From the category archives:

Working Scientifically

Wordless Wednesday – Baby Tomatoes

May 16, 2012 Life and Living

It has come to my attention that some people think I can grow plants. In reality, I have a black thumb. I can germinate them, but then they always die, or go mouldy, or are blown away in a cyclone (seriously!) or are otherwise stunted and sickly. So here I am very proudly showing off [...]

Modern Moon Myths

May 14, 2012 Earth and Beyond

These pop up all the time, the moon has been just a little bit important in human history and we’ve had lots of time to tell myths about it. It would be nice to think that as a group we’ve grown out of werewolves and love spells, except we’re still doing it. There are new moon [...]

A Set of Science Songs

May 11, 2012 Earth and Beyond

We had another couple of days without internet which is why there was no quiz posted on Tuesday. Even the trusty 3G failed so no mobile devices either. It gave me an excuse for a trawl on YouTube to find some fun and interesting videos to share instead. An easy way to finish the week. [...]

Building Bridges

May 10, 2012 Activities

It’s one of the classics – give children a pile of objects, such as newspaper, straws or pipecleaners, and tell them that they have to make a bridge across a gap that will carry a certain weight. I’m not suggesting you try that with little kids, but we did have a fun time trying to [...]

Write it Down

May 7, 2012 General science

I didn’t start on purpose, but this is turning into a little series on how some of the things we use the most have developed and changed. So far I’ve looked at cheese and milk bottle packaging. I enjoy history and archaeology, and I think the way we use materials and the effects of social changes [...]

Kid Questions: Why does my voice sound funny in the tunnel?

April 30, 2012 Energy and Change

There is a spot in our school where the classrooms and verandahs make a little tunnel about 10m long. The kids all love the echoey sound and it’s common to see them popping in and out and giggling madly. The little girl noticed it the other day when we were walking through the school and [...]

Bubble Painting

April 26, 2012 Activities

Some bottles of food colouring were an excellent investment of about $5.50, we’re really cutting loose with them We’ve dyed eggs, used them for normal painting, marbling and now we’ve been bubble painting. In the last few weeks I’ve actually suggested it many times to have it flatly turned down, until a few days ago I just did [...]

Greening My Home

April 20, 2012 Babies

On Tuesday I posted about ways to save energy at home with practical tips. Today I thought I’d look at our home and make some public commitments of things I can realistically change. The house is fairly well designed – it was a pre-airconditioning house for the desert so is up on stilts with all bedrooms [...]

Baked Icecream Revisited

April 12, 2012 Activities

A while ago I tried to make Baked Icecream with fairly dismal results, but my lovely readers came to my rescue and concluded the recipe was wrong. So using suggestions from Jamie, Veronica, Lisa, Alicia and Trinity and based on Ann’s never-fail recipe, we tried again. First I turned the oven on to 230C so it [...]

Hoop Surveys

April 5, 2012 Activities

The last time we did this type of thing we were outside with cameras, the whole yard was our canvas and we were skimming over the top, picking the highlights. This week we did the opposite – pulled it back to a piece of ivory two inches on a side, on which we worked with [...]