Science Fair Projects

....that didn't make it to the science fair because all the kids were sick.

:(

sigh. Ah, well, here is a little run down of what they did. Brittany will post hers a different day.


Magic Milk: Seeing the fat content in milk.

by Bethany, Brooke and Tristan

Here is what we did: We poured a half cup of milk into a bowl. We tried powdered milk, skim milk, 1%, 2%, whole and cream. We put drops of food coloring around the edges of the bowl and then put a toothpick dipped in dish soap in the middle of the bowl.

Here is what we found out: Food coloring will move around pretty easy the less fat the milk has. The food color moved around best in the powdered milk and the least in the cream. The dish soap has a reaction with the milk and made the food color move really fast to the edges of the bowl at first, but then made it easier for the food coloring to swirl around in the milk.

Making a Mummy: Which combination of salts will dry out an apple the best?


by Timothy

What I did: I cut up an apple and put a piece into six different cups. Then I put baking soda in one, salt in one, epsom salt in one, combined baking soda and salt in one, combined salt and espom salt in one and salt and baking soda in one. I waited a week to see which one would dry out the best.

What I found out: The Epsom salt did the best job. It kept the light color and was really dry. The salt and baking soda together did the wost. It was a dark color and was still king of wet and spongy.





Cleaning Pennies: Which liquid will clean a penny the best?


What I did: I took six pennies made before 1982 and six pennies mae after 1982 and put each in a cup with these liquids: lemon juice, soda, apple juice, dish soap, vinegar and milk. Pennies made before 1982 are 95% copper and pennies made after 1982 are only 2.5 % copper. I checked the pennies after 10 minutes, 1 day, 2 days and 5 days.


These were my results:

Lemon juice: Old: cleaner, but dull
New: got corroded
Soda: Old: started to corrode
New: very clean and shiny
Apple Juice: Old: dull, not as clean
New: slightly cleaner
Dish soap: Old: turned darker
New: turned darker
Vinegar: Old: didn't get clean
New: turned black and green
Milk: Old: black on front, but clean on back
New: very shiny, but not much cleaner

The lemon juice and the soda made the biggest difference in cleaning the old and new pennies.
The apple juice and dish soap made the least difference in cleaning the old and new pennies

Science Fair and TKD

Our Tae Kwon Do school participated in a St. Jude's fundraiser. We individually raised money and we did a presentation at the huge mall complex near our house. My kids raised $255 and each did 300 kicks last Saturday. Brittany and Tyler did a sparring demonstration and our instructor broke 100 boards with his hands in one minute.

Tkdmama has some pictures on her site of the event.

In addition to the science fair and Tristan's birthday, we also had a homeschool science fair on Saturday. Another homeschool mom and friend organized it. It turned out great.
Brittany's project was "Can you taste the difference in regular and low fat foods?" She took some regular and low fat versions of Pringles, Wheat Thins, cheddar cheese and chocolate chip cookies and asked 15 people to sample and tell the difference. Only 4 out of 15 could tell the difference of all four.




Timothy and Tyler's experiment was: "Eating metal for breakfast: Can you remove the iron from breakfast cereal." We actually got the experiment from Steve Spangler. We bought Total, Special K, Cheerios, and store brand bran flakes. We actually got some iron from all four. It was the neatest thing!





This is the iron from the cereal. I know there is a glare, but all that dark stuff is iron.


Bethany, Brooke and Tristan's experiment was "Which gum will blow the best bubble." They got to choose 5 different kinds of gum, which is a real treat because they loooove gum.