Science Experiments

Alex started his General Science through Apologia this week.  We will be doing his own reading and his own experiments.  This is the beginning of getting him into more independence as he reaches high school next year.  Here are a couple experiments he had to work through today:

 This one teaches about density.  The liquids formed layers and the solids floated at specific layers.  This is the first lesson in learning about atoms.

This second one taught him that hot atoms move faster than cold atoms.  You can see in the red jar, which had cold water, that the coloring didn't mix as well as the green did, which was hot water.

 Nicolas and I are working through Botany, one of the elementary studies from Apologia.  He is learning about classifications and how taxonomists separate each living thing into a Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus and Species.  His experiment was to use 1 of each pair of shoes in the house and separate them according to whatever he wanted to.

 Here is the starting pile

 Kingdom: Dress shoes

 Kingdom: Slippers

 Kingdom: Outside shoes

 Kingdom: Tennis Shoes

 Kingdom: Outside shoes, Phylums: Open toed and closed toed

 Kingdom: Outside shoes, Phylum: Closed toed, Classes: With strings and without strings

 Kingdom: Outside shoes, Phylum: Closed toed, Class: Without strings, Orders: Water Shoes & Sandals

 Kingdom: Outside Shoes, Phylum: Open Toed, Classes: Thongs and no thongs

 Kingdom: Outdoor shoes, Phylum: Open Toed, Class: Thongs, Orders: Black bottoms and other colored bottoms

 Kingdom: Outdoor shoes, Phylum: Open Toed, Class: Thongs, Order: Black bottoms, Genuses: Cloth thong and plastic thong

 Kingdom: Slippers, Phylums: Brown and other colors

 Kingdom: Slippers, Phylum: Other colors, Classes: Open back and closed back

 Kingdom: Tennis shoes, Phylum: Light and Dark

 Kingdom: Tennis Shoes, Phylum: Light colored, Classes: Men's and Women's

 Kingdom: Tennis Shoes, Phylum: Light colored, Classes: Women's, Orders: Open back and closed back

 Kingdom: Tennis shoes, Phylum: Dark colored, Classes: Strings and No Strings

 Kingdom: Tennis shoes, Phylum: Dark colored, Class: Strings, Orders: Cleated and non-cleated

 Kingdom: Tennis Shoes, Phylum: Dark colored, Class: Strings, Order: Non-Cleated, Genuses: Men's and Women's

Kingdom: Dress shoes, Phylums: Heel and No Heel

 Kingdom: Dress shoes, Phylum: Heeled, Classes: Open heel and closed heel

 Kingdom: Dress shoes, Phylum: Heeled, Class: Closed heel, Order: Boot and Shoes

 Kingdom: Dress shoes, Phylum: Heeled, Class: Closed heel, Order: Shoes, Genuses: Flat heel and "stick" heel

 Kingdom: Dress shoes, Phylum: Open heel, Classes: Brown and White

 Kingdom: Dress shoes, Phylum: No heel, Classes: Men's and Women's

 Kingdom: Dress shoes, Phylum: Non heel, Class: Women's, Orders: Open toed and closed toed

 Kingdom: Dress shoes, Phylum: Non heel, Class: Women's, Order: Closed toed, Genuses: Black and Brown

 I think he did a good job and actually going through this long process helped him to really grasp what Taxonomy means. 

Michigan Vacation

We started a tour of the Great Lakes this month that will (hopefully) be completed next summer.  We spent some time in Ludington on Lake Michigan and then on to the Upper Peninsula where we saw Lake Huron and Lake Superior.  School day do happen while on vacation!

 Walking the beach with dad on Lake Michigan.

 Enjoying Lake Michigan

 The following several pictures are from the Hydro Electric Plant in Ludington, Michigan.  The boys learned how the plant works and supplies the majority of Michigan with their electricity.  Here is a Wikipedia link about this particular storage plant.  And here is another.

 Sunset over Lake Michigan:

 The boys had an opportunity (along with their grandpa, dad and 2 uncles) to go Salmon fishing on a chartered fishing boat.  Here is Nicolas's King Salmon.

 And here is Alex's King Salmon.

 Near our campground, there were 3 - 24 holes Disc Golf courses.  We played the easiest of the 3.

We went into Ludington State Park and rode our bikes out the the Big Sable Lighthouse.  We watched a short video about the lighthouse and then climbed to the top for a wonderful view of the area.

On to our second leg of the trip.  We camped at Straits State Park in St. Ignace, Michigan which is right on the straits of Mackinac with a beautiful view of the Mackinac Bridge - day or night.

 We took the ferry across Lake Huron to Mackinac Island along with our bikes.

 We rode 8 miles around the island...

 ...stopping along the way to view the lake, climb the rocks and take some pictures.

 We saw the lighthouses from the island and the ferry.

                                                               Round Island Lighthouse
We saw Fort Mackinac, but didn't go inside.

 The view from Arch Rock.

 The dock we used for our ferry was named Railroad Dock.  There used to be a railroad that went to this dock and there was an A-frame dock that loaded the rail cars onto a boat.  This A-frame ceased being used in the mid 80's and collapsed due to not being maintained last August.

 We climbed Castle Rock in St. Ignace.  This rock was used by the Native Americans as a lookout.

 At the base of the rock, there were statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe the blue ox.

 We went up to Sault Ste. Marie on Lake Superior to see the Soo Locks.  These locks are used to bring ships up to Lake Superior's level from the St. Mary's river level - which is about 26 feet different. 

 We were able to watch this huge ship carrying parts for the wind turbines go through the entire process - which took about 30 minutes.  The HHL Amazon's main port is Monrovia in Africa.  They said they had come from Spain and were heading to Thunder Bay.

 Here is a view of International Bridge.  The boys thought it very neat that they could look across the river and see Canada. 

 We went to Tahquamanon Falls near Paradise, Michigan.  These 2 pictures were taken at the lower falls.  The next 2 were the upper falls.  If we had had an entire day at this park, we would've walked along the river.  The weather was perfect.  The boys got in the river at the lower falls, walked across and down on the other side to actually stand in the falls.

 We stopped on the way back to our campsite at an area where there was a large sandbar.  The boys waded in Lake Superior.

And THIS is the kind of schooling we LOVE to do!!