Lex got a book for his birthday (from me!) called Science Rocks and he has been happily reading it ever since. Towards the end of last week he decided to try a few experiments. Unfortunately we don’t have most of the “common household items” that the experiments need, like empty 2 liter bottles and plastic hosing. Today he found one that we did have all the supplies first and he was thrilled! At 7:00am we were doing scientific experiments!
Today’s experiment was about color separation. Or water wicking. I didn’t read the book.
They each drew a big dot on strips of coffee filters, put the ends of the filters into water, and watched as the water wicked up the filter and brought the colors along with it.
Lex got great color separation with the colors he chose! Eve’s orange and pink didn’t do as well. (this picture was taken by Lex)
Last week they tried to make a hydrolic lift but we had too many substitute parts and the painters tape didn’t hold up to the water and the whole thing just didn’t work out.
This is Lex’s hydrolic lift. It leaked water every step of the way. :(
This is how it was supposed to look!
Eve’s experiment is the one in front. She is less interested in directions and instead chose to make up her experiment as she went along. She had a very elaborate story which I can’t really remember. It involved a generator (not show) which would spin fast and generate steam and… something. It all sounded scientific and quite plausible, as long as you didn’t listen very closely. :)
Funny girl!
Eve has actually been in “scientist” mode for quite awhile. Before Lex even got out the book she was talking about conducting experiments. This particular “experiment” started by mixing food ingredients (marshmallows, graham crackers, butter) and was shaping up to be quite a tasty experiment, but then she started adding rocks and balloons and more expensive food items, so I had to cut her off and send her outside. This is what she came back with. I’m still not sure what the purpose of the experiment was as her hypothesis kept changing. :)
