species, they are stronger when joined together. Calves remain protected in the middle of the adult members. If a buffalo is under duress, the others move to rescue the other. If the call is from a calf member, then not only the Mother comes, but the entire herd. In one recorded instance, known as the Battle at Kruger, a calf successfully survived an attack by both lions and a crocodile, after the herd intervened.
Similar to domesticated cattle, Buffalo sing a 2–4 second low pitch call that is repeated at 3-6 second intervals. This signals the herd to move. When it is time to change direction, herd leaders sing a sound like a creaking gate. When signaling others of a place to drink water, they have an extended maaa’ call, and the call is made by usually one to a few individuals, and is made up to 20 times a minute before and during the movement to the oasis.
Females begin having kids after about 5 years old, and their pregnancies last about 11.5 months. Newborns hide in greenery for the first few weeks, while the Mom nurses now and again, before the Calf joins the main herd. The Maternal bond between Mother and Calf lasts longer than in other species, though if a new Calf is born, the bonding with the first calf ends, and the Mother keeps all other offspring out of the way to protect the newborn – The White Buffalo, a Most Interesting Mammal.
For Our Fun Learning Game about other Mammals, you can visit here!
http://www.science-lessons.ca/games/mammals.html.
]]>
1. Sea Turtles live in all the world’s oceans except the ____________.
2. Adult Turtles swim in shallow lagoons, feeding mostly on various species of ______________.
3. Clownfish are native to the warm waters of the ___________ and __________ Oceans.
4. _________ have two stomachs and therefore can hunt for larger animals than their mouth could otherwise handle.
5. Angelfish are ____________ animals, because they hide amongst the crevices of the reef by night.
6. Through the 19th century, the word “kelp” was closely associated with seaweeds that were fired to obtain __________ (primarily sodium carbonate).
7. Manatees use taste and smell, in addition to sight, sound, and touch, to_________.
8. Salmon eggs usually range from _____________ in color.
9. Clownfish are one of the few fish that are safe from sea ______________.
10. The ___________ is a marine mammal, the heaviest member of the weasel family.
11. When eating, the otter first uses ___________ to dislodge prey and to open shells.
12. Seahorses have an equine profile, meaning they look sort of like ________.
13. ____________ have vibrant rainbow colors and deep, sideway-flat bodies.
14. Before spawning, salmon may grow a hump and grow canine teeth like a dog, developing a_______, a curve in the jaws.
15. Like___________ , anemones have stinging cells.
16. When a shark is resting, it does not use its nostrils, but rather, its___________, tiny holes behind each eye.
17. A _________tail is paddle-shaped.
18. ________ are large seaweeds belonging to the brown algae family.
19. _________ are pink and silver fish from the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and the Great Lakes.
20. Although corals can catch small fish and animals, they obtain most of their nutrients from photosynthetic unicellular_______.
21. __________ typically have five “arms” which radiate from a central disk.
22. __________ are slow-moving and live in warm, shallow, coastal waters, surviving above 15°C.
23. ____ ________ are related closely to coral and jellyfish.
24. _________ have proven problem-solving skills, social complexity and curiosity.
25. Coral have______ ; each one being like a tiny upside-down jellyfish with a shell.
26. ____ _______ “bob” around in sheltered areas such as sea grass beds, coral reefs, or mangroves.
QUIZ ANSWERS:
1. Arctic Ocean
2. Seagrass
3. Indian and Pacific
4. Sea Stars
5. Diurnal
6. soda ash
7. communicate
8. orange to red
9. Anemonae
10. sea otter
11. rocks
12. horses
13. Angelfish
14. Kype
15. Spiracles
16. jellyfish
17. manatee
18. Kelp
19. Salmon
20. algae
21. Starfish
22. Manatees
23. Sea Anenomae
24. Sharks
25. Polyps
26. Seahorses
If you really want to give yourselves an elementary science Brain-Squeeze this summer, here is an Oceans Quiz from National Geographics: http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/ocean-extremes-quiz/
And Here is one from our classroom at Science-Lessons.ca: a 52-Card Playing Deck for Ocean Learning, includes 4 several games and completely downloadable for Print and Cut-out – Crazy Starfish! Go Snorkeling! Sea Cluster! and ?Hypothesy?: http://www.science-lessons.ca/games/ocean.html
]]>1. Which Galaxy do we live in on Earth?
2. Is our Sun considered to be a Star or a Planet?
A Star
3. When did a human being first set foot on the Moon?
1969
4. What planet is known for being Red even though its faux tv fiction inhabitants are considered to be Green?
Mars
5. What planet has the hottest temperatures of 500 degrees Celsius? Is it red Mars?
Venus
6. What is the name of Nasa’s most popular telescope?
The Hubble
7. How old is our Solar System?
4.6 billion years old
8. How long does it take for Light from the Sun to reach our Earth?
8 minutes
9. A Solar Eclipse occurs when the “what” is between the Sun and the Earth?
The Moon
10. Comets are made of dust particles, rock particles and what?
Ice
11. The hazey glow and tail around Haley’s Comet are known as a what?
A Coma
12. The surface of Venus rages with active what?
Volcanoes
13. Scientists estimate that the extinction of dinosaurs on planet Earth was caused by what?
An Asteroid
14. How many planets does our Solar System have?
8
15. What in our Solar System used to be, but is no longer, considered to be a planet by Nasa?
Pluto
16. Who was the first human being first set foot on the Moon?
Neil Armstrong
17. The Earth’s ocean tides are caused largely by the Moon’s pull of what?
Gravity
18. What races around Saturn at a rate of 800 km per hour?
Wind; Storm Wind
19. If you were on Jupiter, you would weight 2 and half times the weight than when you are on Earth because of the what?
Magnetic Field
20. What planet has the worst stormy weather of all the planets?
Neptune
Then try one of our Fun Games for Learning more about the Solar System:
]]>This week, have your students create a new species, and write about and draw a picture of their animal. Have them examine the qualities of different species, and combine them into what they think would be the most adaptable survivable animal. It could be a “dolphi-gator” – an animal that is half dolphin and half alligator. It could be a “spid-eagle” – a half spider and half eagle.
Share in your elementary classroom, the super powers that your species has and how it could outlive a different species because of its cross-splicing rare abilities. Where does it live? What are its habits? Is it nocturnal? What does it eat? How does it care for its young? Does it have mammalia glands? They could even find photos of their 2 creatures and paste them together to make the new one.
Adapting to our environment is a capability in which we human beings quite excel. Constantly through all the stages of our lives, we break through “limits” that our minds once falsely held. Crawling to walking to running – jumping, driving, skiing, sailing, and flying. If there is one ability we have as a species that makes us different from many other species, it is our ability to adapt to our environment.
The weather changes to hot, cold, damp, dry, wind, and multiple combinations of these – and our bodies adjust our physical temperature to keep all systems stable for continuing our life journey. For some, the number of limbs they have changed (due to unforeseen circumstance), and still they adapt to do the same things they did before, just differently. A newt would grow its arm back. A human being would come up with interesting ways of attaining their food supply with the other arm – maybe use their feet, or become left-handed instead of right.
Is it because of the miracles of our human brain and heart? What makes your new species so adaptable to its natural environment?
For ideas, kids may wish to look at some of our Fun Learning card decks, such as Our Learning Brain, Mammals and Birds:
http://www.science-lessons.ca/games/brain.html.
]]>An extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, is a planet outside the Solar System. Extrasolar planets became an object of scientific inquiry in the nineteenth century. Many astronomers supposed that they existed, but there was no way of knowing how common they were or how similar they might be to the planets of our solar system. The first confirmed detection was made in 1992, arising interest in the possibility of extraterrestrial life. Most of the discovered extrasolar planets lie within 300 light years of the Solar System. Regardless of the precise number of stars with planets, the total number of exoplanets must be very large. Since our own Milky Way Galaxy has at least 200 billion stars, it must also contain billions of planets – if not hundreds of billions.
Precise measurements using the Kepler space telescope have shown that the planet, named Kepler 10b, has a diameter 1.4 times that of Earth, and a mass 4.6 times higher. Measurements of Kepler techniques using astero-seismology showed that the parent star was about eight billion years old – a grandparent among stars of its type. Kepler techniques are similar to the study of earthquakes on the Earth. In addition to the size of the host star, the details of the planet’s and star’s “dance” with each other, and the planet’s radius, the density of the planet can be calculated. Geoffrey Marcy University of California Berkeley marked this as “among the most profound scientific discoveries in human history.”
Since January 11 of this year (2011), astronomers announced confirmation of 518 such planets – with hundreds others awaiting for confirmation pending further investigation. Most are giant planets thought to resemble Jupiter.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12158028
Kepler Mission
The Kepler Mission is a NASA space observatory designed to discover Earth-like planets orbiting other stars. It was launched on 7 May 2009. The mission spacecraft is named in honor of 17th C astronomer Johannes Kepler.
http://www.kepler.nasa.gov/news/nasakeplernews/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=94
Most exoplanets cannot be seen directly through telescopes because bright light from the stars that they orbit drowns them out. Instead, astronomers use a variety of indirect techniques to find them. One method is to look for tiny wobbles in stars’ positions caused by their gravitational interactions with orbiting planets.
Johannes Kepler (1571 – 1630) was a key mathematician, astronomer and astrologer, in 17th century scientific revolution. He is best known for his laws of planetary motion, later developed by later astronomers. Kepler lived in an era when there was no clear distinction between astronomy and astrology, but there was a strong division between astronomy (a branch of mathematics within the liberal arts) and physics (a branch of natural philosophy).
Kepler also weaved religious reasoning into his work, motivated by the religious conviction that God had created the world according to an “intelligible plan that is accessible through the natural light of reason.” Kepler described his new astronomy as “celestial physics”. (Ref: Wikipedia: Johannes Kepler; Exoplanet, Exosolar)
For one of our Fun Learning games on the Solar System and Teaching Space:
]]>It has been a mystery how the European eelpout feed its young as the egg yolk normally would not sustain embryos that develop over six months. A team of researchers from Denmark, led by Professor Peter Skov of the University of Copenhagen, has found out how the eelpout does this amazing unusual feat.
This year, it was discovered by Professor Skov that the eelpout suckles its young embryos while still within their mother’s body, making it the only fish species to suckle its offspring. The egg is also produced and matured in the ovary, by special follicles as with mammals. Fertilization is here whereas the eelpout does not actually have a uterus.
Living to be about 10 years old at full maturity, many Mediterranean countries use this special fish in delicatessen soups. Where most fish bones are commonly white, the bones of the eelpout are strangely green because of a green pigment in their circulatory system.
Mammals (formally called Mammalia) are a class of vertebrate animals whose name is derived from their distinctive feature, mammary glands, with which they feed their young. They are also characterized by the possession of sweat glands, hair, three middle ear bones used in hearing, and a neocortex region in the brain.
For more information on mammals, you can check out our learning Scientifica Deck of Mammal Cards that includes 4 fun card games in one: http://www.science-lessons.ca/games/mammals.html
]]>To perform this interactive exercise, you’ll need some rubber gloves, a large bowl, ice, water, an outdoor thermometer and some solid vegetable shortening. Before you begin, explain to the kids that whales, dolphins, seals and porpoises are mammals, not fish. Among other things, this means that they are warm blooded. Explain that a warm-blooded sea creature’s body temperature stays constant and doesn’t adjust to the surrounding temperature. And make sure they know that in order to maintain a constant temperature, these sea mammals need a way to stay warm when the area around them gets cold.
Now explain that the way these animals stay warm is through an extra layer of “insulation” beneath their outer skin. Tell them that the activity they’re about to do will show how this blubber keeps the animal warm. Divide the students into several groups. Give each group a large bowl filled with water and plenty of ice, and a rubber glove beside it. Coat each glove with a layer of vegetable oil and have the children repeat the action, putting on the glove and submerging their hand. Ask them to write down their responses.
Have each student put on the glove and submerge their hand in the ice water and tell if they think the water is warm, cool, fairly cold, or very cold. Now, again, ask them to write down how cold they felt the water was. Almost everyone will report that their hands are much warmer with the vegetable oil. Explain to the students that the vegetable oil protects the hand from the cold water in exactly the same way that the blubber protects the whale or dolphin from the icy water around them.
Your students will have a lot of fun with this. More importantly, they will have a greater appreciation for how Mother Nature has protected some important sea animals.
Here is our 52-Card Deck on Mammals that includes 4 fun Interactive Learning Games:
http://www.science-lessons.ca/games/mammals.html
]]>