Science Experiments to Brighten Up Your Mid-Winter Homeschool

Need a cure for the mid-winter homeschool doldrums? These cold weather science experiments will help make homeschooling fun again (and get your crew through to spring).

Every February, I think I want to quit homeschooling. The feeling lasts for about two weeks. Where we live, in North Carolina, February is cold and gray. The days feel short and gloomy. We’re still recovering from all the fun and gluttony of the winter holidays, and there’s nothing similar to look forward to in the immediate future. I’m grumpy, the kids are grumpy, and I find myself gazing wistfully at the school bus loading up kids across the street every morning. I don’t really want to quit homeschooling, though. I just want something to shake us out of the winter doldrums — and, as usual, science saves the day.

Winter science experiments get us out of the house and into the sunshine, even when there’s not much sunshine to get into. More important, though, they get us thinking. They pique our curiosity. They make us ask why. They remind us why we’re glad we don’t have to get on that yellow school bus.

The point of these experiments may sometimes get lost in translation. That’s OK! Not every experiment works out perfectly, and your results may vary. When that happens, don’t get upset. Start asking why. Real science is about questions, not facts, and homeschooling lets us stay connected to that essential truth.

MAKE A SNOWSTORM IN A JAR

The worst winters are the ones where it’s cold and yucky but you don’t get any actual snow. When that happens, you can make your own snow day.

This experiment reminds us that oil and water don’t mix, which can start a great conversation about polarity. (Water’s polar; oil is not.) It’s also a great way to illustrate density: Less-dense oil rises to sit on top of the water, while the Alka Seltzer bubbles the water upward. You’ve also got the baking soda reacting with the citric acid, creating carbon dioxide gas. In other words, there’s a lot of chemistry happening in this little jar!

You need:

• Baby oil

• White paint

• Water

• Glitter

• Alka Seltzer tablet

• Clear glass or plastic jar

Mix water and white paint to form a thick, white liquid with the color evenly dispersed through it. (This white is what creates the snow effect, so don’t stint on it!)

Layer the white water on the bottom, and carefully pour baby oil on top. You want to fill your container about 3/4 of the way full, so how much water and oil you need depends on the size of your container. Figure about four parts water to one part oil for the best results.

Sprinkle generously with glitter. (Optional, but it gives your snow that little bit of sparkle.)

Drop an Alka Seltzer tablet into your jar, and watch what happens. The Alka Seltzer causes the water to bubble up, but the oil slows the process down so the “snowstorm” happens in slow-motion.

BLUBBER MAGIC

Polar bears may have a fur coat, but they’re warm-blooded animals just like humans — so how do they survive frigid Arctic weather? This experiment uses shortening to mimic the blubber beneath a polar bear’s fur. That layer of thick fat helps polar bears insulate their body temperature and maintain the heat they generate, keeping them from freezing even when the temperatures are below 0.

What you need:

• 2 Large Ziplock Bags

• Shortening (such as Crisco) w Large empty tub

• Ice

Turn one of your plastic bags inside out, and use a spatula to fill it about 3/4 of the way full with shortening.

Slip the second bag inside the full one, pushing it down and rolling the tops of the bags to secure the bags together. You’re basically making a plastic mitten with two bags, one inside the other.

Fill a large bowl 3/4 of the way full with ice. Add a little water to make the ice bowl even colder.

Establish a baseline by dipping your uncovered hand in the ice bowl. (It will be really cold!)

Slip your hand in the shortening-filled plastic pouch, and dip it in the ice bowl again. Notice the difference? The shortening creates a protective layer, so your hand doesn’t freeze.

Misty Heaslet is HSL's Science Fair Science columnist. This column was originally published in the winter 2019 issue.

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Spooky Science for Halloween

Dry ice and sublimation make an eerie party prop.

I’m not really into theme science projects — I think they tend to distract kids from the science that’s happening — but like any good mad scientist, I make an exception for Halloween. Every year, we host a Halloween pre-trick-or-treating party for our neighborhood, and every year, the kids insist we fill the garage with bouncing smoke bubbles. I pulled this experiment out on a whim the first year we did this, thinking it would be a cool way to fill up our witch’s cauldron. It’s become an essential piece of our Halloween tradition. The costumes have changed from dinosaurs and Harry Potter to Avengers and anime characters, but the “smoke bubbles” stay the same.

The “smoke” is actually carbon dioxide made with dry ice, and the hardest part of this project is making the machine that does this. (See the instructions below.) Dry ice is pretty cool because it sublimates — it turns directly into a gas with no liquid stage in between. Give yourself plenty of time for a few practice runs. (And remind yourself that failure is part of the process!) It’s not hard, but you may need a few tries to get it just right.

This year, I’m planning to push the science a little further: I’ve bought a bunch of winter gloves, and I’m going to see if we can play some smoke bubble catch. I expect things to get a little messy and rambunctious — and frankly, I’m looking forward to it!

How to Build a Dry Ice Bubble Maker

WHAT YOU NEED:

• Safety glasses

• Knit gloves

• Gallon-sized plastic jar with a lid

• 3-foot piece of rubber

• tubing

• Duct tape

• Liquid soap (Dawn works best) X Small plastic container

• Dish soap

• Dry ice

• Thick gloves

• Bath towel

What to do:

• Drill a hole near the top of the jar, and attach the plastic tubing to the jar with duct tape. (Basically, you’re making a place for the carbon dioxide to blow out of the jar, through the tube, and into your balloons.) Leave the lid off.

• Put on your gloves and safety glasses. (You should never skip this step, but especially don’t skip it this time.)

• Break up your dry ice into pieces that will fit into your jar. (I use a hammer for this.)

• Fill the open jar half-full with warm water.

• Drop a few chunks of dry ice into the water. You’ll see fog immediately, so experiment with using the lid to direct the flow of fog through the tube. (You probably won’t need to actually twist the lid onto the jar to get the flow you want.)

• Don’t ever seal the jar and the tube/vent at the same time! If you do, the pressure will build up, and the jar could explode.

• Now you’re ready to make your bubbles: Add a generous squirt of dish soap to a cup, and mix thoroughly with about 4 ounces of water. Dip the loose end of your tubing into the soap, just as you would a bubble wand. Slowly remove the tubing from the soap mixture, and adjust the lid of your jar to form a bubble with the gas. (You’ll probably want to practice this a few times to get the hang of it, but once you get a rhythm down, it’s pretty fun.)

• When the bubble is the size you want, gently shake it off the tubing. It will be heavier than a normal bubble and fall right to the floor, setting off a cool fog explosion, so be prepared.

Misty Heaslet is a middle school science teacher turned homeschool mom. She lives in western North Carolina. This column originally appeared in the fall 2019 issue of HSL.

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Review: Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding

Do you want to teach your kids science, or do you want to teach them how to think like scientists? Rebecca Pickens has the scoop on an elementary to middle school program that lets you do both.

Writing home/school/life’s curriculum column is great fun. However, I have encountered one problem with the job. Just when I think I’ve got my own kids’ curriculum needs sorted out, I stumble upon a fantastic new resource like Dr. Bernard J. Nebel’s series, Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding (BFSU). Suddenly, all of my well-ironed plans are out the window, and I find myself trying something entirely new. Of course, this may well be more of a perk than a problem!

The three-volume BfSU series is a complete curriculum for students in kindergarten through eighth grade. Each volume is expected to take three years to complete. Volume I is for kindergarten to 2nd grade. Volume II targets grades 3 to 5. Volume III is for grades 6 to 8. For this review, I looked at Volume I.

Nebel opens Volume I of his series with the words of Carl Sagan: “Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.” In a nutshell, this statement sums up Nebel’s approach to science education.

BFSU provides a comprehensive and integrated approach to the sciences. It relies mostly on teacher-led observation, questioning, and reasoning supplemented with hands-on activities. “Learning terminology,” Nebel explains, “is secondary to gaining conceptual understanding.”

A defining feature of Nebel’s program is this emphasis on integrative thinking. The first volume of BFSU explores four areas of science referred to in the text as learning progressions: Nature of Matter, Life Science, Physical Science, Engineering, and Technology, and Earth and Space Science. Rather than teaching each of these themes as compartmentalized units, Nebel promotes a tandem approach.

Students work on each learning progression for one or two lessons before moving on to the next. Well-organized flow charts, one for each learning progression, indicate the order in which lessons should be presented. Following this suggested sequence helps children see the interconnectedness of the scientific topics that they are exploring.

The way that one chooses to rotate through each flow chart is somewhat flexible. If your student is particularly interested in earth and space science and wants to linger there a while longer, she can. However, in order to glean the most from BFSU’s integrated approach, it is advisable not to stray too far from the suggested framework.

Each lesson plan is presented in an engaging, well-organized manner with the following included features:

• An overview of concepts that will be addressed

• An estimate of how much time is required to complete the core lesson

• A list of key points students will understand upon their completion of the lesson

• Background knowledge required in order to begin new material

• Materials list

• Teachable Moments — suggestions to help students fully engage with the material

• Methods and procedures to help students interpret their own observations

• Questions, discussions, and activity ideas that reinforce, expand, and assess learning

• Notes to Parents and Others — a list of practical ideas adults can use to help kids relate classroom experiences to the real world

• A list of books with grade-appropriate, supplemental readings

Throughout the book Nebel shares effective worthwhile teaching strategies. In a section titled “Teaching According to How Students Learn,” Nebel cites research examining teaching practices that both help and hinder students in their attempts to acquire scientific literacy.

The findings in this section are relevant not only to the field of science education, but also to learning in general. Nebel is an articulate spokesperson for finding the joy and intrinsic motivation in learning, and his message will resonate with many homeschooling families. In addition, Nebel moderates a website where BFSU users can communicate further about such ideas. Additional links to relevant photos, videos, and readings also appear on the site.

BFSU explores material that is far more advanced than that of other science programs for this age group. However, its engaging nature ensures that children with a range of abilities can successfully participate. Rather than a reliance on dry, text-heavy materials, BFSU helps students engage directly with the subject matter. BFSU inspires Socratic discussions that move children toward a deeper understanding of the subject matter. Students are encouraged to ask questions, to make connections, and discover concepts through activities and observations. In following this program, most children will develop a strong foundation that enables them to successfully pursue high school sciences.

BFSU will appeal to a wide range of learners; however, some considerations should also be taken into account. BFSU is a teacher’s guide. There is no accompanying children’s text. If your child is a visual learner, you will likely want to seek out pictures and other visual aids in order to support your lessons. The straightforward activities in this program are interesting, relevant, and not needlessly complicated. However, if you have a highly hands-on, kinesthetic learner, you may wish to supplement with additional experiments and activities that correlate with each lesson plan.

The full BFSU curriculum is intended to provide a comprehensive foundation in science for students K-8. As Nebel points out, significant gaps in science education are not unusual. To address this issue, even some families with older children may find it best to begin with the K-2 volume. The subject matter is advanced and well-developed, and a third or fourth grader is not likely to find the text’s format or content objectionable.

Primarily a teacher-led program, BFSU does require a deeper time commitment on the part of the parent than most other science programs for children this age. Parents should expect to spend time preparing for classes in advance and to be highly involved in each lesson with their child. At the same time, Nebel encourages instructors not to over prepare for lessons. Leave lots of room for spontaneous inquiry and observation—this is how scientists are grown.

The activities and experiments in this book rely on inexpensive, common materials, many of which homeschoolers will already have in their homes. As the author wisely points out, “Science does not come in a box. It is a matter of looking at and reflecting on the world around us.” Nebel has given the homeschooling community an engaging, secular science curriculum. And he has made this program highly affordable. Print versions of Volume 1 sell for just $24.95. And remember, this is a three-year curriculum. Kindle editions are $9.99 each, and ebook downloads are only $5 each. Books can be purchased online.

Now it’s time for me to go revise plans for my homeschoolers’ science program. fortunately, this is a plan I think I can stick with!

(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.) This column was originally published in the fall 2016 issue of HSL.

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“Why do we do experiments someone else has already done?”

There’s value in repeating experiments, but don’t forget to make time for your own science questions, too.

One of the great things about the rise of the Internet is that you can find any science experiment on YouTube.

Sometimes, I’ll queue up a few versions to show my kids before we tackle an experiment at home. This is handy: We can see how the experiment is supposed to look, so that if something goes wrong, it’s easier to troubleshoot. It also gives the kids an idea of what to expect, which helps them focus on paying attention during the different steps of the experiment. And it’s fun to feel like part of a community of people doing the same experiment — that’s one of the things I miss being a homeschooler instead of a science teacher these days.

But a few weeks ago, when I started another video for a jelly bone experiment we were doing with the Thanksgiving leftovers, my son — he’s 11 — said, “What’s the point?”

“What?” I said.

“We’re not really experimenting to see what happens,” he said. “We already know. It’s already on YouTube like a hundred times. What’s the point?”

I hesitated. There IS a point to repeating experiments — it’s called science. We repeat experiments because every experiment doesn’t work out perfectly, and different scientists may get different results. If we repeat an experiment, we can see whether the results are always true, or sometimes true, or only true once every leap year. 

Doing experiments someone else has already done also helps us build our science toolkit. That’s why those YouTube videos are so useful. When we can see how someone else does an experiment, we can develop a good lab technique — and, if things go wrong, seeing where other people went right can help us redo the experiment more successfully.

And, of course, there’s always a chance that repeating an experiment may teach us something new. We could discover something no one else did before. True, that’s unlikely when we’re doing the same strawberry DNA experiment every 5th grader in the country does in science class, but it’s always possible.

All of those are good reasons for repeating experiments, and I started to explain them to my son. Later, I did talk about them. But I didn’t answer him then because I realized that he was asking a scientist’s question.

“That’s true,” I said. “What’s a science question you think we should answer?”

And just like that, our science routine changed. We still do experiments where we know what happens, but I also make a point to do experiments based on our own real-life questions. We experimented to see what ants do when it rains and whether people are more likely to use a trash bin in the park if it has a white bag versus a black bag. Because repeating experiments is important but so it encouraging scientific curiosity.    

Misty Heaslet is a middle school science teacher turned homeschool mom. She lives in western North Carolina.

This column was originally published in the winter 2019 issue of HSL.

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Bespoke Book List: Books about Bugs

You asked: “We really love bugs in our homeschool! What should we be reading?”

If you want a book full of cool photographs of insects in action—not pinned specimens—check out Insects: Their Natural History and Diversity: With a Photographic Guide to Insects of Eastern North America by Stephen A. Marshall. This is one of the best insect identification guides out there, and its I.D. keys are sophisticated enough to make it a favorite of working naturalists but simple enough to make sense to an interested amateur. And if you just want a book to flip through and look at awesome bug photos, this is a good bet for that, too.

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Amy Stewart’s Wicked Bugs: The Louse That Conquered Napoleon's Army and Other Diabolical Insects is one of those non-fiction books that will have you glued to your seats: From giant centipedes that capture and eat bats in mid-air (yikes) to millipedes that actually stopped Tokyo traffic (double-yikes), there’s no shortage of creepy crawly facts in this thoroughly researched and thoroughly saucy story of bug lore. (There’s even a written-for-middle-schoolers version for younger entomologists that you may want to check out, also titled Wicked Bugs.)

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For younger readers, Diary of a Fly is a funny, whimsically illustrated, and fact-filled text-heavy picture book about a fly who wants to be a superhero—after all, she can fly and walk on walls, right?—and maybe get a break from her 327 brothers and sisters. There are lots of gross and funny details that will make younger kids giggle.

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For Love of Insects by Thomas Eisner always seems to show up on entomologists’ recommended reading lists, and it’s easy to see why. The book paints the lives of tiny insects on an epic scale: Beetles who spray their enemies with boiling hot ejections, caterpillars who disguise themselves by dressing up in flower petals, moths who hold their mates for ransom. Eisner loves the complex, fascinating world of insects, and he makes you love it, too.

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The photos are what make Bees: An Up-Close Look at Pollinators Around the World by Sam Droege and Laurence Packer so amazing—they were taken as part of the U.S. Geological Survey Native Bee Inventory and Monitoring Program and feature incredibly detailed pictures of bees. My kids were fascinated by the lengths the photographers went to get those great photos, including using teeny tiny pins to gently remove dust from the bees’ bodies.

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In What Good Are Bugs?: Insects in the Web of Life, Gilbert Waldbauer combines stories from entomological history with his own research to describe the role of insects in ecosystems. Reading about ants growing “hanging gardens” in the Amazon rain forest or imagining a world without the useful, sanitary services of maggots and beetles really gives you a new appreciation for the amazing contributions that insects make to everyday human life.

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Another of Waldbauer’s books, Fireflies, Honey, and Silk embraces a multidisciplinary approach, taking you inside the significance of insects in science, history, poetry, mythology, literature, medicine, ecology, and forensics. Waldbauer’s an entomologist, and his book illuminates the ways insects have made our lives richer places—economically, culturally, and aesthetically.

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Jay Hosler is a biologist who studies bugs, but in our house, he’s best known as the author of The Last of the Sandwalkers, a graphic novel about a community of beetles who discover they are not alone in the world. Though it’s not technically a children’s book and does tackle some complex issues, notably the perpetual tension between traditional authority and the thirst for discovery, bug lovers will appreciate the delightful illustrations and really charming story.

This was originally published in the fall 2017 issue of HSL.

(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)

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Curriculum Review: The Science of Climate Change

Homeschooling offers our families wide open space to explore complex and topical issues like climate change. But finding science-based, kid-friendly materials to support these efforts can be surprisingly difficult. Blair Lee’s new curriculum, The Science of Climate Change: A Hands-On Course, has arrived on the scene just in time!

A former science professor with a background in environmental chemistry, Lee has gone on to pursue a career as a curriculum developer. You may know her as an author for the popular resource R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey or as the Smart Science columnist for HSL magazine.

In developing content for The Science of Climate Change, Lee has relied on her own scientific training as well as the research of reputable organizations which include:

• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

• Earth Systems Laboratory (ESL)

• National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA)

• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

• National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)

The Science of Climate Change is a concise 69 pages divided into four parts titled: The Greenhouse Effect; Global Warming; Climate Change; and What Can Be Done to Help? A useful glossary, answer key, and additional resources follow.

Lee’s writing is inviting and succinct. From the start, her admirable objective is clear: to make vital information concerning climate change accessible and relevant to a wide variety of learners.

Like many home educators, Lee believes scientific understanding is developed through “a careful pairing of information with an application of that information.” In order to achieve this balance, Lee has developed 16 hands-on activities to accompany her straightforward, science-based explanations of global warming. Preparation for these activities is minimal since many of the required materials can be found in most households.

Activities include making an empty box and predicting the number of air molecules inside of it. By making a Kool-Aid mixture that models the gas mixture found in air, kids learn about the significant effect a small concentration of greenhouse gas has on our planet. Another activity encourages students to gather and interpret data by tracking the temperature, amount of precipitation, and wind speed in one’s hometown every year for the past 30 years. Other activities include labs, graphing, and scientific modeling. Each activity is supported with helpful charts, tables, illustrations, and substantive data.

“Never in my lifetime has it felt more imperative to provide young people with substantive science and opportunities to develop the critical thinking skills required to make positive change.”

Lee does not sugarcoat the serious threats posed by climate change. At the same time, she provides her readers with a sense of hope and purpose by sharing pragmatic strategies we can all use to help minimize our carbon footprints. Making a case for practices that reduce, reuse, and recycle, Lee also encourages—and shows readers easy ways to—moderate energy consumption.

The Science of Climate Change was developed for a range of age levels. Though the information presented is most suited for children ages 8 to 15, it could easily be modified to accommodate older and younger learners. This curriculum will work well with multi-age siblings and is likely to inspire terrific mealtime discussions.

In an effort to ensure the book’s activities are accessible for a multitude of learners, lee sometimes presents two versions of the same projects. One such example is a graphing activity. Lee explains, “One set of graphs is a dot-to-dot activity for younger learners, where much of the graphing work has been done, and the real work is answering the questions at the end of the activity. There is also a version for older learners who use the information from a data table and to plot data points on the graphs.”

The Science of Climate Change is a secular program containing peer-reviewed, objective science. Even children who don’t yet consider themselves to be “good at” or engaged with science will be able to interact thoughtfully with the material presented here.

The PDF version is $20, and soft-cover copies are $30.

Many times throughout this year I’ve considered what an increasingly complex world my sons are living in. Never in my lifetime has it felt more imperative to provide young people with substantive science and opportunities to develop the critical thinking skills required to make positive change. As moms and dads everywhere put forth their best efforts to raise a new generation of responsible global citizens, they are fortunate to have resources such as Blair Lee’s new book to support them in their efforts.

Disclosure: Blair Lee is a sometimes columnist for HSL magazine. Her work for the magazine did not influence this review.

This was originally published in the summer 2017 issue of HSL.

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Free Secular Science for Homeschool: Forensics Illustrated: Step Under the Tape

Many of you have asked for a high school level science curriculum that is fun, challenging, and inexpensive. This complete curriculum is free. The only charges you will incur will depend on the lab supplies you purchase. If you are looking for something completely out of the box then this is the course for you and your teens.

THE FACTS

Developed and utilized by Brennon Sapp during his nine years teaching forensics to high school students, this complete curriculum in its entirety has been published on-line at www.bsapp.com free of charge. If you are so moved, he lists a PayPal address for donations.

The curriculum includes:

• Student Text

• Presentations

• Photos and Sketches

• Worksheets

• Posters

• Labs

• Tests

• Answer Keys

• Additional Web Resources

The curriculum begins with a short introduction of the origins of forensic science and quickly moves to the collection of various types of evidence and the manners by which they are processed. It is important to note up front that the curriculum includes some information of a more graphic nature-- in-depth discussions of drug use/paraphernalia and autopsies, for example-- and may not be suitable for younger students.

OUR EXPERIENCE

I decided to teach forensic science in order to tie together the information gathered in our previous science studies. I wanted to show my son how biology, chemistry, physics, geology, and astronomy all came together in a real life application. To that end, I found Forensics Illustrated fit the bill perfectly. I was able to gloss over or skip altogether the information that I considered too graphic for his age. I loved the worksheets and the review sheets that are provided for each chapter, and the tests were certainly challenging.

We were not able to use the majority of the labs because unless you have access to a complete science lab, it’s just not realistic. Now, I know this is going to sound nitpicky, but when I use a curriculum, I expect the spelling and grammar to be perfect and that was not always the case with this curriculum. I also found that the answers to test questions did not always properly correlate to the text; this is particularly evident in chapters eight and nine. It was not difficult to make these few changes myself, and when a curriculum this complete is free, who am I to complain? Although there were obstacles to overcome with this curriculum, both my son and I enjoyed it a great deal. It really was a perfect way to tie together all of our previous science classes and jump-start the high school science experience.

ADAPTING THE CURRICULUM TO MEET SPECIFIC NEEDS

This curriculum does not allow for a great deal if wiggle room. It cannot be used without a great deal of alteration for kids below the eighth grade as the subject matter is mature and sometimes graphic. As a homeschooler, I found that I needed to make sweeping changes to the lab work. Obviously, I do not have access to the plethora of materials available in a high school lab. This made conducting some of the experiments impossible. It is also evident by the content that Mr. Sapp used slides to supplement this course that are not available on the website. I got creative and found my own solution to the lab problem. Home Science Tools is a phenomenal company that specializes in providing homeschoolers with science supplies. I was able to find a crime scene science kit and a blood typing kit at a very reasonable price. This meant I was able to tie in my own experiments to the chapters in the text. To deal with the lack of slides, I simply eliminated those questions from the tests and inserted photos from the text for identification.

Content Rating: 5/5

Adaptability Rating: 2/5

Ease of Use Rating: 4/5

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