Breeding Mr and Mrs Apple-heads to create some Applettes Yesterday I posted about our Gregor Mendel scientist study. We finished up our study with a bit of fun, making our own father and mother Apple-heads. It was a really great way to check the children fully understood the new vocabulary: allele, phenotype, genotype, recessive, dominant,…
Category: Science
Scientist Study: Gregor Mendel – Simple Genetics
Who is Gregor Mendel? Gregor Mendel is regarded as the first ever geneticist. He overcame poverty and the death of his father, funded his own education and finally joined the abbot to continue with his studies. He spent much of his adult life trying to answer the following question: How do mothers and fathers -…
Genetics: Fingerprint Lab
Over the past week we have been learning about Mendelian genetics (or simple genetics). As a fun introduction we carried out a fingerprint lab. Why a Fingerprint Lab? I wanted to show the children that there is only one of them. This was quite important for the girls to see, given that they are twins…
Biology: Genetics – DNA
We have just finished Microbe studies and together we have chosen to look at Inheritance and Genetics next. Again, I will be using the Edexcel IGCSE specification as guidance. Our studies will hopefully be in-depth and very hands on before we settle down to answering past exam papers to test how much the children understand.…
Biology : Extracting Your Own DNA
Actually this post will describe how to extract DNA from a banana, a tomato and from yourself. The method is similar for all three. Extracting DNA samples I gave the children the choice of extracting DNA from tomatoes, bananas or from themselves. It is very easy to do requiring nothing more than water, salt, surgical…
Scientist Study: Watson and Crick
Crick and Watson were 20th century scientists accredited (with help from Franklin and Wilkins) for discovering the structure of DNA (DeoxyriboNucleic Acid), one of the most significant discoveries of that century. The three men were awarded a nobel prize for discovering the 'secret of life'. Franklin had died and so missed out, even though it…
Spar-Klean Science at Angelicscalliwags
Spar-Klean Science (Age 10+) Apologies, I am still attempting to organise my blog by grouping like posts together. These are all my posts within my home-made Spar-Klean Science course. It will be added to as and when we do lessons. Investigating where the dirtiest place is in the kitchen Is the loo cleaner than the…
Continent Study: Antarctica – How do animals survive the sub-zero temperatures?
Antarctica doesn't have the diversity of wildlife that other continents have. Those animals which are able to survive the sub-zero temperatures do so because they have adapted to this environment to reduce heat loss, often developing warm windproof coats and layers of blubber. We did an experiment to investigate how blubber helps to keep an…
Continent Studies: Antarctica – Experiments in the Snow
If you read yesterday's post you will know that we created an Antarctica Research Lab, in which the girls had a lot of fun doing some free play experimentation: As much fun as they had, free play wasn't the only thing I had in mind for our laboratory. Oh no, when snow falls one must…
Incr-Edible Science at Angelicscalliwags
This is a home made curriculum we have done on and off for the past few years. I add to it as and when we come upon suitable topics in our other areas of study. No doubt it will expand over the next few years. As the title suggests, during our Incr-Edible science we learn…
Fizzy Fun at Angelicscalliwags
In my quest to organise my blog, I am gathering all related posts into one post to make them easier to find. This post includes all the science I have done with my little ones with bicarbonate and vinegar and anything else which results in a fizz. Testing out the equipment Fizzy Fun : Experiments with…
365 Experiments in, well, 365 Days!
Apologies for the double posts. My computer doesn't seem to have changed to 2015 so posts keep being posted in 2014. Then I repost for the day it should have come out on ie today. I'll attempt to get it sorted so I will only need to post once! One of my biggest goals this…
2014-2015 School Year: Science
I always maintain science is our weakest area in our little homeschool. I am so pleased I keep a blog because to my surprise, when I looked over the past year, I found we had done a reasonable amount! Over the past year we have done some Incr-Edible science (self penned food science), Spar-Klean science…
Microbes: Fungus and Bacteria – Intrinsically Linked
I probably don't need to say this, but did you know that fungi can kill bacteria? Most antibiotics used today were found originally in fungi, although many of these chemicals are now synthesized in factories. Strictly speaking, antibiotics are substances made by microorganisms that stop growth of other microbes or kill them outright. The first ever antibiotic…
Fizzy Fun: Elephant Toothpaste
This was inspired by Lucinda's excellent post. I wanted to do it for two reasons. The first was for its fizzy fun factor! It was a perfect addition to our Fizzy Fun science. The second was for the older children to see it happen and for them to design their own experiments using this catalytic reaction…