Blooming Scientists

I’m Looking for a Cool Rock.

Most families’ homes don’t have walls and floors of stone. But public buildings are designed to show strength and fortitude so many are built with exteriors of beautiful stone. Take a field trip to public buildings, especially those built in the early 1900s. Banks, post offices, libraries, and utility companies from that era were built covered in beauty. The architecture, everything from the sculptured facades to the windows, incorporates beautiful displays of art and stone. Below are photos of the old Cincinnati Bell Telephone Building with lovely granite and semiprecious stones. The windows have grates made of bronze with art deco flowers integrated in the grate design. Some of these flowers are of beautiful blue lapis gemstone.

Or, think about this. You are looking for big pieces of marble, granite, onyx, agate, or soapstone. Where would you go to find big slabs of natural stone? It’s time to visit the building supply stores and granite countertop fabricators. They have huge warehouses of stone. (They may restrict small children from the warehouse as a safety precaution, so you might want to check beforehand.) The fabricators may also have small chips or samples that can go home for your child’s mineral collection.

I love how the large slabs really show off the flow of the minerals that created the granite.

When my youngest daughter was about eight, she wanted to make a map showing minerals from every state. Whoa! A fifty-state field trip wasn’t in the cards, so I looked for a local mineral society or rock hound group. We found a kind, older gentleman with a basement and garage full of rocks. He loved talking about the rocks, where he found them, and how he polished and mounted them in jewelry. We spent two afternoons with him, and I don’t know who had the most fun. (It might have been his wife who made banana bread for us.) I know we had a heyday gathering rocks and left with boxes of rocks. My daughter filled her map for all fifty states.

Sometimes there are wonderful things to see right on our way to the places we want to go. We just need to take a moment and look. The Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is a good place to take time and look. While this is the busiest airport in the world, it is also a treasure of learning.

The many concourses of the Atlanta airport are connected with a great underground train. But if you don’t take the train, there are moving walkways connecting the terminals. Or, you can just walk to stretch your legs, which feels great and really helps little ones burn off energy. Recently I had a long layover and here’s what I found.

In the terminal atrium, outside of security, a magnificent Yangchuanosaurus, thirty-one feet long and ten feet tall smiles down at travelers resting between flights. He is part of a private collection currently on loan.

Want ice, ice, and deep blue water? Between Concourses A and D is the Transportation Mall where you’ll find an exhibit of Antarctica photos taken by Santiago Vanegas. Vanegas returned from Antarctica in 2009 with eleven thousand photos. The current display contains fifty of his best and will remain on display until February 2012.

Do you like model airplanes? Is anyone studying World War II or the role of jewelry in displaying patriotism? Visit the McAvoy Collection in the South Terminal to see handcarved WWII model airplanes created by Georgia native Holice McAvoy. The National Museum of Patriotism provided the exhibit with Sweetheart Jewelry. This jewelry was created and worn to show patriotism and support for soldiers during World War II. Learn more.

Presented by the Airport Art Authority, Concourse E holds the Martin Luther King, Jr. exhibit of personal items, including the robe Dr. King wore when accepting the Nobel Peace Prize. The King Center has loaned the items and plans an expansion.

For more photos and information on these special exhibits, check this link.

If you enjoy purses made of woven gum wrappers or juice packs, then you’ll love Recycle Runway in Concourse E. Artist and environmental educator Nancy Judd inspires us with fun and fashion to rethink waste. Visit www.RecyleRunway.com/ATL for more ideas, eco-quiz, video, and more resources.

More learning from the Atlanta airport will be coming.

At the HEAV conference in Richmond, Nancy and I had a great visit with two homeschool moms on our Parent Support Group, Kathryn Bremner and Jolanthe Erb. Along with their experiences using Nancy Larson® Science, Kathryn and Jolanthe shared ideas for homeschool field trips and extra science projects. Nancy and I are both very interested in composting, so I asked Jolanthe to share this project.

The Worm Jar – Jolanthe Erb, www.homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com

The kids were thrilled with the prospect of bringing a big ol’ handful of worms into the house. The purpose? To see how {and if} worms compost, dig tunnels and mix soils.

Mommy? Perhaps not as thrilled as the kids were at the prospect of there being worms on the loose should a certain 5 year old manage to get hold of the jar. But she persevered…

Want to try this at home? Here’s what you’ll need:

• a quart size canning jar
• a lid with holes in it
• dirt/soil/hay/grass
• worms
• dark colored felt or paper

First we layered dirt into our jar ~ rich soil from the garden, some lighter sand, some mulch {layering soil, sand, mulch, soil, sand…}. When we had filled the jar, we had fun digging for worms and added them to the top of the jar. We also added some food {teeny tiny chopped carrots, celery greens, chopped apples, etc…} for the worms to mix into the soil ~ we hoped.

We made sure the soil was slightly damp, put the lid on our jar and wrapped in a piece of dark brown felt so that the worms would have some darkness to work in. We even put the jar inside one of our cabinets so that it was good and dark.

Every few days for the next two weeks we continued to check on our worm jar to see how our little underground friends were doing ~ and if they were doing their jobs.

We filled out a simple science notebooking sheet with our predictions and observations to track our worm’s activities.

Click on the image to download the pdf. )

Some fun facts we learned about worms:

~ The only places where earthworms don’t live are in the desert and where the ground is frozen.

~ Earthworm poop is called ‘castings’.

~ Worms have two layers of muscles ~ one that runs lengthwise and one that runs around, helping its body stretch and contract.

~ Worms have a coat of slimy mucus that helps them glide through the dirt.

~ Sunlight can kill a worm because they are sensitive to the UV radiation.

~ Worms are sensitive to temperature and touch.

~ Worms do not have ears, rather they ‘hear’ by sensing vibrations.

Here is a peek at our jar after 3 days. Can you see one of our worm friends near the top of the jar? See how our soil is already mixing? We had to add a little water/moisture to the jar to help out our worm friends.

After two weeks there were no obvious layers anymore. Our worms had been hard at work mixing and composting our soil. After we observed them, we took them back to our garden and let them do their work around our vegetables.

When the boys went shopping, they came home with the biggest apples ever! They are beautiful. And, they are big. So what happens when young boys want an enormous apple for a snack? Guess?

Before

 It was just too much apple left to toss, and no one wanted it. So, I decided to give it to our feathery neighbors. When this happens in your house, have the children repurpose and share with your neighbors.

What’s Needed:

Half-eaten apple                                              Twine

Peanut butter                                                   Plastic zip tie

Wooden or metal skewer                                Wild birdseed

Scissors to cut twine                                        Plastic bowl to catch birdseed

I’m omitting the written instructions. This is a learning opportunity for the children to learn by using visual instructions, and have everything they need to complete the apple birdfeeders. If they have problems, please let me know.

–Madon