Playing Science

"Mama, I'm playing science!" ~J on a random car ride the other day.

How my heart just melted. "Playing" in my mind implies "fun," which has been my goal of Nerdy Baby(/Science). Science is important, science is approachable at any age (without much cost), and most of all, science is FUN!

Please take time to vote, one last time for Nerdy Science on Pepsi Refresh. Voting ends tonight (August 31) at 9p PST.



Text 107753 to 73774.


Oh, and email me/comment if you have any idea how to start up a company/non-profit. I'm looking for mentors/brains to pick.

Only two more voting days left!!

Please take the time to vote today and tomorrow. We are down to the wire and have been holding steady at #15 thanks to all of your votes!



**You might have to click the link again once you sign in, in order to vote for my project**


Vote by Text: 107753 to 73774.


Also...

Please use your power votes (codes on specially marked Pepsi products). I'll be happy to use your unused codes too...just send them my way and I'll do the dirty work.


****Feel free to help out other projects! ****

Please use your extra daily votes to support our Partners:

Atwater Classrooms (text 107863 to 73774).

Tech'ing Morganton Day School Classrooms  (text 107954 to 73774)

And very nice supporters, who are giving us lots of votes and encouragements, so please support them with your votes however you can:

Inclusion Project (co-founded by Clay Aiken) (text 108169 to 73774).

Squeeze - Feed, Teach, Nourish (text 107827 to 73774).

Recycling Robot (text 108147 to 73774).

**** Don't forget to use comments, so they know we are supporting them!!! ****

I will also be asking you to support some projects who "paid it forward" and voted for us this month and are competing next month, so stay tuned.

I love you guys. Thanks for all of your support and encouragement! This Refresh Grant has been a blessing in so many ways. I'm looking forward to telling you next month (when "official" results are announced) that we won!

Don't forget to follow Nerdy Science on Facebook to stay in touch with how the program is getting up and running: NerdyScience

Fantasy Friday: Science Fairs

No fancy paint drawings this week, just some verbose program description.

My desire is to bring fun science to kids with multiple visits to the classroom (1/week, 1/mo, or some other determined interval). I would do my lessons and let them experience science through making hypotheses (even if they are wrong) and experimenting. Then we'd discuss why their experiment ended up the way it did with each lesson (and maybe give them a "key science word" to use in everyday conversation because that's what cool nerdy people do).

After the multi-week program, we'd hold an open house, or "science fair." My goal is not to put more work on the parents (truth be told, my mom did a majority of my science fair brunt work - and this is a very young age group), but to have a space where kids can showcase what scientific concepts they have learned to their parents. I'd make the science fair displays with concepts and potential hypotheses and hopefully engage scientific discussions within the families. The kids would demonstrate how the science works (hopefully with gigantic "I did it" smiles).

The lessons would be tailored to the school/classroom's desire, or they can pull from yet-to-be determined themes I'll have prepared.

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Obligatory vote tag:

Please, don't forget to vote online:



**You might have to click the link again once you sign in, in order to vote for my project**


Vote by Text: 107753 to 73774.


Also...

Please use your power votes (codes on specially marked Pepsi products). I got two 50 "power votes" lately with my soda addiction. I'll be happy to use your unused codes too...just send them my way and I'll do the dirty work.

And Follow us on Facebook: NerdyScience


****I'll be giving suggestions for your other votes here. Feel free to help out others! ****

Please use your extra daily votes to support our Partners:

Atwater Classrooms (text 107863 to 73774).

Tech'ing Morganton Day School Classrooms  (text 107954 to 73774)

And very nice supporters, who are giving us lots of votes and encouragements, so please support them with your votes however you can:

Inclusion Project (co-founded by Clay Aiken) (text 108169 to 73774).

Squeeze - Feed, Teach, Nourish (text 107827 to 73774).

Recycling Robot (text 108147 to 73774).

**** Don't forget to use comments, so they know we are supporting them!!! ****

P.S. I love you guys. Thanks for all of your support!

Nerdy Husband

So, the story goes that my husband has wanted to build a 3-D printer for a while now. I haven't said no, but I never said, "Yes." Well, until he told me that we could create our own cookie/fondant cutters. Sign me up!

The printer making begins

Serious engineering in progress

John's 3-D printer...he already wants a better one

So you ask what else can you make with a 3-D printer (besides expensive cookie cutters)?

Safety buckles

Do nothing machine

Droid bot

Duplos

Nut and bolt

Rattlebacks

Snowmen cookie cutters (since they don't exist)

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Pepsi Refresh voting information deleted 9/25/12

P.S. I love you guys. Thanks for all of your support!

Sailboats with Toddlers

Believe it or not, I had twelve 18-27 month olds attention for 10 minutes!  Science is fun!

I decided that we should just jump into hands-on science.

I had a big box full of fun, relatively non-chokeable things to throw in the water (some that they wouldn't typically get to play with in water).  We had some unsharpened pencils, giant bouncy balls, some foam balls, some other random balls (balls+toddlers = win), pieces of paper, sponges, rubberband bracelets (think "Livestrong"), large rocks, cotton balls, straws, etc.  Without much organization, the kids came to me one at a time for an object to test in the water.  My favorite part was their eagerness to experiment.

After all of the objects had been plopped in the water, we talked briefly about things that float and thinks that sink. I had the kids fish the objects out and put them away in my cubby box that I brought.  This took a few more minutes of their attention.

Then I pulled out the sailboats!!  I chopped off the ends of toothpicks and taped a piece of index card onto the remaining toothpick.  In order to get the flat toothpick in the sponge, I made a hole with a pointy toothpick, then inserted the dull one, with a dab of hot glue - as during my test run, the first thing J did was disassemble my prototype and try to stick the toothpick up his nose.  These worked really well if you are one-on-one.  Twelve two year olds + one me still passing out the boats = chaos.  A few of the boats survived long enough to have some races.  The toddlers liked blowing on the race boats like they blow out a candle.  I think some of the teachers had more fun than the kids ;-).

My fleet of sailboats

Tips:
*Squeeze out excess water so the sponges float better.
*Use more waterproof tape (I used Scotch tape) when attaching the sail to the mast.
*Maybe conduct this experiment with 3 kids, not the flock of toddlers I had (though it was fun).

I don't have pics from the event since photo release forms weren't collected, except for this photo (since it's of J).  10 minutes of science lesson = 15 minutes of water play afterward.  Good thing it was a hot day! **

**Hot = 80s for us...my Vegas roots are shaking their heads in shame.


Anyways, for the pre-schoolers, I created these fun Sink/Float graphics in Word.  I thought I'd share.

Happy Sailing!!

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Edited 6/30/13 to remove Pepsi Refresh Voting tag. Voting has long since ended.

Top 20!!

Happy Monday!  I'm so excited to announce that we're in the top 20!!  We have to stay there for the rest of the month, so please keep voting.  Stay tuned, later in the week, I'll have a summary about my 10 minute sailboat science lesson with the 18mo-2 year olds at J's school.

----
Obligatory vote tag:

Please, don't forget to vote online:



**You might have to click the link again once you sign in, in order to vote for my project**


Vote by Text: 107753 to 73774.


Also...

Please use your power votes (codes on specially marked Pepsi products). I got two 50 "power votes" lately with my soda addiction. I'll be happy to use your unused codes too...just send them my way and I'll do the dirty work.

And Follow us on Facebook: NerdyScience


****I'll be giving suggestions for your other votes here. Feel free to help out others! ****

Please use your extra daily votes to support our Partners:

Atwater Classrooms (text 107863 to 73774).

Tech'ing Morganton Day School Classrooms  (text 107954 to 73774)

And very nice supporters, who are giving us lots of votes and encouragements, so please support them with your votes however you can:

Inclusion Project (co-founded by Clay Aiken) (text 108169 to 73774).

Squeeze - Feed, Teach, Nourish (text 107827 to 73774).

Recycling Robot (text 108147 to 73774).

**** Don't forget to use comments, so they know we are supporting them!!! ****

P.S. I love you guys. Thanks for all of your support!

Fantasy Friday: Racing ramps

Please, forgive my Paint drawing**  I was going to use enginerdy paper, but I think I'm fresh out...

Anyways here's my brainstorming for this idea.

1. Sturdy interchangeable pieces for designing a fast race car.
2. Starting block that will retract when the race begins. This would allow multiple lanes of race cars to race at the same time.
3.  Pieces to attach to the bottom landing strip with different coefficients of friction (dirt, clay, tile, wood, fake grass, etc).  The top of these pieces would have slate for marking distances the race cars travel (in case the kids want to compare and contrast their results).
4.  Chalk, to mark distances traveled by the race car.

With interchangeable and modular pieces, the designs and learning could go on for hours.  The children could design their car and measure the distance it traveled on the landing strip, and then they can change their car design and try again.  Or, they can try racing their one design on different surfaces.  Or, they can try to optimize with finding the best combination of car and racing surface.  Of course, with multiple lanes, they can also have some friendly competition with their classmates.


**This has to be the best race car I've drawn. J will be so proud of his Mommy.

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Obligatory vote tag:

As of 9p PST last night, we entered the top 20 for the first time!!!  Now, we have to stay there the rest of August.  Every vote helps!!  Thank you all sooooo very much!!

Please, don't forget to vote online:



**You might have to click the link again once you sign in, in order to vote for my project**


Vote by Text: 107753 to 73774.


Also...

Please use your power votes (codes on specially marked Pepsi products). I got two 50 "power votes" lately with my soda addiction. I'll be happy to use your unused codes too...just send them my way and I'll do the dirty work.

And Follow us on Facebook: NerdyScience


****I'll be giving suggestions for your other votes here. Feel free to help out others! ****

Please use your extra daily votes to support our Partners:

Atwater Classrooms (text 107863 to 73774).

Tech'ing Morganton Day School Classrooms  (text 107954 to 73774)

And very nice supporters, who are giving us lots of votes and encouragements, so please support them with your votes however you can:

Inclusion Project (co-founded by Clay Aiken) (text 108169 to 73774).

Squeeze - Feed, Teach, Nourish (text 107827 to 73774).

Recycling Robot (text 108147 to 73774).

**** Don't forget to use comments, so they know we are supporting them!!! ****

P.S. I love you guys. Thanks for all of your support!

Submarines - more things to do with your power vote bottles

I did Submarines with J and our 3 yr old neighbor friend (not pictured) shortly after I took it to J's school for the 5 year olds last month.  However, because they were so young, I decided to assemble the submarines for them before we were going to play with science.  I made a few modifications.  I decided to use the cap with a hole drilled into it for the straw instead of clay since the clay didn't stick well for long water exposure (note cheap clay was used).  I also created a valley on the aluminum foil wrapped pennies for the rubber bands.  Next time, hot glue the rubber bands and penny stacks.  They still kept falling off.  Here's the final product:

Note the holes in between the rubber bands (3 total)
Use caution when making holes, we used an awl

Let the sub fun begin!

J tosses the sub into the water

Sink sub, sink

J demonstrates what the 5 year olds found out too - that these subs make good fountains, which is also ok since it's still science (pressure differences).

Scientist at work

Science is fun, but how often do you get to do science naked?

Eureka!

Our version of Sink/Float:

Sponges float

J sinks

Sponge Bob shoes float

Bouncy ball floats

Lessons learned: science with kids doesn't necessarily go as planned (see naked baby and fountain sub above).  The idea is to go with the flow and roll with what the kids show interest in.  The 5 year olds loved their sinking subs, but they also liked the fountain it created when pulled out of the water.  If there's a teaching moment you think they'd understand, go for it.  If not, congratulate them for experimenting as ask them if they know what's going on.  Re-direct their attention if you don't like where the experiment is going.


**Now I realize, that is not a Pepsi bottle featured in this article.  I apologize.  We did this experiment in the middle of July.  Yes, I had applied to the Refresh Grant by then, but I had no idea about the craziness of these power vote collections that is needed to win.  (so pass on a power vote code or two if you don't mind).

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Edited 6/30/13 to remove Pepsi Refresh Voting tag. Voting has long since ended.

P.S. I love you guys. Thanks for all of your support!

Proud Nerdy Mama

You know when you are a nerd when your two-year old can properly identify who Albert Einstein is and that he likes to do science (we're working on more specifics).

J-man spent the weekend giving his Einstein Doll piggy back rides and talking about his "crazy hair." At one time, I think he even rocked and tucked in Einstein for sleepy time. How sweet, and nerdy.

(Einstein was a gift from Nerdy Gma D.)

Sorry I don't have pics or audio - maybe some other day...

----
Obligatory vote tag:

Don't forget to Vote Online:



**You might have to click the link again once you sign in, in order to vote for my project**


Vote by Text: 107753 to 73774.


Also...

Please use your power votes (codes on specially marked Pepsi products). I got two 50 "power votes" lately with my soda addiction. I'll be happy to use your unused codes too...just send them my way and I'll do the dirty work.

And Follow us on Facebook: NerdyScience


****I'll be giving suggestions for your other votes here. Feel free to help out others! ****

Please use your extra daily votes to support our Partners:

Atwater Classrooms (text 107863 to 73774).

Tech'ing Morganton Day School Classrooms  (text 107954 to 73774)

And very nice supporters, who are giving us lots of votes and encouragements, so please support them with your votes however you can:

Inclusion Project (co-founded by Clay Aiken) (text 108169 to 73774). - Exploding sodas was featured in their blog as a way to use Power Votes without drinking soda.

Squeeze - Feed, Teach, Nourish (text 107827 to 73774).

Recycling Robot (text 108147 to 73774).

**** Don't forget to use comments, so they know we are supporting them!!! ****

P.S. I love you guys. Thanks for all of your support!

Exploding Soda!

I've been dying to try out Mentos and Diet Coke Geysers for years. However, Diet Coke wasn't going to get me a handful of power votes (the power votes work I promise). Here's a video of how easy it is. My two-year-old, J, can do it!

Steve Spangler explains that the reaction is caused by the small pockets of air "pits" in the Mentos candy that allows a lot of bubbles from the carbonation to form, basically releasing the gas from the soda bottle, causing a fountain.

It's really fun to try.

First you take a soda bottle and place it somewhere where a giant wet mess is going to be ok (aka the grass in a local park).

Then open the soda top (which you would save for a power vote towards Nerdy Science).

Then pop some Mentos candies into the bottle (1 will work, 2 is a little better, >2 seems a little wasteful)

Run away

Watch the explosion

Repeat (over and over and over again).

Just be careful the camera person is not in the line of action:

Things to experiment with:
1. Different sodas (warning: sugar soda leaves an icky, sticky mess).
2. Different sized bottles/cans.
3. Amount of Mentos added to soda (we started with a whole roll, but it seemed to give us a good reaction with even just 1 or 2).
4. Try different kinds of Mentos (fruit/mint).
5. Taste the soda before and after the Mentos experiment:

6. Taste the diet soda flavored Mentos.
7. Compare the Mentos you threw in the soda to fresh Mentos.
8. How high can you get the soda to shoot? Set a target to aim for. Adjust the size of the nozzle (hint: smaller diameter).

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Edited 6/30/13 to remove Pepsi Refresh Voting tag. Voting has long since ended.

P.S. I love you guys. Thanks for all of your support!

Setting Up Sailboats

Sorry, I've been off of the blog-wagon for the weekend.  We had a visitor (my mom), and we were just very busy (we did do a science experiment, so stay tuned tomorrow for that post - video needs uploading).

Well, my mom is gone and the kid is asleep.  I promised a science lesson to J's class for this Friday.  I realized that I haven't shopped for it or tried it out.  I wanted to do Sink/Float with the Toddlers for sure, but I also wanted something a little more mechanically oriented - like sailboats.  Originally, I wanted to do dowels in styrofoam plates.  I found the coolest (clean looking) styrofoam trays in the recycling bin at Stanford (but these are little kids who like to put everything in their mouths, so I refrained from claiming them).  Anyways, the design I was thinking might be too clunky for little hands.  I was searching around my house and found a sponge, a toothpick (with the pointies cut-off), and an index card.  I had my husband try out my design in the sink and it seems to work with blowing on it (I'm just hoping our handheld fans get here before Friday).  I might try to see if I can hot glue the toothpick in so it doesn't get pulled out, but it might affect the buoyancy of the boat.  Ultimately, the goal of this project is to let the two year olds see that they can move something with the wind (pressure, force).  I'm sure it'll turn into a splashfest, but hey, they are two and science is supposed to be fun!

Anyways, I'll keep posting this week, so stay tuned and keep voting, please.

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Pepsi Refresh voting has ended, the voting tag was removed.

Fantasy Friday: Shake Table!

New theme for Friday posts for August: Fantasy Friday. What are some of the things I would do with the $5k from Pepsi Refresh?

One of the things I am excited to bring to the kids: earthquakes!!  I think kids would really like creating structures and watching them fall apart on a shake table.  I would make a couple of shake tables since I'm sure one won't be enough for the eager, science loving kids.  Of course, the tables would be more permanent than the poster board, plastic, and hanger wire directions listed in the reference and enclosed so little fingers are protected.  I tried searching for good blue prints for sturdy smaller shake tables and came up empty handed (good thing my background is in mechanical engineering).

I'm thinking tall towers out of basic building blocks could get a good squeal out of the kids, or we can construct houses made out of Popsicle sticks the day before (so the glue dries).  A little competition for longest standing house/tower never hurt, and since it's engineering learning, of course they would be able to redesign and try again at least once.  I always learned better from my mistakes.

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edited 9/5/14 to remove Pepsi Refresh information since the contest is over


P.S. I love you guys. Thanks for all of your support!

Reflections

Play with light a little. We've already discussed shadows, now it's time for reflections. Instead of absorbing/blocking the light (as we do with shadows), we're bouncing light in another direction with reflections.

From a young age, J loved seeing his reflection in the mirror. I still have no idea if he knew it was him when he was 6 mo old. Now, he just really loves looking at himself in the mirror and all of the funny faces he can make. He also likes to point out his favorite body parts while looking in the mirror (anatomy lesson!).

High five mirror baby!

Fun things to do with reflections:
**Find and point out different objects where you can see reflections.  Mirrors are obvious.  Aluminum foil, windows, water, plastics, etc.  Which are the best reflective materials?
**Write a message so that it is read normally in the reflection.
**Stick something on your child where they wouldn't be able to see it without using a mirror.  Direct them to a mirror to find the object.
**Set up multiple mirrors and get different views/multiples of your child.
**Can you make a mirror of half of your body?  Do funny things, like pretend to run, fly, jump.
**Laser light show!!  (just don't shine lasers in peoples eyes, of course)


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Edited Nov 13, 2012 to remove Pepsi Refresh Voting information.


P.S. I love you guys. Thanks for all of your support!

Super Slides!!

Gigantic carnival slides!! They are awesome!!  Really, anything where you can teach transfer of energy is awesome.

I used to spend hours racing my sisters (we were all different sizes at the time). Technically, objects starting at the same height should fall at the same rate (remember the transfer of energy equation (in an ideal world): mass x gravity x height = 1/2 x mass x velocity^2, masses cancel each other out).  However, I always ended up winning...

We tried out each color and experimented on our own during a trip to a local amusement center.

So why does it seem that some lanes of the Super Slide go faster than others?  Some factors:
**Higher overall lane usage = difference in friction
**Difference in waxing jobs of lanes (if venue waxes the slide)
**Sliding position, are you more aerodynamic than your competitor(s)
**Did you cheat and push off of the railings at the top?
**Different mats could cause different coefficients of friction
**Are your shoes or something else rubbing along the slide and slowing you down?

On our slide, the lane of choice was teal.  J and I ended up sliding off the end of the landing strip many times on teal, not so much on the others.  I think it was a difference in waxing or wear since we used the same mat each time.

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Obligatory vote tag:

Don't forget to Vote Online:



**You might have to click the link again once you sign in, in order to vote for my project**


Vote by Text: 107753 to 73774.


Also...

Please use your power votes (codes on specially marked Pepsi products). I got 25 "power votes" with my afternoon soda. I'll be happy to use your unused codes too...just send them my way and I'll do the dirty work.

And Follow us on Facebook: NerdyScience


****I'll be giving suggestions for your other votes here. Feel free to help out others!

You can use your extra daily votes for people who have supported me and given me good advice: Atwater Classrooms (text 107863 to 73774)

A good project to support: Self Defense Classes (text 107869 to 73774).

A new friend: Tech'ing Classrooms (text 107954 to 73774)

and just because robots are cool: Recycling Robot (text 108147 to 73774). ****

P.S. I love you guys. Thanks for all of your support!

Bottle Rockets

After you use your power votes towards my project, Nerdy Science, put your Diet Pepsi bottles to good use by making Bottle Rockets!!  Purchase some PVC pipes and fittings from local hardware store ~$10 (but you could save for future use make this cost more reasonable) + 4 bottles of Diet Pepsi for $5 (not the best deal out there) + water + bike pump (hopefully, you have one of these on hand - or could borrow one from a neighbor).

Please, do not launch bottle rockets unless people (especially the kids) are more than ten feet away from the launcher.

Big and Lil J launching the rockets

J enjoyed watching the rockets fly up high in the sky, chasing after the bottles, and filling them back up.

Things to try:
**Different sized bottles (20oz, 1-liter, 2-liters).
**Different shaped bottles (yes, each brand has a different shape).
**Different amounts of water in the bottle.

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Pepsi Refresh Voting information deleted 9/19/12
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P.S. I love you guys. Thanks for all of your support!

Monday Caffeine Break...

Since Pepsi is sponsoring this grant that I want, I figured to give them a shout-out with Science.

Behold, the tipping soda can:

So I was 100% bored during middle and high school lunches that this became my entertainment most of the time. When the can is 2/3 empty (or filled to the second "P" in Pepsi), try to see if you can get the can to balance on it's lower rim. I also liked spinning it in that position too. Kids can do it too. It might keep them occupied for 5 minutes or so when you're trying to down your food...

P.S. What would I do now that sodas are banned from many schools? Not sure, probably sleep through lunch.

------
Obligatory vote tag:

Don't forget to Vote Online:



**You might have to click the link again once you sign in, in order to vote for my project**


Vote by Text: 107753 to 73774.


Also...

Please use your power votes (codes on specially marked Pepsi products). I got 25 "power votes" with my afternoon soda. I'll be happy to use your unused codes too...just send them my way and I'll do the dirty work.

And Follow us on Facebook: NerdyScience


****I'll be giving suggestions for your other votes here. Feel free to help out others!

You can use your other 4 votes for people who have supported me and given me good advice: Atwater Classrooms

and just cool robot projects: Recycling Robot and Robogames.****



P.S. I love you guys. Thanks for all of your support!

M&M Math Supplementals

Yes, this is how we spent our Saturday night (don't judge).

We started with sorting...well, eating. J was super excited for this lesson. So excited, that he wouldn't focus and kept eating our lesson. John snuck a few too...

Counting or eating?

"Seven" (note the multi-colored lips)

Daddy helps

Our sorted cup of M&Ms

Our resulting Pie Chart:

Next was the rolling of the M&Ms.  We got 10 M&Ms in a cup like this...

Shook it up and tossed it on the floor like this...

and counted the M's (3 in the picture below)...

We repeated 36 more times and ended up with a cool bar graph (histogram) like this...

J liked the rolling of the M&Ms more than picking and sorting the colors.  Well, J liked eating our experiment more than the experiment itself.  Sigh.  John wanted me to make sure to recommend rolling the M&Ms more than 37 times and plotting the results as you go.  The plot should be more normal looking (bell-shaped) the more you roll.  However, with our 37, I'm seeing a bell-shaped trend.  What do you think?

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Obligatory vote tag:

3/23/12 - edited to remove Pepsi Refresh voting tag - voting period is over.  We won!  Thanks for your support



P.S. I love you guys. Thanks for all of your support!