"Look Mom! It sticks!"

Fun with friction!

Felt and fleece work really well when it comes to adhering to other materials using friction alone. This is a great, quick science lesson to hypotheses about what will and won't stick vertically on things. Would the pillow stick to the wall? What about a heavier pillow? Would silky objects stick to the couch? Would silky objects stick to the wall? What if the materials were wet? Experiment and have some fun!

What can you stick to the back of your couch?

How early is too early to start science?

Miss Baby J is now 6 weeks old. Time is flying by, when it's not 2 am.

We're starting to get into a routine now that our special helpers/visitors have all gone home, which means that it's just me and Miss Baby J during the day (when J's at preschool). Research tells us that we should talk to our babies starting as young as possible, but what should we talk about? Science!

She is calmer when she hears my voice, so I do love talking to her. Here are some things that I've talked about with Miss Baby J:

• Kiss a body part and talk about the body part (anatomy) - my personal favorite.
• Count fingers, toes, and other body parts (math).
• Colors (physics).
• The weather (physics/thermodynamics).
• Sing songs, clap rhythms (music).
• Identify noises we hear (physics/fluid dynamics).
• How anything we come across that catches her attention works (various science categories).
• Facts about different animals while pointing out the animal in J's and her stuffed animals (biology).
• Trees and other plants (biology).

What do you discuss with your infant?

Bones!

We've had a rough week. Last Thursday, J decided to grab the inside of a restroom door as it was being shut, breaking the tip of his finger and turning his finger nail completely black almost immediately. The doctors say it should be back to normal in the next four weeks. Though it's sad to see my child in pain, this incidence got me thinking about how much I love learning about the body and how it continues to motivate me in my current research.

The human body amazes me! And, guess what? We're still learning about us! Research is awesome.

Do you know how many bones are in our body? 206, at least for adults. Babies are born with more, but they end up getting fused/grow together as they age. One of the reasons babies have more bones is to make them more squishable to help with the birthing process.

Did you know that astronauts lose bone when they are in space? The same goes for people who are bed-ridden for lengthy amounts of time. Bone is this amazing material that responds to load/weight/forces that you apply to it. If you don't use it, you lose it! Fun studies have shown that the opposite is also true. Tennis players tend to have thicker forearm bones in their dominant arm when compared to the other arm.

More research: One of my favorite grad school classes, Orthopaedic Bioengineering, was taught by Dr. Dennis Carter. He co-authored Skeletal Function and Form: Mechanobiology of Skeletal Development, Aging, and Regeneration (affiliate link) with Dr. Gary Beaupre. Both gentlemen have spent their research careers studying the formation and redevelopment of bones and other structural materials in our bodies and have shared the information they've learned with us through this book.


Since we've been preoccupied with J's finger and getting ready for Baby Sister (who will be here in six short weeks), I thought it would be a good time to do the Magic School Bus kit on the Body and Bones, but we've already done the age appropriate experiments in some form or another. Here's a flashback to some of the fun with the human body we've had:

• How muscles work to move a joint: elbow model.
• Model lungs in a soda bottle.
• Different forces when popping packaging bubbles.
• A visit to the gait lab: analyzing human motion.

Why I Love My Cheap Microwave

It's big, it's blue, and it's bulky. It doesn't match anything in our kitchen, but I've grown to love our cheap microwave. It has been a topic of many conversations and a great math tool! Yes, this is a post about our microwave; please keep reading.

I started college in the fall of 2001 (dated myself). My roommate and I worked out that I'd buy the microwave if she brings the mini fridge. This microwave was in no way unique! In fact, they were all over the place and came in many different colors to suit many different personalities (not to mention, they were the cheapest microwaves out there). When we "temporarily" moved to the Bay Area almost 9 years ago, it came along and just never got replaced because it works just fine. Nowadays, people who never saw these microwaves ask if they were an Apple product of the same general time frame (honestly, I can't blame them for that assumption).

I've recently grown fond of this fine product thanks to the little 4 year old hands that always want to help. The microwave is within his reach, and he'll jump on any task that involves using the microwave.

I'll let you in on my secret on why I love this microwave; we just don't push numbers 0-9 on the key pad and press start. We are given limited options to choose from: 10 minutes, 1 minute, and 15 seconds.

This means J has to think about what to push when I ask him to microwave something for 30 seconds. He quickly learned that 30 is 15 twice and 45 is 15 three times. If I ask him to microwave something for 10 seconds, he watches the microwave and stops it when it says 5 seconds are left. Math is very much a part of our everyday life.

Because of his young age, J's not quite grasping that time (seconds and minutes) are in base 60. We are beginning conversations that 1 minute does not equal 100 seconds and 1 hour does not equal 100 minutes. This microwave will be a useful tool for these conversations too.

Example:

Can you microwave something for 90 seconds given the buttons on our microwave? What would you push? 
(note the 15 seconds only goes to 45 then it goes to 00 without making 1 minute)

• You could do it in two 45 second waves: 45 + 45 = 90
• The better choice, assuming the recipe doesn't need 2 - 45 second waves: how many seconds are in 1 minute? 60 (remember the microwave doesn't do 60 seconds but has a 1 minute button). How many seconds remain after you microwave for a minute (which we just established is 60 seconds)? 90-60 = 30. So, the answer is: When microwaving something for 90 seconds, you'd want to set the microwave to 1 minute and 30 seconds by pushing 1 minute and two 15 seconds on our microwave buttons.

What's your favorite nerdy kitchen tool?

*Note, I did prep for this lesson by cleaning out the microwave, a task that I've been putting off for many months. Yay for Nerdy Science and motivation to do my chores.

Streetlight Shadows

I love impromptu science lessons. Today's experience came from J's observations on Grandpa's shadow cast by the streetlights as we were walking to their favorite frozen yogurt store at night. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me to capture the original excitement, so I tried to recreate at home under our streetlight.

We were walking down a well-lighted pathway at night, behind Grandpa. We were originally stepping on Grandpa's shadow, but as we walked, Grandpa's shadow jumped ahead of him. What caused this?

As Grandpa (modeled by J) was approaching the light, the shadow was behind him. The further away from the light he was, the longer the shadow was.

As Grandpa reached the light, his shadow became smaller and smaller and was basically straight out from his body, not at an angle.

As Grandpa walked away from the light, his shadow went in front of him and became larger (until the light from the next streetlight took over, not pictured, but imagine the series repeated).

Note: Nighttime shadows are hard to capture on camera since you don't want to use a flash. My camera had a "Handheld Night Scene" mode, which is what I used.

Luckily, the pathway was long enough to continue with our forward progression and explain what was happening to J while in real time. We definitely saw his light bulb moment.

Related Posts:

• Experiments you can do with shadows in the daylight.

Biomechanics a la J

Super sleepy, sick J revelation: "See this?" [points to folds on palms of hands]

"It's so we can pick up things like our toys."

Recycling a la J

"When someone gives us something to recycle, we use it again, like I built a rocket ship out of a bottle."

Static Electricity

I love simple, unexpected science lessons. It was a beautiful day which made for perfect static electricity hair when playing at the park. All he had to do to get the crazy hair was slide down the tunnel slide. Then he grounded himself by jumping off the slide onto the ground or shocking himself on a slide bolt to get his hair back to normal.

Fun quote: J saw the picture and stated, "I look like a puffer fish!"

Patterns, an impromptu lesson

Patterns are everywhere in our life. They are particularly useful in science and are often used to make predictions about what will happen (aka hypotheses). If you can see what is happening, you can use that knowledge to your advantage. It's a great way to start guessing about what's going to happen or come next.

The greatest thing about patterns is that they are super easy to come by. You can make many patterns with pieces of paper (colored, textured, etc), blocks (different shapes and colors), beads, colored pencils/crayons, toys (blue car, red car, blue car...), food (beans, pasta, fruit, veggie, etc), silverware, straws (big straw, little straw, bendy straw), and many more. So next time you're bored waiting somewhere, see if you can challenge your youngin' with what you have at your disposal. Create a pattern and see if they can continue. You can also use a pattern while stacking (I've been known to play the tower game at restaurants back in my day - I haven't yet introduced J to some of my childhood shenanigans).

Here's our short lesson on patterns (which turned into about an hour of pattern making/completing):

Two weeks ago, we were walking home from lunch and found a big box of free items up for grabs. There were lots of books and games. This particular box caught my eyes:

It's definitely not an English game, but it looks like Domino's. I figured this would be fun for science (cause and effect - totally didn't think about patterns).

J immediately requested we played, but it wasn't in the "let's set it up like the picture on the box" way. There were four colors, and J wanted me to make patterns for him to complete.

I tried to convince him that we can make patterns and still build things to knock down too.

Then we found the bobble people the game came with. I think their sole job is to knock things down.

This was one of our more fun evenings over the past few weeks. I'm thankful for this gem of a game we found.

What are some of the ways you have used patterns in your family?

Sorting

J's been super excited to help out around the house, so I've been letting him sort the silverware (minus the knives) while I empty the dishwasher. To my surprise, he is good, and I don't have to redo. He is able to sort things by size and shape, a very scientific process. Think of how we label/name animals or plants; it's all one big sorting game. He's learning at 3.5 years old that he can classify objects by using knowledge he's gained from previous experiences, observation, and scientific reasoning - "This is a fork. It's not a knife. It's a big fork, not a little one." He's nailed the silverware; I think he's ready for classifying animals. They might be a little trickier.

Win for an unintended science lesson and getting items checked off of my to-do list around the house.

Why do we have brains?

This was the first question from my 3 year old this morning. My immediate answer (while I was getting ready for work) was, “Our brains help us do everything we want to do. Without your brain you wouldn’t be able to move, eat, speak, think, and lots more.” I of course then said, "We need to do all we can to protect our brains, so we can continue to move eat, speak, and think. If we injure our brains, we won't be able to do the things we want to do." In other words, I think helmet wearing is super important. J responded, "We wear helmets to protect our brains!"

Thinking about it from a biomedical engineering prospective (older kids/adults), our brains are the most amazing command center controlling our bodies! As we grow and learn, connections from one part of your brain to another are formed. Sometimes connections are easier than others (ie, when you are young, you can learn a foreign language better). Regions of the brains are responsible for different things, so if you injure specific regions of your brain, you might lose different abilities to do things.

On a personal note, I was 25 yrs old and experiencing some pretty persistent, bad migraines that were giving me "mass effects" like blurred vision and numbness. I was diagnosed with a defect called arteriovenus malformation (AVM) in my brain. It's where the veins and the arteries are directly connected, basically a useless vein since the oxygenated blood doesn't go through the capillaries to my tissues, just straight to the vein and back to my heart. Part of the problem is that the arteries are a high pressure system and veins are low pressure. The high to low pressure switch can cause eddies (turbulent flow), which can lead to the formation of aneurysms (where the artery wall balloons out) and bleeds. Talk about a scary diagnosis! Luckily (if there's something to be lucky about), it's a birth defect (so I've lived peacefully with it for a long time), it's gigantic and "diffuse" (5x5x5 cm), and I have inherently low blood pressure.

Here's a picture. You can see the AVM in both views here (look for asymmetry and squiggly lines). The AVM is in my left frontal and parietal lobes of my brain. 5x5x5 cm is a pretty large portion of the brain, and I've been declared neurologically normal, which to me is amazing proof of the adaptability of the human brain (and cardiovascular system too)...

Despite its quirkiness, I love my brain.

**Edited on 1/12/13 to add:
AVMs can be found anywhere in your body. AVMs in the brain are particularly scary since a problem there can lead to a very big problem. I think they are more common than we know. Many people live their lives with AVMs and don't even know they have it. I could have treatments to get rid of the AVM, but the risks of treatment outweigh the benefits since I do not have aneurysms.

Joshua Trees

Sorry for being MIA. We went on an impromptu trip to my favorite desert, the Mojave - yes, I'm biased. The trip was mainly for family, but I love the dusty scenery and seeing these fun shaped trees, the Joshua Trees.

We didn't get a chance to go to Joshua Tree National Park this time, but it's one of my favorites. It's one of those unique places where you can drive through two separate deserts and see the scenery change as you change elevation. I highly suggest visiting if you get the chance. However, you don't have to be at the national park to see Joshua Trees. They are all over the place down there.

I joke about my middle school, and because of their overcrowding, I ended up in Desert Discoveries (not by choice) as an elective. I actually remember a fair amount from 15+ yrs ago, especially when it comes to random facts about a place I love. As I we drove through the desert, Big J commented to Little J that Mommy could tell you all about those trees. The key is trying to keep it interesting for little minds. I highlighted its shape and how unique it is!

Joshua Trees:

• Look like an upside down tree that has its roots in the air.
• Are a plant UNIQUE to the Mojave desert! This is the only place in the world that they are naturally grown. The desert climate combined with the perfect elevation is the perfect recipe for these plants to grow.
• Are related to the Yucca plant.
• Many small critters make Joshua Trees their homes. It provides adequate shade/shelter in the hot, hot desert (it was 90+ in November!).
• They do produce flowers, but need the cold to help them. It does get fairly chilly in the Mojave during the winter.

Stay tuned for our fun at The Living Desert and more random science bits about the desert.

Road Trip Science, AKA "I win!"

We've spent a lot of time in the car the past two months for last minute road trips (7-12 hrs each way). J is an awesome plane traveler, but we are definitely not a car ride family (bike commuters, holiday fliers, etc). In order to pass the time and keep down the whining, we came up with a brief "I spy" like game where we made up the rules as we went (nobody ever does that, right?).**

We weren't prepared ahead of time, so we didn't create a chart. If you are ahead of your game, feel free to create a chart with stickers of things you might see. You can have your kid circle or check mark what they see as they see it or place stickers on a paper as they see the animal/agricultural item. Being that we're approaching Thanksgiving, I figured I'd share our fun game.

Things we saw and talked about:

• Animals on the side of the road (like cows in the field, not raccoons smashed on the pavement). The first one who spots the animal says the name of the animal and says, "I win!" With toddlers and preschoolers, recognizing animals in the distance is a good science lesson.
• What sound does the animal make?
• What does the animal eat?
• How many did you see/could you count?
• Did you see a baby animal? What's the baby animal called?
• Why do we have these animals? Do we drink their milk or use milk for cheeses? Do we eat them for protein - this still might be abstract to little kids that steak/hamburger comes from cows? Does their fur/wool keep us warm (sheep/llamas)?
• Spot the agriculture. "Hay! I win!" Guess what the trees/farms on the side of the road are. Talk about fruit and veggies in season and how fruits and veggies help our bodies grow big and strong (and keep us healthy).
• Talk about mountains. The higher you climb the mountain, the easier it is for your body to get tired. Also, there's snow on the top of the mountain. It's colder up there than down where we're driving.
• We have (well J has) an obsession with construction vehicles, so we had long conversations about what each truck does and why it's useful (even though we might be stuck going slowly for that stretch, ultimately, the road will be better).
• Random statues are my favorite, but they aren't really science. I guess you can look at the structural properties and talk about how tall/wide or the colors, but by the time you realize what you saw, the likelihood your kid would still be excited is slim. We saw a dragon and a cow statue.

**Our way of making up the rules didn't cause contention since we only have one kid, and we were more concerned about keeping him occupied and not whining. I'm sure you'll have to modify the "I win" game with more than one kid, or have set rules.

Kid friendly pumpkin carving

J's at an age where all of the holiday traditions start becoming fun! I really wanted him to get into pumpkin carving, but I wasn't sure of the knife aspect of pumpkin carving. Flashback ~8 yrs ago, my roommates and I found these cute pegs for pumpkins, Fright Lights; think Lite Brites but for pumpkins. I don't think I ended up with the pegs, but I bought new ones just in time for Halloween.

J's excitement builds as we open the pumpkin

Science time, how does that feel J?

Ewww, gooey!

J's turn to feel the pumpkin guts

Pumpkin's clean, now time to tape on the pattern and poke holes, which will be used for hammering in the pegs.

Hammer time!

Almost done. Instead of whacking every which direction, J figures out he can press really hard on the hammer against the pegs. It worked well!

The finished product (the pattern came with the pegs)

Kid friendly pumpkin carving

The happy carver!

Halloween light lesson: opaque, translucent, and transparent.

Pumpkins are opaque. Without carving them out, if you shine a light on them, you can't see the light through the other side of the pumpkin.

Light Pegs are translucent. Translucent items let some, but not all, light through. Another good example of this is a frosted glass shower door.

The carved part of the pumpkins are transparent. Light shines through transparent items, unblocked. Windows and clean glass are great transparent objects.

What happens if you change the quantity/quality of light?

Is it easier to see the pumpkin with the lights on/off?

Before carving, stick your lighting source in the pumpkin to see if you can see it. Can you see it when the lights are on or off?

How does the inside of a pumpkin feel?

Unplanned science lesson while prepping for the holidays? Check!

Happy Halloween!

Why do plants have roots?

My sweet boy and mother came home from a farmer's market with these sunflowers.

We were sitting at dinner last night and discussing how pretty the sunflowers were and what they need in order to last a long time out of the ground: sunlight and water. Plants' food comes from the sun.  It takes sunlight and convert it to energy (like we convert our food we eat into energy).  Plants also need water, like we need water.

It turns out potted sunflowers around here are a hot item for the neighborhood rodents. All three of our homegrown ones never made it to where we could harvest the seeds.

Anyways, J stated that he wanted to put the sunflowers he got from the market in the ground. We had to convince him that we'll have to wait until next spring to plant/grow new sunflowers in our pots.

Here's our two minute science lesson:

• Plants in the ground have roots, which, besides drink the water and absorb the nutrients from the soil, act like big giant feet to hold the plant up. Without roots, plants tip over and don't get the water and nutrients (like vitamins) they need, which means they won't last long at all.
• If you have the resources, you can try to "plant" a cut flower and have your kid observe how it acts. Why isn't it working like a plant you've grown from a seed?

----

We're having Science Saturday in the Park this Saturday, September 29, 10a-noon, in the SF Bay Area (CA). Feel free to contact me for further details. We'll be exploring bones and muscles and making our own functioning elbow models that you can take home. This activity is good for ages 2-100.

Sunset Colors

The things I miss about home (Vegas) is the year-round vivid sunsets.  I know this happens elsewhere, but it hardly ever happens here in the Bay.  When it does, I always feel homesick.  Anyways, J saw his first red sunset this weekend on our drive home from a long road trip (we happened to be in the East Bay, but I didn't have a camera handy).

J: "Mommy the sky is red!"

Here's how our two minute science lesson went:

-The colors of the sunset are due to the sunlight bouncing off of other objects on the earth (scatter).  I didn't have the reference at the time, but this article does a great job explaining light scattering and its affect on the sunset colors.

-What colors do you think the sun gives out/reflects?

-We actually watch it go from yellow to orange to red and the clouds were a deep purple. We named all of the colors we saw.  He was excited the most when it reached red.
-Clouds add more excitement, giving the sunlight more things to bounce off of.

Now I will share my love of sunset (and photos of them) to you.  Despite my desire to tell you that Southwest sunsets are the best, it seems that I have them from quite a few places.  To engage you a little bit, we'll play a guessing game.  Where was each sunset captured?  I included treelines for some hints.  Bonus points for naming the time of year.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Got your guesses?




Here are the answers:

1. Aptos, CA - June 2008
2. Rancho Mirage, CA - May 2007
3. Minneapolis, MN - July 2006
4. Yosemite - September 2006

5. Waikiki, HI - December 2005
6. Austin, TX - July 2008 - did the bats give it away?
7. Las Vegas, NV - January 2006 - it is Vegas, so no trees, sorry.  I cropped out light poles and stripper billboards (since that might give it away and it's a family friendly blog).

Looks like I need to chase sunsets more since it's been over 4 years since my last sunset picture.  No wonder J hasn't seen any.

How many did you guess right or close enough?  I'd say close enough answer for
1: CA Hwy 1 around Santa Cruz
2: Palm Springs
5. Hawaii

Lizards!

Now that I've been here for 7 years and still have yet to do many things in our backyard, I've started a bucket list for things I should do while living in the Bay Area.  One of those things I've wanted to do but never have gotten around to was walking the Stanford Dish.

Well, Big J wanted to go for a family hike, so I suggested this as a starter hike (we haven't been hiking as a family - plus, it's something I've wanted to do).

The day was gorgeous and so was the view (which the cellphone camera picture doesn't do it justice).

Here's the Dish:

Yes J stayed on Big J's shoulders most of the hike.

Anyways, we had more fun science lessons while hiking.  We were counting the animals we saw.

Squirrels: 20
Lizards: 10
Ladybugs: 3
Deer: 1

J has never been close to lizards before.  We were this close to most of them:

Taken with a crappy cellphone with no zoom

Since J was fascinated by the lizards, I figured it was time to dust off my Desert Discoveries "star student" skills from the 7th grade (over 15 yrs ago) and give him some science info to keep him engaged.  Like our 2-minute lady bug lesson, here's what our 2-minute lizard lesson sounded like:

• Lizards are reptiles (compared to humans which are mammals or frogs which are amphibians).
• Lizards are cold-blooded, which means they are the temperature of their surroundings.  These lizards were on the blacktop/pavement because they were trying to warm up.  The pavement in the sun is warmer than the bushes in the shade.  Comparison: humans are warm blooded, we stay ~98-99 degrees F.
• These lizards camouflaged themselves to their surroundings.   We saw quite a few run into bushes and we had to look really hard to see them.  They looked a lot like the dried up sticks that surrounded them.
• These lizards were chasing and eating ants.  Mmmmm, crunchy.
• Lizards are quick when they run.  It helps them get away from anything that might be wanting to eat or step on them.
• Lizards lay eggs.

I've started a 2-minute lesson tag for our unanticipated science lessons and quick general knowledge recaps.  I'm sure there will be plenty more as we discover the world through the eyes of a preschooler (man, time flies).

5/29/12 edit
**Let me clarify.  The Bay Area is not desert - we get ~15" of rain/year, which is more than the 10" or less to classify an area desert climate.  However, lizards inhabit both climates.  I know about them through science, but I think I learned more about them through Desert Discoveries, an elective I got placed into because my school was overcrowded and they were making up classes.

Ladybugs

We had an unintended science lesson yesterday waiting for a friend to answer her door.

A lady bug was happily sitting on a leaf of this bush.  We watched it for a few minutes and talked about ladybugs (sorry the photo isn't great, I only had my cellphone with me).

Discussion Points (as much as we could fit in in the two minutes it had J's attention):

• Colors are red with black spots.  Red is usually a nature warning sign for predators (what eats ladybugs) to stay away.  It acts like a stop sign.
• They have wings (our ladybug even flew up a few branches for us).
• Ladybugs eat aphids, which are little bugs that eat leaves/plants.  J got excited and stated that the silkworms in his class eat leaves too!  However, ladybugs don't eat silkworms.
• Insects, like the ladybug, have 6 legs.
• The ladybug has 2 antenna, to which J gave himself antenna and pretended to be a ladybug.

Some fun ladybug sites:

Ladybug FAQ

Ladybug life cycle

J's quote: "I don't want to touch the ladybug.  It'll sting me!"

Needless to say, we were just quiet observers of the ladybug.