My kids love to play spy games.  They spy on us, they spy on each other.  They write notes in code and hide them all over the house.  I knew right away that they would have fun with this science project.   There’s definately enough 9-year old girl left in me to think it’s really cool too!   This is a project that kids can actually do IN their science notebooks (or, they can just tape their note into the notebook when it is dry.) Like most projects, it doesn’t work perfectly.  However, it is fun and you will see a message appear although it may be fuzzy.

All you need is paper, water, baking soda and grape juice.  Simply add a few big spoonfuls of baking soda to a cup of water and mix it well (I heated the solution in the microwave to warm it in an attempt to dissolve more of the soda.)  Dip a paint brush in the mixture and write a message or draw a picture on your paper.  Let the paper dry completely. 

When you are ready to reveal the secret code, have them paint over the paper with grape juice.  Don’t use to much, or it will be a sloppy mess.  The grape juice will react with the baking soda on the paper,changing the acidity of the grape juice and causing the words to appear a little darker than the background of the regular juice.  Ours turned green.  You could also try some different types of juice to see what happens.  Have your kids record their results in their science notebooks!  If they are interested, have them look up the definition for acid and base on a science website like chemistry.about.com.  

 The words weren’t very clear, but it was still a fun project and my kids loved it.   Maybe your kids can perfect the technique.  After all,  trouble-shooting is a great life skill.

StephenOrnes at sciencenews.org reports that scientists have measured the speed of air escaping the column that is formed when a rock thrown into a flat body of water, like a pond.   When the column collapses, the air that is pushed out moves faster than the speed of sound (760 miles an hour.)  To read more and watch a video, go to http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/55900/title/FOR_KIDS_Supersonic_splash_.

Kids from two to twenty will have fun playing with this science project.  Click here for my blog post on Tie-Dye Milk and to read more about surface tension

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To read my printed post on this experiment, click here.

If the sky is clear tonight (Friday, Jan.29,) be sure to look up.  Not only will the moon be full, but Mars will be visible close by (about a fist’s length) and appear red to the naked eye as it comes within 62 million miles from earth and lines up opposite the sun.  Read more here.

 Your kids will be amazed when they fill a plastic zip-lock bag with water and poke sharp skewers through, only to find that the bag doesn’t leak!  All you need is a ziplock bag, water and wooden skewers.  (I found this project on the Dragonflytv website! )

Have your child fill a quart-sized ziplock bag with water and seal it.  Let them poke several wooden skewers completely through the bag, from one side to the other, avoiding the part with air in it.  See how many they can push through!  (Remind kids to be careful with the sharp points.)

Ask them why they think it doesn’t leak.  Have them write their hypothesis (theory) down.  You can tell them that the plastic makes a seal around the spot where the skewer is poking through.  The bag is sealed and contains very little air, so there isn’t much air pressure pushing on the water. Now, let your child take the bag to a sink or bathtub and either push a stick through the part of the bag holding air, or remove the stick and they will find that the bag leaks like crazy!   

If they want to, let them draw a picture of what they did or record their results in their science notebook.  Have fun!

For this project, I thought that it would be fun to mix a little science and a little art.  My sister told me that she heard you could make Valentine’s cards using fingerprints.  I’ve also heard that it’s pretty easy to lift fingerprints using scotch tape, so I thought we’d give it a try.  All you need for the science part is paper, scotch tape and a pencil.  For the valentines, you will need an ink pad, paper and markers. 

On www.wikieducator.org/Fabulous_Forensic_Fingerprints, I found a fingerprint-lifting technique that works well, even for very young children.  Simply take a pencil and scribble on a piece of paper until a small area is covered with the graphite from the pencil lead.  Have your child rub his or her finger around in the graphite until it is covered with gray.  Then, have your child carefully place their finger on the sticky side of a piece of scotch tape and carefully lift their finger off of the tape.  A clear fingerprint should be visible.  Place the tape face-down on another piece of paper to preserve the fingerprint. 

Your child can then inspect the fingerprint under a magnifying glass, or just with their naked eye.  If you go to the wiki website I mentioned, your child can decipher whether they think their fingerprint is a whorl, a loop, or an arch.  It is fun to have them trace their hand, fingerprint each finger and thumb, and tape their fingerprints to the appropriate fingers.  Your child’s fingerprints would be a great addition to their science notebook!  I’ve found that their notebooks are great keepsakes of their drawings and observations at different ages.  The kids had a lot of fun with this project and could do it unassisted once I showed them what to do.

For the Valentines, have your children put two fingerprints or thumbprints together in the shape of a heart.  Of course, they will also want to make fish, bugs, and who knows what else?  I gave my kids some ideas to get them started and they went from there!  (It’s fun to add details with markers.)   Have fun!

Last  night, as 39 of my fellow Minnesota bloggers and I gathered to pack food for “Feed My Starving Children” , we were asked the question, “what is the difference between hungry and starving?”  The dictionary defines hunger as experiencing a desire or need for food, while starving is defined as: to suffer or die from extreme or prolonged lack of food.  In fact, when you are starving, your body actually begins metabolizing, or eating itself.  If you don’t get food, you will die.  The only way to reverse the process is to give a starving body nutrients with which to rebuild itself.   

We mixed together soybeans, chicken-flavored vitamins, vegetables and rice in small plastic bags to be sent to another country, possibly Haiti, to feed starving people.  People like us.  Children like our children.  Together, in less than an hour, our group, along with three or four others, packed 13,824 meals:  enough food to feed 38 people for a year.  It is astonishing that so little effort can change, and possibly even save, so many lives.  To learn more about Feed My Starving Children and how you can help, visit their website.

Patience is tough for kids, especially in today’s world of instant gratification.  In this experiment, your kids will put a string in some colored salt water and watch and wait for crystals to grow.  The crystals aren’t huge and spectacular, but your child can see them and a magnifying glass makes them easier to inspect.

All you’ll need is a clear container or containers, water, salt, food coloring and string.  We used both kitchen twine and jute twine to see what would happen.  The white kitchen twine worked best.  

First, have your child put a few drops of food coloring in the container(s) that you are using.  Then, have them cut a piece of string about six inches long.  It doesn’t have to be exact.  Help your child tie a knot or two at each end of the string.

Boil some water (a cup or two) and, when it is boiling, start adding salt to the water.  Add a tablespoon at a time, stirring the mixture to dissolve the salt.   Do this until no more salt will dissolve (you’ll see salt and it won’t go away no matter how much or how long you stir.)  At this point, you can let the mixture cool a little so it’s not dangerously hot.

When cool, pour an eighth cup or so of the salt solution you’ve made into the container(s) containing food coloring.  Let your child mix it and then have them place one end of the string into the colored salt solution.  They may have to swish it around to get it to soak up the salt water since the string will want to float.   Leave the other end of the string hanging over the edge of the container.

As the water evaporates, the salt that the string has absorbed will remain in the fibers on the string and form new, larger crystals on the string.  Have your child check the string every day and, if they want to, record the results in their science notebooks.  It may take several days before the water evaporates and the salt crystals form – it took ours five days to evaporate.  Try not to let the end of the string that hangs over the edge of the jar or glass touch the counter, or the salt water will be wicked onto the countertop.  As I said before, a magnifying glass is a fantastic way to look at the crystals that form on the string.  Ask your child what shape the crystal are-cubes, spikes?  What do they see?  If they’re interested, have them draw the crystals and record their observations. 

There are great books on crystals and gems at the library.  Check them out!

WooooooHooooo!  Unplannedcooking aand I made it onto the I Can’t Believe it’s Not Butter commercial during American Idol last night!  (You can watch it by clicking here. ) 

You can view our entire video on the website http://www.turnthetubaround.com by going to the contest and then the gallery.  Starting Jan.19th (next Tues.), you’ll be able to vote for us.  By voting, you are entered in the I Can’t Believe it’s not Butter Sweepstakes and have a chance to win lots of great prizes.  Thanks to Hot Mama for letting us shoot most of the commercial at their store!