Crazy Science!

It was a wild and crazy science time on our first day of co-op ... 

Dancing peanuts and fighting balloons.

Cleaning pennies and making goop.

Kitchen Chemistry

Extreme Environments: Visit to the Planetarium

Last week we ventured into the extreme environment of space at the H.R. Macmillan Space Centre in Vancouver.

We were part of an interactive presentation on what makes space a dangerous place for humans.

Then we got to try on a protective space suit ....

and try out some of the things astronauts experience in space.

We were proud to learn about some of the Canadians who have participated in missions to space. 

Another fun co-op adventure!

Extreme Environments & Living Things

In co-op this week we spent some time reviewing what an extreme environment is ...

and then played a memory game to review the characteristics of the five kingdoms of living things.

Preparing Slides

Looking at hairs, onion skins and more .....

An Afternoon at Co-op

Last week we started our unit on microscopes and cells.  Everyone had fun testing the microscopes out.

We also took the opportunity to package up the art cards we are selling as part of Project: FLOW (For Love Of Water).  Our goal is to raise $4200 to buy a water reservoir for people in Africa. 

Stave Lake

To kick off our unit on Electricity this fall we took a trip up to Stave Falls Visitors Center.

Our self-guided tour started with a nine-minute video, "Rain", in the theatre. It introduced us to the life and times of the early 1900s. Next we played with experiments on the solar energy workbench in the "Alternative Energy" area, went through the "Science of Electricity" area and tested our knowledge with interactive displays that "shocked" us.

Lastly, we entered the "Generator Hall" and saw the actual turbines and generators from 1912!

Big Bang!

Sometimes electrictiy is just plain fun!  During Science Co-op, Levi explains how electricity can be used to pop a balloon (the switch is turned on, the current starts flowing through the narrow wire taped to the balloon, the resistance building up in thin wire causes the wire to heat up and the balloon pops).

 

 

The whole gang writing up their findings.

 

 

Circuits

We've been working on an electricity unit this month and today the kids were putting together circuits in series and parallel using paper "puzzle" pieces before doing the real circuit.  Great teamwork!

After building their circuits the kids enjoyed building with "Roominate" - a fabulous building toy that allows the kids to wire in various electrical appliances (in this picture the kids created a working elevator).

Simple Machines - Screws

Before we could experience how screws make life easier we had to figure out the screwdriver!

Simple Machines - Wedges

A delicious way to explore how wedges make life easier (it was much easier to push the wedge-shaped carrots compared to the circle shaped carrots into the apples).

Simple Machines - Levers

Exploring the effect of different fulcrum positions on ease of pushing down on the "teeter toter".  Closer to the load is the best!

This experiment was supposed to support the idea that a longer lever will ease the amount of perceived effort required.  What I didn't factor in, however, was the lack of skill in hammering!  The conclusion: all of the kids preferred to hold the hammer close to the head.

Playing around with third class levers.

Simple Machines - Pulleys

The assignment: creating a pulley system to lift the bucket easily.  Working as a team the kids quickly took on different jobs: Levi as designer, Bekah as string engineer, Matt as general helper, and Dane as supervisor (complete with gun???!!!).

As you can see by the amount of exertion required to lift the bucket the experiment wasn't completely successful.  Levi declared the design a "fail" but the consensus was that the equipment was faulty (the pulleys kept bending and breaking).

Simple Machines

The kids enjoyed putting together samples of each type of simple machine:

the wedge, pulley, wheel & axle, lever and inclined plane.

It was fascinating to then take a journey through a medieval castle and discover how simple machines were used in daily life and wartime.

Force & Motion

We started off our unit on Simple Machines by exploring force and motion using simple toys and equipment like straws & marbles.

The kids then designed and created a three story marble run down four staircases (I had envisioned a smaller scale run when I gave them their supplies but they thought outside the box!).  Micah and Sarah happily waited in the basement to collect the marbles.

Salmon Rescue

As part of our science co-op the kids participated in Trinity Western's "Science in the Valley" day workshop on salmon.  Throughout the day they learnt about the life cycle of salmon, the human impact on the species and what we can do to help encourage their survival.

Later on that week it was then very exciting to rescue and relocate some baby salmon from the stream on our property which was drying up for the season.  Team Stokes and Giesbrecht in action!

Hummingbird Feeder

We keep forgetting to buy a feeder for the gorgeous hummingbirds visiting us lately so my creative men (Matt and his dad) made one tonight.  I think we might have some visitors tomorrow!

Forest Creature

Matt was excited to find a new friend in our backyard the other day.

 

Getting to the heart of the matter!

We finished our unit on the human body and saved the cow's heart until the very end. I think we saved the best for last but most of the kids would think otherwise (you'll notice some of the co-op kids are not in the picture!).

Heart

 

We started talking about the circulatory system and created edible models of the heart ("blue" icing depicts deoxygenated blood and "red" icing depicts oxygenated blood).  The crackers each represent one of the four chambers (top are the atria and bottom are the ventricles) and the marshmallows represent (crudely!) the blood vessels.  Up next?  Dissecting a cow's heart!

 

 

Of course we also played with our models and then ate them!