What is fog?Science Along the Way

This is the first time we have experienced multiple seasons in a temperate climate in quite a while. It has been fun to watch my children react and enjoy.

This is our front yard Monday morning.  My son wanted to know what that stuff was.  After I informed him that it was fog, he said, "Can I go see what it is like?"  After some observation, he described it as "damp" and "pretty cool".

Both descriptions are accurate.  Fog is a collection of water droplets hanging in the air.

Where did the water come from?

In this case, the water had been there for a couple of days.  Warm air is able to incorporate more water droplets in its mix than cool air.  As long as the sun was heating the earth, the water remained as vapor in the atmosphere.  After dark, the molecules in the air began to loose energy, until it was "pretty cool." When the water molecules loose energy, they may decrease in temperature. They may also change into liquid droplets.  

Why do the droplets float?

Archimedes"s principle: if the mass of the fluid displaced by the object is greater than the mass of the object, it floats. (Remember the Greek guy yelling Eureka?)  The force of the fluid on the droplets is called the buoyant force. So, as long as a water droplet displaces a mass of air greater than it's own mass, it floats.  

When a group of those droplets hang in the air, we call it a cloud.  A cloud near the ground is called fog.  When the droplets join together, they bond tightly displacing less air for the same amount of mass.  The force of gravity pulls them to earth, and we call it rain.

The purpose of this series is to help me, my children, and my readers appreciate the natural world.  If you have found science along your way, I would love for you to share it here. 

E-mail me at WisdomKnowledgeJoy@gmail.com for more information.

 Other posts you might enjoy: Cold Blooded Animals on a Cool Day

Preschool Science:  Rubby Ducky in the Bath Tub

Cold Blooded Animals on a Cool Day

"Mom, I found a worm and a slug, and they are moving really slow."

We are having what the locals call "blueberry winter".  By "winter", we mean that you will want a jacket in the morning.  However, it is cool enough to slow down cold blooded animals, and I think that was the problem for the little mollusk (slug) and annelid (earth worm) that T-Rex found.

Other classes of animals such as mammals and birds have mechanisms to control temperature.  Their metabolism speeds and their pores close. Our cold blooded little friends loose their energy to the cool air, and that is why they were moving kind of slow.

Here's a nice article on Annelids and 

Molusks I found while doubling checking my facts:

http://www.tulane.edu/~bfleury/diversity/labguide/mollannel.html

The purpose of this series is to help me, my children, and my readers appreciate the natural world.  If you have found science along your way, I would love for you to share it here. 

E-mail me at WisdomKnowledgeJoy@gmail.com.

Pretend Elevators with Bottle Cap Pulleys

This activity can be used to address the following Next Generation Science Standards

K-2-ETS1-1.	Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool.
K-2-ETS1-2.	Develop a simple sketch, drawing, or physical model to illustrate how the shape of an object helps it function as needed to solve a given problem.
K-2-ETS1-3.	Analyze data from tests of two objects designed to solve the same problem to compare the strengths and weaknesses of how each performs.

Project Recycle! and Create! has provided me with some much needed motivation to do creative projects with my kids this year.  This month's challenge is to make an activity with or for our kids using bottle caps.

We made play animal elevators with operational pulleys.

 My children helped engineer their elevators and enjoyed using them for pretend play when we finished.  It was a fun introduction to a simple machine.

Materials: bottle caps, preferably of a few different sizes

A Box

String 

Glue

Clothes pins

Small play animals

I let my children choose where to place the initial bottle caps, then hot glued them in place.

I tied string to some clothes pins.  They attached the animals.  My daughter put her favorite little turtle in a car made from a candy box.

I originally envisioned a multiple point pulley system, but they were intrigued lifting their animals with just one.  

My son was frustrated that the string kept slipping off of the pulley.  We solved the problem by gluing a larger lid on the outside of the pulley.

This kind of physical play is great for developing an intuitive understanding of physical properties. We also worked in a little problem solving.  I would like to come back to this concept and add some complexity when they are ready.  For today,  they naturaly made it into pretend play, while I slipped off to get dinner.

Lids have provided us with a few other great solutions. Including:

A drain stop  done by the Pony Artist

A lesson in Circular Motion at the Breakfast Table initiated by T-Rex

Check out these projects from my co-hosts.

Sink or Float Experiment by AlterNative Learning

Memory Game by Powerful Mothering

Solar System Model by Still Playing School

Bottle Cap Art by P is for Preschooler

Flower Card by There's Just One Mommy

Pattern Play by Teach Me Mommy

Or do you have a great bottle cap/lid project?  Link it up!

An InLinkz Link-up

Analyzing Informational Texts and Teaching Critical Thinking

My son, like many little boys, is intensely interested in dinosaurs.  We often bring home dinosaur books from the library. This week, we brought home a book that had some glaring errors. It was a great opportunity to teach my children, ages four and five, about thinking critically.

As we opened the book, I pointed out the copyright date:1994.  That was twenty years ago!  A lot can change in in twenty years.  As we read through the book we found several facts that have changed. For example, Tyrannosaurus Rex is no longer the largest known carnivore.   

  Science, by nature, is always changing.  Anytime you research a scientific topic, it is important to make sure you are working with the latest possible information.  Realistically, kids books will never be sources of cutting edge information.  However, we can make an effort to note whether the information they contain is generally current.

 The book we were reading used the terms "ever" and "never" repeatedly.  I took this opportunity to show my children the danger of universal statements.  If the author had simply said, "large" instead of "largest" her work would still be relevant. T-Rex was big, even if it was not the "biggest carnivore ever." 

More importantly, we can not know everything that ever happened, nor observe everywhere.  Any time an author claims to be omniscient, we should be a little suspicious.

When we come across errors in our reading material, it is tempting just to substitute what I believe to be the correct information and move on. This was a start in teaching my children to analyze their reading material.  Hopefully, they will develop healthy thinking habits in the years to come.

What other types of fallacy do you think are important to note in informational texts?


Other Posts you may find useful:

Must Read Science Book :  A Review of Boy Were We Wrong About Dinosaurs

First Lessons

If you found this post helpful, I'd love for you to add this blog to your reader!

Science Along the Way: Why Does Tapping a Jar Lid Help it Open? And an Invitation for Guest Posts

Why does tapping a jar lid make it open more easily?

This question comes from Summer at Outside Kid and her kids.  It would take some more involved experimenting than I can do to be sure, but here's my best guess.  Thanks to my husband for helping me with this answer.  

First, let's think about what forces are working against you as you unscrew the lid.  Friction is the force between two surfaces that opposes motion between surfaces.  The magnitude of the friction is dependent both on the types of materials involved, and the surface area in contact between the surfaces.

 The other important force is the one created by the low pressure inside the jar.  The manufacturer intentionally removes air from the jar so that more particles push on the lid from the top than  from the bottom.  The lid is pinned to the jar by the weight of the air molecules pushing down on it.

Now, back to the knife tap.  The knife tap bends the lid just a little bit.  This decreases the surface area in contact with the jar, and may let in some air.  The decreased surface area leads to a decrease in the magnitude of the friction.  Any air that comes into the jar, helps push the lid up.  For more on why air would flow into the jar, read about playing with a straw here.

Thank you, Summer, for this great question!  I am always amazed at how complicated every day physical events really are.  Summer's family has been busy building the coolest tree house ever!  You might want to click over and take a peek.

The goal of this Science Along the Way Series is to help me, my kids, and my readers appreciate the wonder of the physical world that surrounds us every day. If you find an phenomena worth pondering along your way, I would love to feature it as part of this series. Guest posts and questions are welcome.  E-mail me at WisdomKnowledgeJoy@gmail.com.

Project Recycle! Create!: Math from Egg Cartons

Egg Cartons suggest math to me.  I think it's all those nice even compartments.  Even before I joined the Recycle!Create! group I had already done a skip counting practice activity from an egg carton.

 My four-year-old daughter absolutely loves it, and even asks for it when it's put away.

Apparently, I am not the only one who thinks math when trying to re-use old egg cartons.   Take a look at these great projects that I found on the Recycle! Create!  Link-up.



Color Sort from Powerful Mothering

Number Exploration by Sparkle and Pook This is an introduction to counting.

Counting Activity from an Egg Carton by There's Just One Mommy This one is to practice counting.

A Ten Frame by Teaching Every Day Would be great as an introduction or review of counting to 10, and I love her detailed explanation all the benefits from this activity!

Mancala from Marie's Pastiche I was going to do this until I came across her post.  I am glad she linked it up because she has a fantastic explanation of the game's background.  You can try this with wee little ones and it challenges adults too!

Project Recycle! Create!: Egg Carton Boats

This activity can be used to address the following Next Generation Science Standards

K-2-ETS1-1.	Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool.
K-2-ETS1-2.	Develop a simple sketch, drawing, or physical model to illustrate how the shape of an object helps it function as needed to solve a given problem.
K-2-ETS1-3.	Analyze data from tests of two objects designed to solve the same problem to compare the strengths and weaknesses of how each performs.

April's challenge from Recycle! Create! is to use egg cartons to do a project with or for your children.   

Unfortunately, for the environment, eggs only come in Styrofoam in our area.  I decided to ask my children to make boats from the egg cartons.

It took a couple of weeks, but last weekend we finally got the perfect day at the park.  After a family bike ride/walk  we finished off our morning at the cool stream. They even got to do some wading.  

A few things I think they may have learned through this project: school glue does not hold up in water. Tying your string to the boat works better.  Water currents follow the same pattern on their way down the stream. There are tadpoles in our local stream.  

For more great egg carton ideas check out these from my co- hosts.

Volcanoes from Still Playing School
Fairy Houses from P is for Pre-schooler
Easter Cross from Teach Me Mommy
Sculptures from There's just One Mommy
Building with Mud from Planet Smarty Pants
Rainbow Garden Mobile from Lemon Lime Adventures
 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Play Figures  from Sugar Aunts

If you have an egg carton project of your own there is still time to linkup.  Click here to go to the link up.