Water Cycle Model

When we studied water, I couldn't exactly build streams and rivers, though I did contemplate using the hose to simulate water flow, but instead I opted to used yarn.

The 'water' came down out of the mountain in streams, joined to make a river, fell as a water fall, and made a delta as it flowed into our lake.

This isn't ground breaking, but it was impressive to the littles and it gave a great 3D representation of water--oh, and I held the skein of yarn up to represent a cloud, so we got the rainfall/evaporation part covered too!

Growing Crystals

We are studying geology in science this semester.  I'm trying to come up with some labs to go with at least most of the sections we cover.  For the study of rocks and minerals, we made crystals using borax.

I set up an experiment worksheet and Justin worked with Kate on the project.

The instructions are fairly simple:

Form a pipe cleaner into a fun shape.

Pour boiling water into a jar (of course an adult should do this) and add Borax by Tablespoon, stirring often until the Borax will no longer go into solution (you have undissolved Borax at the bottom of your jar).

Tie the pipe cleaner on a string, and tie the string onto a pencil, such that the pipe cleaner hangs in the middle of the solution.

Allow to sit undisturbed for a few days.

Then you'll have a pretty little shape covered in crystals.

Record you methods and findings as you go.