Science Update

Spike finished up his unit on magnets today. His school supplies include a ring magnet, a horseshoe magnet, two bar magnets, and a latch magnet. Oh yeah, and a sample of the rock magnetite. So he has been able to get lots of hands on experience with playing with magnets.

His last experiment involved finding the magnetic field for his different types of magnets. We put some iron fillings on a paper plate and he took turns putting the different types of magnets under the plate and watched what the fillings did. He then drew it on his worksheet. We all thought the ring magnet looked the neatest.


Princess is studying a unit called Forces in Fluid. It is actually an optional unit, but since she has not received too much science in school up to this point I figured we can use it all. Her latest experiment was trying to crush a can using internal pressure. You heat a can that has about an inch of water in it on a stove. When it has reached a heavy boil, you flip it over as quickly as possible and put it into a shallow pan with cool water. When the gases from the steam cool off and again become liquid, the loss in pressure inside the can causes it to crush. I tried several times, but was only able to achieve a little bit of crunch....and a burnt thumb.


And what has Sprout been up to? Oh, a little of this...