Tag Archives: science kit

Pompeii and Volcanoes

Here are the books we used to study the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

pompeiibooks

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“Magic Tree House #13: Vacation Under the Volcano by Mary Pope Osborne

“I Survived #10: I Survived the Destruction of Pompeii, AD 79 by Lauren Tarshis

“You Wouldn’t Want to Live in Pompeii! A Volcanic Eruption You’d Rather Avoid” by John Malam

“Escape from Pompeii” by Christina Balit

Volcanobooks

We studied Volcanoes along with learning about the Mount Vesuvius eruption.

Here are the books we used.

“The Magic School Bus Inside the Earth (Magic School Bus)” by Joanna Cole

“The Magic School Bus Science Chapter Book #15: Voyage to the Volcano by Judith Stamper

“The Explosive World of Volcanoes with Max Axiom, Super Scientist (Graphic Science)” by Christopher L. Harbo

“Big Book of Earth & Sky” by Bodie Hodge

“Volcano Rising” by Susan Swan

“Volcanoes (Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Science 2)” by Franklin M. Branley

MagicSchoolbusKit

We also used a Magic School Bus Kit, The Magic School Bus -Blasting Off With Erupting Volcanoes.

kit

The boys got a lot out of the labelling the kit had them do!

I was really surprised by that. I thought they would get more out of the actual experiments.

label

stickers

The were really interested in figuring out what types the different volcanoes we read about were.

volcanochart

Sometimes I just never know what will interest them!

egg

They liked this experiment showing how fault lines work.

crack

faultlines

Drawing the fault lines on his “earth”.

squeeze

yolk

Hopefully our earth does not have to be squished for an eruption to take place…

squeezed2

splat

Total destruction.

mess

bakingsoda

I was a little disappointed that most of the experiments had to do with baking soda reactions to different acids.

I guess it is the most kid friendly eruption but I felt like it did not have a lot to do with how an actual eruption takes place.

funnel

water

We decided to try out one I had found online a while ago, here.

Please buy the Corning Pyrex made for laboratory use for this experiment!

We used regular Microwave safe Pyrex and I think it was a horrible idea.

I read about it later and saw that it is not safe for stove tops!

Do not use it!

Yikes!

We will be buying this “Corning Pyrex 1000-600 Glass 600mL Graduated Low Form Griffin Beaker, 50mL Graduation Interval, with Double Scale before we try this again!

wax

The wax works it’s way up through the sand when it is heated.

Very cool.

We also watched Nova: Deadliest Volcanoes and Pompeii – The Last Day.

Deadliest Volcanoes was great! It even talked about Vesuvius and that fact it is actually a part of a super volcano!

That is crazy to see!

Pompeii: The Last Day was a little too intense for my 7&8yr old.

They ended up leaving because it was just too much for them.

I enjoyed it though and I think teenagers would find it interesting but it might be too sad for young kids.

It tried to give a story to the cast’s of people and animals that they found from the eruption.

Both of these were available on Netflix when we did this study.

Astronomy

Astronomy ~daniellehuddlestonphotography.com

Any time we can use a Magic School Bus kit I jump at it!

It also helps that there is a Magic School Bus episode that goes along with the kit.

“Lost in Space”

Plus it is on Netflix right now!

light

constellations

We had a lot of trouble finding constellations using the star chart that came with the kit but thankfully I had my own.

constellations2

skyview

I also have “sky view” on my iphone!

The boys used it for a long time trying to find out what all the constellations looked like!

I really like that if you find a constellation, it gives you the outline of the animal or person that goes with it.

moonphases

moon

While learning about the moon phases and solar eclipses (using things that came with the kit) I realized that a solar eclipse was supposed to happen that same day!

phases

Thankfully I had a UV filter for my camera and was able to get some shots of it!

Plus, there was a live broadcast available online.

solareclipse

I am determined to buy the solar eclipse viewing glasses before the next one!

planets2

planets

telescope3

On the last evening of our month study I was finally able to find the moon with our telescope!

It only took me two years…

telescope2

telescope4

It looked incredible!

telescope

I was so excited that I finally found something with the telescope, I squealed.

Many times.

In a very high pitch.

And bounced.

Thankfully Nick is used to me by now.

You can check out my Pinterest board for Astronomy, here if you need more ideas.

We were learning about Astronomy to go along with learning about Ancient Greece!

I will post more about what we did to learn about Ancient Greece soon!

Building Solar Oven’s ~Embrace the Camera

embracethecamera

Here is my shot for the day!

Check out Emily and Ashley’s blogs to see what “Embrace the Camera” is about.

solarsciencekitWe built this solar oven from a science kit as well as one from a shoebox.

We modelled the shoebox oven after the Pizza Box Solar Oven found here.

panelsMy youngest built the one from the kit.

glueWhile my oldest built his from scratch.

blackpaper

inside

solar

solarovendone

shoeboxI cut out the top flap for the shoebox and helped tape the aluminium foil as well as the ziplock bag we used for the top.

packingtapeI added packing tape to try and keep the stick from moving around.

journalThe boys wrote down what they thought would happen in their science journals.

startWe put pieces of cheese in them and waited to see how long they took to melt.

waitingThis is how the boys killed time waiting.

cheesemelt45mins later the shoebox won!!!

winner

donelaterIt took the kit oven ten more minutes to melt.

This was a fun easy project!

I am hoping we can try popping popcorn or making s’mores on the next sunny day as well as think up ways to improve our oven.

Have you ever made a solar oven?

What did you use to make it?

I would love to make one like this!