A Net in Time

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Catapult and Paper Airplanes

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Today on Supercharged Science we learned about catapults. Learning about making a fulcrum. We had fun putting a ping pong ball into the air. 🙂

We wanted to experiment with making different types of catapults and changing the basic style, but we found that pretty much a no go since we ran out of elastics.

We also made paper airplanes.

We’ve made paper airplanes before…but this time they actually WORKED! It was a hoot. We had fun seeing if we could crash them into our van and into each other. We enjoyed watching the wind lift them. We had fun when they would crash into our flowers and get stuck.

We also spent a great deal of time playing with Lego. Overall a good day.

question of the day: how many birds can’t fly?

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Why do you ask?

http://www2.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Blu, in the video Rio, says that there are 40 birds that can’t fly.

I looked it up and found the there are NINE birds that can’t fly.

Being challenged by my son, I looked into this further and discovered the Blu is sorta correct. 🙂 Answers.com gives us this.

Answer: NOTE: 6 are extinct. removing those ones, I counted 35 but two of them are NEARLY flightless. So there you have the question of the day answered.
Ratites

Ostrich

Emu

Cassowaries

Kiwis

Rheas

Podicipediformes (Grebes)

 Junin Flightless Grebe

Titicaca Flightless Grebe

Pelicaniformes (Pelicans, Cormorants, et al)

 Flightless Cormorant

Sphenisciformes (Penguins)

Penguins

Anseriformes (Waterfowl)

 Magellanic Flightless Steamer Duck

Falkland Flightless Steamer Duck

White-headed Flightless Steamer Duck

Auckland Island Teal

Campbell Island Teal

Gruiformes (Cranes, Rails)

 Woodford’s Rail (probably flightless)

Weka

New Caledonian Rail

Lord Howe Woodhen

Calayan Rail

New Britain Rail

Guam Rail

Roviana Rail (“flightless, or nearly so” [Taylor 1998])

Snoring Rail

Inaccessible Island Rail

Henderson Island Crake

Invisible Rail

New Guinea Flightless Rail

Takahe

Samoan Wood Rail

Makira Wood Rail

Gough Island Moorhen

Kagu

Tasmanian Native-hen

Psittaciformes (Parrots)

Kakapo

Broad-billed Parrot (extinct)

Columbiformes (Pigeons, Doves)

Dodo (extinct)

Rodrigues Solitaire (extinct)

Viti Levu Giant Pigeon (extinct)





Caprimulgiformes (Nightjars)

New Zealand Owlet-nightjar (extinct)





Passeriformes (Perching Birds)

Stephens Island Wren (extinct)





Galliformes (Wildfowl)

Silkie

Domestic turkey

Electricity

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We joined the E-science camp from Supercharged Science for the summer.

We haven’t done a whole lot with it since it takes a bit of time. BUT this week and next we plan to do some things with it. make it worth our while.

We’ve gotten good ideas for a number of experiments though and I need to find the time to jot down the information for the ones we want to do before our time runs out!

anyways, today we did Electricity. We did a number of experiments using two batteries, alligator clips, a buzzer, led lights and what not. I tried to make a propellor for the small motor we have but that didn’t work out so well.

The lad had a HOOT.

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to him teach his dad some of the things he learned today. They both seemed to enjoy their time together. I really wish I had the foresight to get my camera out. But it was fun listening to him teach, and watching his excitement.

Aurora does these videos that go step by step what the children are to do in each experiment. She encourages them to be safe. And she encourages them to have fun while learning what they need to learn. and it’s OKAY to experiment and not have it all work out. 🙂

He learned to complete a circuit, to test for conductivity (one test was very complicated with a transformer), to make a buzzer work, to learn about open switches and what not. Lots of to learn, very sequential learning.

Is he ready ‘mentally’ for some of what he does? ah…no. but is he experimenting? yes. Is he learning the language? Yes. Is he learning to be safe and to follow instructions? definitely. He is learning the science and experimentation is a good thing? for sure! 🙂

caterpillars

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The lad has a thing for caterpillars lately. 🙂

we’ve found three SYCAMORE TUSSOCK MOTH. They died on us. We need to figure out what they eat so they don’t die next time.

they apparently eat the leaves of sycamore trees. interesting. But we put leaves in with them from where we found them. I guess I need to learn how to identify a sycamore tree. 🙂

we’ve also had these for a short time. HICKORY TUSSOCK MOTH. They escaped though. 🙂

Found the caterpillars at this site.

Monarch butterflies

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this is Chris.

he is a monarch butterfly.

we found his egg while camping.

He seems like a nice ‘lad’ (not that I know if he is a lad or not, but the lad we have is enjoying watching him grow).

We’ve successfully hatched out into adult stage a white Moth in the past, so we’re hoping to be successful with Chris the monarch as well.

This site is helpful in teaching more about monarchs.

We’re finding it an interesting experience. We lost one monarch egg to ants, we lost another when we changed out the leaves (they didn’t transition well), so we’re hopeful that this time will be more successful. Time will indeed tell.

That lad is VERY much into capturing caterpillars lately and seeing if we can get them to change into moths and butterflies lately.

His latest capture was a fuzzy red caterpillar that poops/pees and runs VERY fast when you attempt to catch him. It’s was quite the achievement for the lad to catch him. We’ve never had another caterpillar do that so it was quite the learning experience.

Some caterpillars we’ve learned don’t handle capture well so we don’t catch them. Some will just up and die. Others within a day or two will pupate. Others just wander and seem to do well in captivity. It’s been educational to say the least.