Nerdy Science is on Pinterest!

I joined Pinterest for Nerdy Science.  I thought  it would be fun to join the club, reach out to a broader audience, and link up with other like minded parents and educators.  So far, I'm liking it more than Facebook pages.  I'm slowly learning the ropes and how to pin and follow, but I'm finding it a pretty fun way to get and share ideas (and possibly feedback).

If you are on Pinterest, please follow Nerdy Science!

http://pinterest.com/nerdyscience/

Also, any tips from Pinterest experts are welcome.

Getting a hard boiled egg into a bottle

This was an experiment I saw online a few years back, and I've always wanted to try it.

Q: How can you get an egg to fit into a bottle with an opening smaller than the egg?
A: Science!  Check it out!

Materials:

• Open mouth bottle - large enough for an egg to squeeze through it, but small enough to seal the top with an egg.  ***Please do not use a container that once held alcohol!***
• Matches (for adult use only)
• 1 peeled hard boiled egg*

Methods:

• Light a match (or 3 in our case).
• Carefully place match(es) into bottle.
• Cover the top with a hard boiled egg.
• Watch and note what happens

Notes:

• We used a 32 oz Gatorade bottle (note J's red juice mustache).
• We used rice as a "padding" for the fire since I was afraid that plastic burns.
• We didn't show it, but one match didn't heat up the bottle enough to do anything.  3 matches worked well.

Results:

• Video 1:

• We had so much fun, J wanted to do it again! Queue video 2:

Discussion:

• The fire from matches heats up the bottle, and having the egg on top of the bottle helps extinguish the fire.
• As the bottle cools, the air contracts, pulling the egg into the bottle.
• The trick then becomes seeing if you can get the egg back out.  We cut it up to get it out and properly recycled the bottle.
• My favorite part of the experiment was the surprise when the egg got sucked in completely.  POP!

*edited to add this note: hard boiled eggs peel better when they are a few days old (something I didn't know since I don't eat eggs).

Sensory - Hard Boiled Eggs

Easter will be J's first one with hard boiled eggs (again, I really don't like eating just eggs).  I decided to practice my egg making abilities (to which my husband said something to the extent of the whites tasting fine but the yolks were interesting...so, I guess it wasn't great?)

For science, I decided to give J a hard boiled egg to see what he'd do with it.

Here's what happened:

My goal for this experiment was to see if he:
1. Knew just by looking that this egg was different than the ones he puts in his cookies.
2. Can figure out how to peel the egg with his hands.
3. Likes the taste of a hard boiled egg.

The results:
1. Nope, he tried to crack it like any typical raw egg.
2. Nope, that was too complicated for him.  I'm barely able to do it.
3. In terms of taste, it wasn't a hit though his first response was, "I like it!" It quickly grew into, "I don't like it."

Things you can incorporate:
1. Talk about the different textures of the hard boiled egg (slimy/smooth white, gritty-like yolk)
2. Add flavor (salt/pepper/other favorite spices) - how did that change the taste?
3. Cook different style eggs and talk about the differences in cooking methods and outcomes (texture, taste, etc).

Intro to Egg Experiments

So, if you are anything like me and eggs make you gag, you can be in your late 20s and never have made hard boiled eggs (gross).  My family growing up used to make and dye hard boiled eggs for Easter, and we'd end up wasting at least a dozen hard boiled eggs (because nobody ate them).  Dying Easter eggs was a big tradition that we eventually outgrew by mid-elementary school.  I have yet to dye eggs with J.  I'm beginning to think he's old enough to where it'll be a fun tradition to start.

Anyways, so what do you do with hard boiled eggs if you don't like them (or even if you do and can spare a few)?

SCIENCE!

Stay tuned and I'll be giving you some fun ideas of science you can do with eggs.

While you're waiting, check your cookbooks and/or Google your favorite way to hard boil your eggs and get a cookin'.

You know when...

...you're a nerd when you celebrate Pi Day bigger than St. Patty's Day.

I don't think any of us are wearing green today.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  I suggest going on a clover hunt.

*Where can we find clovers?
*What color are clovers?
*How many leaves do your clovers have?
*Can you find any clovers with a different number of leaves?
*Why do some clovers have a different number of leaves?