A Whole New World of Science

I don't think it's any secret that I'm naturally more attuned to the English/Literature side of my brain than the math and science part, but it is amazing the difference wanting to learn and learning by reading and teaching Ella makes.  I'm now fascinated by elementary science, fascinated by the Creator and the intricate and huge design of the earth and beyond.  

In full disclosure of just how little thought I gave to scientific fact in my younger years, my father likes to tell the story of the time I looked up at a full moon and saw the markings on it that looked like the continents (has anyone else ever noticed this?) and asked if that was the earth.  That is so embarrassing to tell.  I mean, surely I knew what planet I lived on and that the moon came out at night.  Yes, I knew those things, but they were most obviously not something I daily thought about. 

Now that you are surely questioning my ability to teach my daughter at home, here's a few things we've done recently.  

We put a piece of celery in a cup of water with blue food coloring to see how plants soak water up through their "roots."  Blue dots all the way at the top!

Yesterday we also put a plastic bag over a plant for four hours so we could feel and see the water droplets in the bag from the plant's release of water vapor.
 

We also planted ivy inside a jar in a layer of rock, charcoal, and potting soil.  The idea is to see how the plant will continue to grow without our needing to water it because it keeps recycling the water already in the jar.  You can see we already have water vapor all over our jar.  Fingers crossed that I transplanted the ivy well.

A couple of weeks ago we staged a volcanic eruption.  Our volcano doesn't look much like a volcano...I had a long and narrow Pepsi bottle for the project, and my homemade clay didn't stay in place super well, dripping down the sides of the bottle instead, but I don't get too hung up on perfection.  {Obviously not a scientist}

For some reason, Ella was really nervous and unsure about this experiment.  I think she expected red hot lava to come spewing out of our bottle.  She did, however, ask to do it again afterwards, so in the end I think she thought it was cool.  Now you can enjoy a video of me squealing when our volcano erupts.

  Volcano Eruption from KJ Pugh on Vimeo.

The best part of my refresher course on elementary science is...I think about it all of the time.  I take Clyde Kilby's advice and drive around, picturing myself on a spinning sphere of rock in outer space.
 

At least once every day I shall look steadily

up at the sky and remember that I, 

a consciousness with a conscience, am on a

planet traveling in space with wonderfully

mysterious things above me and about me.

Clyde Kilby