Elamville

The grandkids learn to garden..

Sixth Grade Science

Charles' Law Demonstration Fun

Ivory Soap floats - most people know that.
It's because it is full
of air. How do you get the
air (gas) out of the soap?
Heat! So today in
science (all 3 classes)
we heated slices of Ivory
soap in our microwave oven.
(Best smelling chemistry
experiment I've ever done!).
Use slices. A whole bar of
soap will fill your microwave
oven (and more?) - I didn't
want to find out. It takes
less than one minute.
It is a "wow - do it again"
experiment. The white foam
left over feels like well, foam.
There is not much soap
left. As you heat gas it
expands (Charles' Law -
Increase in temperature,
increase in volume).
It was a hit...

Back by Request

This was from my granddaughter's Science
Fair Project this year. Collected in one
day - four different spots in each resturant
in one city. Results might be different in
a different resturant or on a different day.

Twin's Birthday Part II

The Twins are Two (the Party) Part 1

The dark haired baby is Cody, 6 months old now.
Darcy is the 3 year old big sister.
Aunt Amy and soon to be Uncle Matt were in attendance.
A day after bad storms but all had fun anyway!

"A student and his family have filed a federal lawsuit demanding that a popular European history teacher at California's Capistrano Valley High School be fired for what they say were anti-Christian remarks he made in the classroom.

Chad Farnan, a 16-year-old sophomore, says the teacher, James Corbett, told his students that “Jesus glasses” obscure the truth and suggested that Christians are more likely than other people to commit rape and murder.

Farnan recorded his teacher telling students in class: “What country has the highest murder rate? The South! What part of the country has the highest rape rate? The South! What part of the country has the highest rate of church attendance? The South!” Farnan said he took the tape recorder to class to supplement his class notes." From FoxNews April 2nd, 2008

Now I was born in Atlanta, GA and grew up in mostly Birmingham, AL
have lived in Vidalia, GA, Mobile, AL, Jacksonville, FL, Tampa, FL
and Auburn where I attended college. So I'm a child of the South.

I did not know that the South had arisen again (as my ancesters said
that it would) and we have once more become a nation! I must have missed
that news story! They were sure it would happen and now it has.
They are teaching it as fact in California!

I am also a Christian. However, as of yet and I want everyone to
be perfectly clear about this - I have NOT murdered ANYONE.
Well, maybe in my thoughts. But that get's into Jimmy Carter
territory and is not the intention of this article.
If we are honest 100% of us have done that, I don't care where
you live...or what religion or non-religion you are. Unless maybe
you are a Scientologist. Just kidding. They probably think bad
thoughts too.

I have insight here. For the history teachers of California.
It is NOT the Christianity that is the cause of Crime in the South.
Yes, We go to church more in the Souththan other parts of
the U.S. but that is NOT the cause of the crime. You have
made a false leap of causality here.

It's the Okra.

Yep, we eat Okra here in the Deep South.

Do other places in the U.S. eat Okra? Nope. Well,
not like WE do - we eat it fried, boiled, with tomatoes..
Good stuff..
And it makes us KILL.
But we can't help it. We love it anyway.

And we won't give it up. So. there.
Pax

Magic of Bubbles

SPEED OF LIGHT
We've been talking about the speed of light in Physical Science.
It's always hard to get the concept across as it's faster than our
minds can really comprehend. I ran across a passage in a book I'm
currently reading - E=MC*2, A Biography of the World's Most Famous
Equation by David Bodanis - that helps put it in perspective.

670,000,000 mph (speed of light) (rounded off).
"To emphasize how big a number this is, at 670,000,000 mph,
you could get from London to Los Angeles in under 1/20th of a
second."

Another comparison:
"Mach 1 is the speed of sound, about 700 mph. A 747 jet travels at a
little under Mach 1. The space shuttle, after full thrust, can surpass
Mach 20."
"The number of 'c' is Mach 900,000."

"This vast speed leads to many curious effects. Let someone
irritatingly speak into a cell phone just a few tables from you in
a restaurant, and it seems as if you're hearing his voice almost as
soon as the words leave his mouth. But air only can carry a sound
wave at the lowly speed of Mach 1, whereas radio signals shooting
upward from the cell phone travel as fast as light. The person on
the receiving end of the phone - even if she's hundreds of miles
away - will hear the words before they've trundled the few yards
through the air in the restaurant to reach you."

Fast huh?

smiles, Chris

Science World's Fair

There were many more exhibits - too many to include. I was so proud of all the students! From elementary ages (I don't teach them) to my high schoolers...all great projects of various types. They had their choice of topics so it was wide open - from inventing a coffee filter to a potato cannon - we had it all (Ryan had to fire that cannon outside though. Guthrie fired his match cannon inside - but only one time.) We also had a dance to "Chemical Calisthenics" which was

a lot of fun. I love seeing what these incredibly creative kids come up with every year!