Chemical History of a Candle: bonus experiment

We are reading Michael Faraday's Six Lectures for the chemistry component of a Year 9 science class. As you can surmise from the title of the book, there is a lot of candle burning going on.

The experiments involve close observation of the flame and usually involves its going out in different situations using up many matches in the process of relighting the candle often.  One student casually wondered how matches work so I assigned that question as homework.

When we reconvened the following week, the students' narrations then led to wondering if all matches were the same? So we decided to find out and set up an experiment using different kinds of matches.

Surprisingly, I had 8 different types of matches on hand: ones with turquoise match heads, black, white or pink match heads, red with white tips of various sizes and matches with cardboard sticks from souvenir matchbooks.  We used the same igniter for each strike to keep that consistent.

The students decided what they could observe that might distinguish matches from each other: What does it smell like when it first burns? or when it is first put out? What colour is the flame and the smoke? How big is the flame?

One thing usually leads to another and investigations usually lead to more questions.  They wondered if the different colours were just a dye on top of the usually red phosphorus match head or its true colour.  They first put it under a microscope to examine the match head and then started scraping off layers of the colour to see how it was constructed.

Constellation Narration

I did a constellation chart with my daughter when she was about nine years old. It turned out to be quite beautiful. When she was a teen we attended a Royal Astronomical Society meeting and set up a private tour of the local observatory to explain further what astronomy was all about. That inch wide but deep work we did instilled a fascination for the subject that has now lasted ten years. She is even taking astronomy as an elective course in university.

I have a few young students this year and thought it would be nice to revisit this subject. We read the same book; it's not fabulous but for an introduction it works. What is great about it is that the constellations are presented in an order that makes it easy to jump from one star group to another. I have my students carefully copy out each constellation as it relates to one they already know. I have them do it in their nature notebooks going back to the same page so as to get as many of the constellations together within one picture.

My eight year old student insisted that each constellation had it's own box, she is at a stage where even her copy work has boxes around each entry. I was concerned that she wouldn't retain the relationships between all the star groupings.

Once they narrated what they knew of the position of the constellation they were allowed to pin it onto their star chart:

                         

 We had been adding one constellation a week since September. We then had a six week break over the Christmas holidays and I thought I would find out what they still knew about the constellations when we met again in January. I asked them to draw their star chart from memory with their proper names.

I was amazed. They both were able to recall each constellation and place them fairly close to their correct positions. I, too, did this exercise. I do have them all in my nature notebook but do not have a star chart of my own. I was able to recall that there were eight constellation but could only draw in five and name four.

Everyone needs a star chart.

A Living Science Book

Charlotte Mason said that all subjects should be "illustrated and illuminated by books of literary value."

A few years ago I read such a book by science journalist Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. It was fascinating, tragic and personal. As with any decent science book it made me think. I acquired a deeper knowledge of the history of genetic research and was swept into the realm of bioethics. When my son went to work in the lab at the Women's Research Hospital at Harvard I was able to have a surprisingly intelligent discussion with him about HeLa cells, their history and their place in science research today.

Mason tells us that "we can only cover a mere inch of the field of science, it is true; but the attitude of mind we get in our own little bit of work helps us to the understanding of what is being done elsewhere." This one living science book gave me a deeper understanding on one subject but opened my mind to other closely related topics

This week, I read the news headline with great interest: The National Institute of Health Brokers HeLa Genome Deal. The book had made such an impression on me that I could still recall the people involved and empathized with their motivation and celebrate their accomplishment.

Ms. Skloot, the author of the book, was interviewed afresh with her perspective on this unprecedented agreement:  August 9th CBC radio podcast . It was nice to hear her out loud voice as I felt I 'knew' her as I read her book.

A Mason education is a life. I read with my children for years and I continue to read for myself. A book like The Immortal Life Henrietta Lacks adds experience and knowledge to my life and I care to know more.

"The question is not how much does the youth know when he is finished with his education - but how much does he care? and about how any orders of things does he care?" Charlotte Mason

all quotes from: https://amblesideonline.org/CM/toc.html#6

l'HaRMaS: A Charlotte Mason Retreat

The site is now open for registration!

http://l-harmas.weebly.com/

Is it a Rat or a Mouse?

The bird is an American Kestrel. I was on a lovely New Year's Day drive with my husband along back roads through the county when I spotted it holding on to what I am sure was a delicious treat for its lunch.

The American Kestrel did not like our intrusion even though we had turned off the truck and sat there to watch. He must have been a shy eater. So what did he plan to dine on that day?

I did some research to figure out what type of rodent it dropped and then so quickly swooped down to retrieve.  The American Kestrel is the smallest falcon in North America. It ranges from 5-11 inches with a wingspan of 20-24 inches and weighs about 3 ounces.

Mice reach the length of 3 inches with their tails being as long as their bodies.  Voles grow to 9 inches and resemble mice but with a stouter body and a shorter hairy tail.  A rat can grow to over 11 inches and its tail is also as long as its body.  I knew it couldn't be a mole because the feet didn't match.

On that information go to the top photograph and compare the relative size of the rodent to that of the falcon.  

Is it a Rat, Mouse or Vole? 

The rodent is at least half its size. Adult mice are only 3-4 inches long and both the mouse and rat have tails as long as their bodies.  My guess would be that our falcon has got himself a vole. Do you agree?

Nature Study Idea: Winter

It is wonderful that we have different seasons.  There may not be new species to see in winter but we certainly can see things in a new way.  Winter also reveals things previously hidden. 

What have you discovered?

Squirrel nests, three of them!

There were hundreds of blooms on the tulip tree,

but we just couldn't see them because of the leaves.

Science Lessons Naturally

This past weekend we were packing up ready to leave a family reunion.  I saw my parents and the rest of my family behind a truck talking to someone. When I came out of the cabin again my mother was waving me to come. I always obey my mom, so down the road I went.

The camp professes to have no dangerous wildlife. If there is a situation where a bear fails to read the no trespassing sign, the trapper on staff quickly removes the threat. The government also uses his services and recently requested him to take some pesky beavers out from a cottager's vicinity because they had the nerve to start making a dam in preparation for their young and protection from the winter.

So there they were, two dead beavers lying on the road behind the truck at the back of the camp property.

Jim was talking passionately about the animals; how they are monogamous and how they want and need just the one home. He explained how the fur used in coats is not taken from a whole animal;  the grade of fur around the neck is of the highest quality then the next section below that is of a little lesser grade and the bottom section is much coarser. When you purchase a beaver article it would be made of many strips from the same part of many beavers and the quality would depend on which section of strips made your coat.

Jim sharing his passion about the wildlife in the area


Jim told us that beaver meat, pound for pound was the highest nutrition for bears bulking up for winter and that the secret to the best show dogs was that they were fed beaver meat. If hunters wish to garner the highest profit and least waste from each animal, they can sell the fur on a tanned hide, the castors and the scent glands and even the beaver tails can be tanned and used as a wallet or small satchel.

Jim was going to drop these beavers in the woods for the bears.  He looked at me incredulously as I asked him if I could have the beaver tails but he obliged and hacked both off and I took them home in my suitcase. Right now they are in the fridge but will go in the freezer until a family friend comes over to help me clean and tan the tails.

Science lessons do not always happen in scheduled blocks of time.  Take advantage of a passionate hunter who willingly and eagerly shares his knowledge.
 

Science, Fabre and Charlotte Mason

(Science's) textbook usually presents a devitalized science - only a genius can write a scientific book that throbs with life and is still scientific. Read Fabre's descriptions of insect life, those fascinating stories from which one has to tear one's self away, and compare that description of the same insect in a textbook of biology - the one is a living story of living creatures, the other a lifeless account of dead, dissected things.

  D. Avery, The Cultural Value of Science, Parents Review, volume 31, no. 9.  edited by Charlotte Mason.

This sums up my intention for this blog.  How can we learn science in a way that is throbbing with life?  Jean Henri Fabre wrote living stories.  Charlotte Mason, a 20th century British educator, stated that 'all thought we offer to our children shall be living thought; no mere dry summaries of facts will do; given the vitalizing idea, children will readily hang the mere facts upon the idea as upon a peg capable of sustaining all that it is needful to retain.' (2/227) Those ideas are introduced first through living books.

be-like-Fabre:  books that throb with life, persons that observe keenly and learn.