Science Center

Last week we went on a trip to Kamloops.  We were able to visit the science center.  It's called The
Big Little Science Centre.  A really interesting activity I did was a create a face website.  You can create any face in the universe.  Police use it to find criminals.  The witness describes the person and the police rebuilds the person.

There was also a pet lizard that I got to pet.  The skin felt scaly especially since the lizard was shedding.

Newtons Laws of Science

1. Law of Inertia

Inertia is why things that are not moving prefer not to move unless you add a big amount of force. Inertia is also when something is moving but prefers to stay moving. Another form of inertia is when something is going really fast you can't turn. One thing is for sure without inertia we could not turn, stop, or go properly. 

The experiment we did demonstrated the law of inertia.  First we stacked up five pennies and then we took a separate penny and flicked it at the stack. The penny we flicked at the stack knocked the bottom penny out of the stack and sent it flying.

2.  Newton's Second Law

Newton's second law states that force is what causes an object to change speed or direction.  Objects with greater mass require more force to move it than objects with less mass.  There is a formula for this law.  The formula is F=m x a.  That means that force is equal to the mass times acceleration.  An example of this law is the experiment we did.  We balanced an egg on a paper towel roll and put that on a circular pan.  We put the circular pan on a cup filled with water and we took our hand to bang the circular pan.  The egg fell into the glass of water while the paper towel roll and circular pan went flying.

3. Newton's Third Law

Newton's first law states that for each reaction there is an opposite action.  An example is a rocket flying into space.  The only reason the rocket can go up is because the gas is pushing against the launch pad.  The opposite action is that the rocket shoots into space.  Another example is when you bump into the wall and get pushed backwards.  That is because the wall is pushing against you in the same way that you pushed against it.  An experiment that we did that illustrates this law is when we pushed a skateboard against the wall, the skateboard flew away from the wall.

First Nations.

I visited this site and this one.

Plant Name	How is it Administered?	What does it treat?	Modern day use?
Acorus calamus - Sweet Flag	Orally	High Cholesterol	used in perfumes
Arctostaphylos uva- ursi - Bearberry	Smoked or taken orally	Diarrhea, kidney infection	used in tea
Cypripedium reginae - Showy Lady's-slipper	taken orally with water	sedative for insomnia	still used by aboriginals
Gaultheria procumbens - Teaberry	orally and externally	Headache, upset stomach, arthritis, rheumatism	used in flavouring tea
Heuchera richardsonii - Alumroot	chewed and a tea is made	diarrhea, bleeding, speeds healing	natives still use to stop bleeding
Hierochloe odorata - Sweet Grass	smoked or made into tea	To thin blood, treat colds	used in smudging ceremonies, made into baskets
Ledum groenlandicum - Labrador Tea	internally	stomach and kidneys, coughs, colds and asthma	made in paper products
Polygala senega - Seneca Root	internally	rheumatism, asthma,	put in cough syrup in Europe
Sanguinaria canadense - Bloodroot	internally	bronchitis, eczema, warts, skin cancer	still found in some cough syrups in Canada

Experiment Reflections

Self Reflection on Bubble Experiment

Driving Question?  Which kind of bubble solution makes the longest lasting bubble?

List the Major Steps in the Project:  The major steps were:

1.  Gather dish soap, water, glycerin, corn syrup, 3 pipe cleaners and 3 jars.

2.  Take first jar and add 1 cup + 1 Tbsp. of water and 1/3 cup of dish soap.  Stir together.  Label #1.

3.  Take second jar and add 1 cup of water, 1/3 cup of dish soap, and 1 Tbsp. of glycerin.  Stir together.  Label #2.

4.  Take third jar and add 1 cup of water, 1/3 cup of dish soap, and 1 Tbsp. of corn syrup.  Stir together.  Label #3.

5.  Twist pipe cleaner into a bubble wand.  Dip in solution #1.  Make a bubble.  Time how long the bubble lasts.  Write down on a sheet of paper.  Repeat the same procedure 6 times and record data.  

6.  Repeat #5 with each of the solutions.

7.  Find the average of the bubble seconds in each solution by adding the numbers, then dividing by six.

8.  Figure out which solution made the longest lasting bubbles.  Guess why?

What is the most important thing you learned?  I learned that the glycerin solution made the longest lasting bubble.  I think the glycerin made the bubble longer lasting because it is thicker than water so it added a thickness that made the bubble last longer.

What do you wish you had spent more time on or done differently?  I would do this experiment again in the summer so we could do it outside and get accurate results.  The cold weather outside would effect the bubbles because it is too dry for the bubbles too last longer.  (The outside temperature was -17)

What part of the project did you do your best work on?  I did the best work with recording the times and averaging the numbers.

What was the most enjoyable part?  The most enjoyable part was recording the information and finding the average.  

What was the least enjoyable part?  The least enjoyable part was when we had to blow the bubbles and and they would instantly pop and we'd have to try again. 

Mixtures

Heterogenous mixture-A mixture that you can see all the parts that it is made up of.  An example is soup.
Homogenous mixture- A mixture that is all mixed together and you cannot see what it is made of. An example is a milkshake.
Suspension-  A suspension mixture is when the bigger particles are mixed in with the smaller particles and the bigger particles will either float or settle at the bottom.

We did an experiment where we took a glass of pop and mixed in raisins. The raisins kept on floating up to the top and then coming down to the bottom.  It was because the carbon dioxide was sticking to the raisins which would lift the raisin up and then when the carbon dioxide was released the raisins would sink.  This is an example of Heterogenous suspension mixture.

Science Experiment

We did a science experiment that included nail polish remover and styrofoam cups.  The result was supposed to be bubbling and disintegrating.  

First we tried styrofoam bowls and poured our nail polish remover over them but nothing happened.  Our guess was that the bowls were plasticized so the nail polish remover couldn't get inside the bowls.

We tried again with styrofoam cups but it didn't work.  

Next we tried packaging styrofoam but that didn't work either.

We took another piece of packaging styrofoam and tried pouring gasoline over it as the science book had said it might have the same reaction.  But still nothing happened.

Our guess is that the nail polish remover didn't work is because it wasn't pure acetone.  My guess is that we need pure styrofoam with no plastic coating.

I would like to try this experiment again with non plasticized styrofoam and pure acetone.  My hypothesis is that the experiment would work better and it would bubble and disintegrate.

I think it would be fun to be a scientist who does experiments like this all the time but I also think it would be annoying because I would have to test the hypothesis, then try it out with different materials until finally getting the experiment right.

Joy in Prison.

I recently visited a website about Christian Martyrs.  Click here to go to the website.

One of the stories I want to share is about a woman named Cheng Jie. She was a mother, a former kindergarten teacher, and a pastor's wife. She had expected for her husband to be arrested. Instead of her husband, she was arrested and spent two years in a labor camp. Her sentenced ended in February and she was released.  That story made me think about the verse that says, "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."  Romans 8:28  because the unexpected happened, but it all worked out. This story made me feel confused because the pastor's wife got arrested not the pastor.

 This is a good website for learning about the recent Christian Martyrs.