martinzoo

Tonight the International Space Station flew over my house. This video was shot from our backyard.

You can track it’s orbit at this site to see when it will fly over your house.

We always come back to Science. Our best days are always the Science days. GB loves them.

Today we did two seed dissections. He has been learning about the process of plant reproduction.

This procedure was to show him that the seeds come complete with their own little embryo and plenty of food — all built right in.

First, we soaked the seeds over night to make them easier to split.

This photo clearly shows the seed coat on our lima bean (dicot).

Even without using the stereoscope you could clearly see the embryo, but the stereoscope makes it so much more vivid. Don’t you think? I mean just look at that detail. The embryo is at the top of the photo and all the rest of the bean is the stored food for the embryo.

Vocabulary Definitions:

Seed Coat - Protects the inside of the seed.

Embryo - the beginning of the new plant.

Stored Food - a plant uses stored food until it grows leaves that can make food.

Monocot - a type of seed that has only one cotyledon.

Dicot - a type of seed that has two cotyledons.

Cotyledon - Leaf-like structure that absorbs and digest food stored in the seed.

Germination - the process of growing a new plant from a seed.

This is the inside of a corn kernel (monocot). You can see the embryo right there in the center of the kernel with the stored food all around.

I know I’m old now.

And I can’t be a student.

But I really love this stuff.

I’m so glad I get to homeschool with my little buddy!

This experiment was in our local newspaper today. So GB and I decided to give it a try. He is unbelievably picky about food. So I suspected that he would be one of these super-tasters.

A super-taster may be someone who dislikes strong-tasting foods such as vinegar.

For this experiment you will need:

• food color
• magnifying glass
• cotton swab
• mirro
• clean piece of paper with a 1/4 inch hole
• and an adult helper

First put a drop of color on a swab and rub it on the end of your tongue.

Look at your tongue in the mirror - Do you see small pink dots or bumps on it? Those “taste buds” let you taste different foods.

Hold the hole in the paper over your tongue, then use the magnifier to count the number of bumps in the hole. ***Very hard to do if you have a wiggly kid.

Most people have 15-35 bumps.

Fewer than 15 bumps makes you a “non-taster’ and that would be sad. Doncha think? But that also means that strong tasting food probably doesn’t bother you.

People with more than 35 bumps are “super-tasters” and they often dislike foods like these:

• pickles
• cabbage
• spicy food
• grapefruit
• soy sause
• mustard
• chocolate (WHAT? Who doesn’t like chocolate?)

GB had 43 bumps —- but he’s young —- they’ll probably start dying off soon, right?

This sure explains a lot!

Thursday at the Martinzoo is science day. I didn’t think it was going to be a science day today. We were going to go on a field trip to Hollywood Cemetery. Unfortunately, I committed to the cemetery field trip without GB’s input and he didn’t really have any desire to go. I’m not sure of his reasons, and I don’t want to say that he was *nervous* about being in a cemetery, but that could have been part of it. It’s too bad. I’d like to try it again someday because there are a lot of famous people buried there.

Anyway, we decided to not go and just have a typical school day instead.

We are doing a bit of life science this year, and our current chapter is on  plant structure. So after reading the chapter and doing a virtual dissection at the BBC School Science site we went outside find our own flowers to dissect.

We were very pleased with the results of the morning glory dissection. It’s parts were easy to see and easy to get to.

This photo clearly shows the petals, sepals, anther, filaments, pistil, and receptacle.

GB studies the flower with the magnifying lens.

This is the anther under the stereoscope. It’s very easy to see the pollen on it.

We looked at the anther under the microscope, too. But it was much easier to see under the stereoscope where the light source came from above.

We also did this marigold. GB was having a great time with his scalpel. He dissected the morning glory, the marigold, and a zinnia. I’d love to get an iris or something like that from a florist and check that out also.

We also made a slide by mixing up a bit of sugar water and placing a drop on the slide, then dragging the anther through the water drop. After placing a slide cover we were able to see the above bit of pollen.

Further magnification gave us this picture. See the spikes? THAT’s why I sneeze repeatedly every Spring. Yuck!

Other sites that we found helpful:

Great Plant Escape

This Youtube video was really awesome.

WikiEducator

Module 5

In this module we did two experiments to observe the unhealthy residue that cigarette smoking leaves in the lungs and other parts of the respiratory system.

Things we learned about tobacco:

1. Tobacco is VERY potent.
2. It contains more than 4000 chemicals, many of which are released into the air during smoking.
3. Tar and Carbon Monoxide are two particularly dangerous chemicals in cigarette smoke.
4. Tar causes lung cancer, emphysema, and bronchial diseases.
5. Carbon Monoxide can cause heart problems.
6. Other serious health problems linked to smoking include digestive cancers, gastric ulcers, and cancers of the throat, lip, esophagus, and pancreas.
7. The leaves of the tobacco plant contain a drug called nicotine. Nicotine is found in all tobacco products: cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco, chewing tobacco, and snuff. It causes an increase in blood pressure, heart rate, and respiration. It is VERY addictive.
8. Nicotine enters the body very quickly. After the smoke is inhaled, it only takes EIGHT seconds to reach the brain. Within 40 minutes, half the effect of of nicotine is lost. This is the reason people feel the need to smoke another cigarette.
9. There are 1.1 BILLION smokers in the world!
10. They smoke 6 TRILLION cigarettes each year!!!
11. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 430,000 people die each year from tobacco use. Because people do have control over whether they begin to smoke, smoking can be viewed as the most preventable cause of death in the United States.

The first experiment we did was to give us a better understanding of what effect tar and nicotine have on the body. The lungs, for example, become blackened from excessive smoking.

We began with three glasses of water. We put cigarette leaves in  the first glass, a tree leaf in the second glass and nothing in the third glass (this was our control).

This experiment is supposed to be observed over the next few days, which we will do.

BUT, after only 15 minutes we could already see some results. Stay tuned for an update on this experiment next week.

We also did the following experiment to go along with this module. Again, it was to show how dangerous smoking can be.

**** Note: in order to minimize the harmful effects of this experiment, you may want to do it outside, like we did.

After the experiment was over, I did a very controversial thing. I let GB take a puff on the cigarette.  He didn’t really want to. But both my husband and I had had similar experiences when we were around his age. I had an aunt who smoked, and I thought she looked really cool when she was smoking. One day, she just handed me the cigarette and asked me if I wanted to try. Well, I wanted to look cool too. So, of course, I did try it. And she laughed so hard at my gasping, coughing, wheezing fit that she had tears in her eyes. The experience was so horrible for me that I never wanted to try them again. My husband had a similar experience with his Uncle Junior. In fact, when we are in restaurants, we can barely tolerate it when people around us smoke. And our older children have the same reactions. So maybe it’s just biological. Maybe we just have an extreme intolerance to cigarette smoke.

Anyhoo……… GB tried the cigarette and had the exact same reaction that I did. And kept trying to get me to admit, hours later, that it could still be affecting him. I doubt it, but that’s what he kept exclaiming.

GB and I were totally focused on our Language Arts day. He had a spelling test, got new words for next week, learned about writing for the reader, and took a chapter test.

96%, thank you very much!

We also did some work in his Getty & Dubay Handwriting book.

And he did some more Complete-a-Sketch.

It was all going normally for a Language Arts day.

Until this guy walked across the floor and FREAKED me out!

Once suitably contained, we were able to observe him in relative safety. We quickly identified him as a wolf spider (Because we’ve seen them lots of times before). Then we pulled out the books and magazines we have that deal with arachnids. And we checked on our trusty computer. GB’s best moment of the day was when I screachingly yelled at  told him to NOT tilt the container so much. Good Lord! My heart!

Under our stereoscope, we noticed the joints on him.  Each joint looked like an open wound. And the stereoscope was really able to show off how much dust and debris he had gathered from my floor. I guess I need to vacuum again.

In this picture you can see the front part of his body, called the cephalothorax and the pedipalp, which is alongside his jaw and is used to hold his prey while he bites it with his fangs. Ugh!

A wolf spider has eight legs, which we all know about. But upon further research GB and I learned that they also have eight, yes EIGHT, eyes. This is why you can’t sneak up on the critters. The set furthest back, on top, sees UP. The set to the side sees SIDEWAYS, and the four in the front see FORWARDS. The picture above was taken with MY camera, and edited with numbers to show you the eyes. Seriously grossing myself out right now.

Funnily enough, I had a conversation just last week about wolf spiders with one of the moms in my homeschool group. I told her that I thought wolf spiders (because that’s all I ever see in this house) had been getting in GB’s bed and biting him during the night. And she insisted that that could not be true because wolf spiders were non-aggressive and harmless.

Harmless! OMG! How can you say that a spider is harmless? Don’t heart attacks count as harmful?

So while we were doing our research on the wee arachnid, I thought I’d look up some facts on it’s  toxicity. And I quote from this site:

Venom toxicity - the bite of the Wolf Spider is poisonous but not lethal. Although non-aggressive, they bite freely if provoked and should be considered dangerous to humans. The bite may be very painful. First aid and medical attention should be sought as soon as possible, particularly as to children or the elderly.

And more from this site:

Even though the wolf spider is poisonous, its venom is not lethal. The wolf spider is not known to be aggressive; however, they will bite if they feel like they are in harm or danger. They also move extremely fast when they are disturbed. If bitten by a wolf spider, the wound should not be bandaged but an ice pack should be placed on the bite so that the swelling will go down. And if necessary the victim should avoid any movement if at all possible. It is extremely important that one sees medical attention if bitten by a wolf spider or any other spider.

And from our own Virginia Cooperative Extension office:

Most homeowners have misconceptions about spiders-they are pictured to be poisonous (even deadly), and likely to attack at any time. Wrong. The only dangerous spiders we have in Virginia are the brown recluse spider and the black widow spider.

So she was kind of right, they do refer to it as harmless and non-aggressive.

BUT …… If it bites, and injects a venom……. that could be cause for medical attention………. when it is provoked….. like, say, rolling over on it while you sleep………… I think *I’ll* call that a BAD, harmful, agressive spider. I don’t like ones with fangs!

It can stay outside.

Which is exactly where this guy is going. Because GB would never allow me my first inclination, which is to squish.

So I guess we had a tiny little unit study today, impromptu. I suppose it was kinda cool.

No mommies were harmed in today’s studies.

You will not think this is a big deal. But, good grief, we struggled!

Our assignment was to scrape some cheek cells from the inside of the mouth. And to prick a finger to get some blood, so we could study the cells. First of all, GB insisted that my cheek should be the one to scrape since I’m older and lose more skin cells than he does. I don’t know if that is *true* but my dh laughingly agrees with GB.

The cheek scraping went off with nary a hitch. And we got a very nice slide out of it when we looked at it under the microscope. The cheek cells were very nicely defined and looked just like the book.

Oh, but the blood………… Yuck!
Ok, I will admit it. We are a family of fainters. Not my dh, I want to clarify, because he’d be highly offended to be lumped in that category. But the rest of us are fainters. I’m sorry to say that I passed that unfortunate trait onto my offspring. I faint when I get too hot, too tired, get badly injured, see blood, or THINK I’m going to see blood, or view or participate in medical procedures. I once fainted when my dog had to get a rectal exam. Good Lord! That’s embarrassing!

So now you know the background.

GB and I knew this day was coming. Even though I have made great strides, since I have became a parent, with my fainting, I still knew this would be a chore.

Our assignment was to take a sterilized needle and make a tiny pinprick in a finger (guess who’s finger GB chose) and use the resulting blood drop to make a slide.

You wouldn’t think it would be a big deal at all, would you? Well, I tried for a few minutes, unsuccessfully, to pierce my finger. I guess my needle wasn’t pointy enough? Or maybe I wasn’t *stabbing* sharply enough. But it was taking too long to get a drop of blood out of my stupid finger!

Then GB started rolling his head and moaning….. Ah, God!…….. I was doing ok until that point. Then I started to get frustrated with the procedure and my stomach started to roll around………

Finally, I got a teeny, tiny speck of blood. And I hoped it would be enough. GB was beyond the experiment at this point and even refuse to take a picture of our procedure. So I took a DEEP breath and did it myself.

After a brief recovery time, we started working on the slide. A blood slide takes much more careful preparation than the cheek slide. First, we had to (ugh!) smear the blood around the slide. Then we had to let it dry for a minute. Then we had to add a drop of the blue dye, I used methylene blue chloride. After letting the blood absorb the dye for one minute, we had to gently rinse it off the slide. I was worried that the rinsing process would get rid of the blood too, but it didn’t . Then we had to let the slide sit for three minutes to dry. After three minutes, we added one drop of water and put on a cover slip.

Usually when I set my camera to the eyepiece of our microscope I get that black circle around the view (check out the cheek cell photo). But during this procedure I discovered that I can zoom my camera a bit, and it gets rid of the black circle and actually magnifies my subject even more.

So GB and I were able to look at my blood. And after all the drama, the slide turned out pretty cool.

So, that is my A positive blood. We didn’t check to see what kind it is. But after three children, you just know what kind of blood you have. I’d like Doc Bish to look at this photo. Because if we are right, there may even be a couple of white blood cells in this picture.  According to our book, the white blood cells will grab more of the dye and look darker than the rest.

So now you know my weakness. Please don’t think less of me…………….LOL!

Typical day here at the Martinzoo. We spent every bit of it studying Science. Why can’t Science be one of the required subjects that the County requires? Ours doesn’t. All they care about is Language Arts and Math at GB’s age. And he, of course, is most excited by Science and History. Ah well! Such is life.

Today we were learning about cells in our Switched on Science curriculum…. kind of dry, I have to admit. So, I decided to punch up the visuals with some cool web sites that I found during our lunch hour. This site has very cool interactive plant and animal model cells, which was done WAY better than I could have drawn for GB.

We also learned about unicellular organisms and the same site had this graphic:

I think all the ads were annoying on this site, KidsBiology, but I understand that that’s how you make a site free for cheapos like me. But this was a nice, simple explanation of some very complicated concepts. And we enjoyed it. You have to go past the ads to the next part of the explanation, then hit the ‘next’ button to change to the next page.

Our curriculum had us doing four cellular experiments today;  onions, pond water, cheek cells, and blood cells. But we got so busy with these other side stops that we only did the first two experiments. We’ll try to get to the other two tomorrow.

Our first experiment was on the onion. The directions required you to get an onion that included leaves, bulb, and roots. So we got green onions. My opinion is that the green onion is a little too small. But we were still able to see some nice images under the microscope:

Then we tried the pond water. We followed the instructions in the curriculum to make a slide with the water. But we couldn’t get clear images. So then I decided to try dumping some of the water in a petri dish and viewing the water that way. And we got much better results. Granted we couldn’t get the little guys to stay put. But we were able to see all kinds of different unicellular organisms from the pond.

We saw some myonemes:

We saw some euplotes (bottom photo, on left), which I thought looked like little spiders swimming around. GB agreed.

We saw tons of amoeba.  They look quite blog-like as they meander around.

We could see the cell wall on these desmids, so we figured they were some kind of plant cells, and they were, they were algae. Aren’t they pretty? They really do look like the photo. All these photos were borrowed, for clarity sake, from this site. If I had taken pictures they wouldn’t have been this clear.

We also played this game called Pond Scum. It’s very much like chess, so GB loved it, even though I walloped him. It teaches you about the different organisms, and what they eat, and how they all move differently. The game can be printed off here. I didn’t use card stock or transparencies because we haven’t got them, but it was a hit none the less.