Road Trip Science...

Driving home from a fun weekend vacation, the Science Kids were getting very squirmy in the backseat.  My solution...a quick hike and exploration of roadside geology!

Ages: All ages of Kid Scientists

Materials: The beauty of roadside geology is that you don't really need any materials.  If you're not sure what geology you're seeing, there is a great series of books called Roadside Geology and they are specific to your state.  The books list major roadways and detail the geologic formations visible from the road.

Procedure:
* We stopped at a viewpoint with a huge public art installation called Grandfather Cuts Loose the Ponies

* There is a parking lot at the view point, but the kids were squirmy, so we decided to hike to the top

* It was a great hike, but the roadside geology lesson started on the way back down the hill...

* The Columbia river gorge is full of columnar basalt and the trail we were hiking on was also covered with basalt.  The boys made observations on the difference kinds of rock and we observed the layers evident in the basalt columns on the hillside.  Vesicular basalt looks like it's full of pockets or like swiss-cheese.  This is because as an igneous rock (formed from lava) it cooled more quickly, trapping air in the lava.  The basalt with a smoother texture cooled more slowly, without trapping air.

* Connar noticed some gray patches in the soil along the path.  The Gorge was also covered with ash following the eruption of Mt St Helens in 1980.  It's still quite easy to find deposits of ash, which is exactly what Connar noticed.

A quick hike, a little exercise for their brains too, and we were back on the road...with new rock samples for our kitchen collection.

Where can you stop with your kids for a roadside geology exploration?

Family Adventures...

The Science Mommy and her family love Star Wars!  So, we couldn't turn down an opportunity to visit the Star Wars exhibit at the Pacific Science Center.  While much of the exhibit was museum-like with artifacts and costumes, there were a few fantastic investigations.  In Star Wars: A New Hope, Luke drives a land speeder around Tatooine.  This investigation connected real world maglev (magnetic levitation) technology with the movie land speeder...

First, the boys chose a lego land speeder, and were prompted to attach magnets to the bottom.  There were two different types of magnets, so they needed to experiment with location and placement ...

...their goal was for the lego land speeder to hover on the magnetic road.

Once the land speeder hovered on the magnetic road, they attached another battery to the top of the lego land speeder.  The new investigation, was to determine the placement of the battery, so that the land speeder was propelled along the magnetic road through wire coils.  This proved quite a challenge for my science padawans.  Not only did they need to determine placement of the previous magnets, the new magnet on the top but they also needed to charge the wire coils at just the right moment to move the car. 

The final challenge, was to move the land speeder along a magnetic road with hills.  I wasn't able to get close enough to capture any pictures.

My Science Kids had a great time!  I was impressed with the information throughout the exhibit connecting movie science fiction to real world applications in science and technology.

What Science Adventures have captivated you and your Science Kids?

Remember, the Rain Gauge Design Challenge is accepting entries through the end of the month.



Science Adventures...

Wolf Lodge Bay on Coeur d'Alene lake is a wintering location for migrating bald eagles. The Science Mommy recently took her Kid Scientists on a science adventure...

It was around 5 degrees the afternoon we headed out to Higgin's Point to see the Eagles.  We all bundled up and stayed as long as we could!

 

Aiden enjoyed spotting the eagles with his binoculars so that he could see them up close.

Higgin's Point is a good spot for bird watching in the summer too, so there are mounted telescopes and interpretive signs.  

Their information about eagles is interesting and easy to read, for most Kid Scientists.

We caught this eagle fishing...thought the light was fading, we could see the fish caught in talons as the bird flew off.

The eagles are magnificent and it was well worth the trip to watch them.

Cookie Time...

So, strictly speaking, cookie baking isn't a science project.  However, there were many science skills practiced by these kid scientists.  We also made a huge mess and had lots of fun!

Ages:  All ages of Kid Scientists can participate in the decorating.  Save the baking for the Big Kid scientists.

Materials: A good sugar cookie recipe and ingredients, frosting, food color & sprinkles

Procedure:  

* The Science Mommy has a post coming that is all about measurement.  Baking is one of the best ways for Kid Scientists to learn how to measure...and to experience the consequences of inadequate measurement!  Take advantage of this opportunity to help your Kid Scientists measure.

The Science Mommy wanted today's project to be about the decorating, so the Halloween-themed cookies were already baked when the Kid Scientists assembled.

Universally, Kid Scientists love to mix colors.  Whether they are using paints, or creating their own paints, mixing colors is a great learning opportunity.  The Science Mommy's nieces, Desi and Chloe, were our expert color mixers.

The kids didn't have a limit to the number of colors they could create and we had two shades of green, purple, gray, orange and blue.

While the girls mixed colors, the boys dove into decorating...

 With several dozen cookies and plenty of frosting and sprinkles, there was opportunity to try out every combination...

The finished products were pretty impressive and tasty too!

There are so many opportunities to explore, to create, and to investigate...The Science Mommy challenges you to make a mess and find science in something ordinary!

Snorkeling...

The Science Mommy recently had a chance to take her Kid Scientists out into the field, on a snorkeling trip to the Molokini Crater in Maui.  Sharing science where we find it is one of the best ways to encourage an appreciation for our world in Kid Scientists.  In this case we also talked about why biodiversity is important and had fun identifying fish on the reef.

We started by buying an identification guide for the fish we were likely to see.  This one is printed on plastic, so I was able to carry it with me while we were snorkeling. 

My Kid Scientists were ready to explore the reef.

 We saw a Butterfly Fish...

 Some sort of urchin as well as many different species of coral...

 Lots of Yellow Tangs...this one was Aiden's favorite.

 We think this is a sort of Parrotfish, but it wasn't on our guide.

Lots of Surgeon fish...

...and we were lucky enough to see four endangered sea turtles.  Wow...this was the most amazing part of the whole trip!

Exploring Tide Pools...

One of the best ways to make science real for all Kid Scientists, is to find it wherever you are.  You don't have to be able to identify all the organisms you see, just encourage the curiosity of your Kid Scientist as he explores.  Ask him questions about what he is looking at and get in there for a look also.

The boys spent about an hour looking at the tide pools.  I made sure to set a couple of guidelines for keeping the animals they saw safe...

• Don't chase animals around the pool
• Nudge shells gently...if something is living inside (it's firmly attached) leave it alone
• If you pick anything up, ask for help to make sure you handle it gently
• Watch where you're walking so that you don't step on any animals or slip and fall

Kyle and Connar saw a huge crab scurrying around on the side of the rocks.  We admired it's camouflage, in fact I wasn't even able to get a good photo.

 Aiden found several Hermit Crabs and giggled as they ran over his hands.  We were very careful to hold them close to the water we found them in and not to drop them.

Since we were in Maui, we spent lots of time looking at the volcanic rock and speculating about how the lava flows would have looked.

What science have you found...on vacation or in your own backyard?

Science Adventures...

The Science Mommy and her family were recently in Seattle and had a chance to visit the Boeing Museum of Flight.  You know how important curiousity is to the Science Mommy and visiting a great museum can certainly inspire scientific curiosity.

One of our first stops was the flight simulator.  This is one of the best simulators I have ever ridden, it was absolutely responsive.  Connar took the pilots seat and we enjoyed barrel rolls, somersaults and other flight patterns.  Flying the simulator required the use of two controls simultaneously and while not a real flight, Connar definitely learned something about the complexity of flying an airplane.

There were several opportunities to get into cockpits and explore the instruments.  Aiden was full of questions about how things worked.

The Science Mommy loved the displays.  Connar and I spent a long time looking at this one to understand how flight evolved in the animal kingdom. 

Musuems are excellent places to explore new ideas, ask questions and feed Kid Science curiousity.  Which great museums have you visited?