Science

We had a week full of science. Luke and Lindsey both participated in the school science fair and Heather was "scientist of the week" in her class. I have heard many complaints from parents about the science fair but I am actually a big fan of the fair. I know it takes a lot of work and time but it is one activity that I think teaches the kids some valuable things. That being said, we were a little stressed trying to get two projects done. The projects themselves weren't bad, it's making the displays that seems to take so much time.

Luke's project was testing which spice emissions keep E. Coli from growing. If any of you were wondering, you can purchase E. Coli online. (I may be on the terror watch list now.) After ordering the E. Coli and petri dishes, Luke swabbed the petri dishes with the E. Coli. Then he put a teaspoon of spices in the lid of the petri dish, turned the petri dish upside down so the spice is at the bottom and not touching the agar. He sealed the petri dishes and let them grow for a few days. His results showed that cinnamon kept the E. Coli from growing. Runner up was lemon juice.

Lindsey examined what happens to the sugar bond as the temperature rises. She boiled a sugar solution and took out spoonfuls of the solution as the temperature rose 25 degrees. After letting the spoonfuls sit for a few minutes to reach room temperature, she analyzed the texture, taste and color of each spoonful. Lindsey, unfortunately, had to try a few different experiments to get one to work. She started out trying to grow bean plants with different color of filters and she also tried to find ways to keep erwinia caratova (a bacteria on carrots) from growing. Neither of these were successful or needed more time so we had to find one we knew would work. She ended up really enjoying what she did in the end and she learned a lot about the scientific process.

Luke got a first place and Lindsey got runner up to first place. It was explained to me that this is somewhere between first and second-- whatever that means.

Heather got to present a science project to her class. We had a bag of polymers. She demonstrated to her class what happens when you add water to the polymers. The polymers absorb the water completely. This is the same stuff that is in diapers and keeps them from leaking. She had the class guess what product the stuff was in. Being third graders, when they found out it was diapers, thought it was hilarious. I told the kids not to go home and pull diapers apart to find it but I was told at church today that at least one little boy went home and did just that!