From the category archives:

Materials

Quiz – The Rainforest Edition

October 11, 2011 Life and Living

Back to another ecological zone, one that’s in the news a lot. What do you know about rainforests? We all know clearing rainforests is BAD, do you know why they are so fragile? Where are your country’s rainforests? What’s big, blue, black and wears a helmet? What is the food of the gods? And what [...]

Cooking Answers

October 7, 2011 Energy and Change

How scientific a cook are you? Close your eyes and click back for the questions. 1. Meat goes brown because of reactions in the proteins caused by heat or sometimes chemicals. That’s why some marinades will make meat look ‘cooked.’ The main protein in meat is called myoglobin which has a heme ring [...]

Plastic Milk

October 6, 2011 Activities

I‘ve been wanting to do this for ages but didn’t think it would be good with the girls because it needs cooking. But now I’ve done it without them a couple of times it’s so simple and I think they’d love it, it will be coming out again. It’s using just milk and vinegar to [...]

Wordless Wednesday – Egg Geodes

September 21, 2011 Activities

These were inspired by Kate of Picklebums way back at Easter time. We made several different solutions and colour coded them, red is sugar (complete with ants), blue was bicarb, green was salt and yellow was laundry detergent, which didn’t set. The girls loved it.

Animal, Vegetable, Mineral

September 8, 2011 Activities

We do a lot of long distance driving and this is a favourite game with the big girl, although zebra is usually a pretty good bet. And some of the descriptions are a little bit, weird. I’ve been using it as a bit of a theme seeing it’s something the girls already know, and we’ve [...]

Planes, Trains and Automobiles Answers

September 3, 2011 Energy and Change

Someone did very well yesterday, unfortunately they’re anonymous but congratulations dj302. If you want to join in, close your eyes and click back. 1. The tread on tyres works by giving water somewhere to flow. Imagine you put a big flat tray onto a puddle. It would slip and skate around because not [...]

Microscope Answers

August 27, 2011 Earth and Beyond

If you haven’t tried the Microscopes Quiz, close your eyes and click back. 1. Archaeans are the third domain of life. There are bacteria/blue green algae which are tiny, single cells and have nothing in their cells like nuclei, their DNA floats around free. Then there are eukaryotes like us that can have [...]

Quiz – The Microscopic Edition

August 26, 2011 Earth and Beyond

There is more happening than just what you can see. What are archaeans? What are buckyballs, and for bonus points who were they named after? How do the lenses in a light microscope work? And yes I know they magnify. The most numerous multicellular animals on earth are microscopic – there is a lot more [...]

Wordless Wednesday – Puff Paint

August 24, 2011 Activities

The Magic Trick

August 11, 2011 Activities

We were cleaning up various bits of paint, coloured water and containers outside when we decided to do a magic trick and move water from one container to another without pouring or touching it! You can see the setup, two containers, the higher one with water and a twisted up serviette joining them. It took [...]