One of the things I really wanted to do during our Antarctica study was make an Antarctica Research Laboratory. Our house is not huge and really does not have unlimited areas in which I could create one. Although I had only just finished the hallway I decided that under the stairs was the perfect place for our laboratory. In my head I plotted and planned but knew I probably wouldn’t actually execute these plans until it snowed. London and its suburbs never gets a huge amount of snow but we do almost always receive at least one obligatory snow flurry each year. This year that day happened to be yesterday. Fortunately, I was full of energy and more than up for the job of rearranging our hallway, again (!). And you know? I was quite pleased with the result:
- We already had the hooks that the girls used for their coats. We used these to hang their lab coats and goggles (Daddy’s old white shirts would do just as well):
- There was also a handy nail just above where the lab coats hung. On this I hung a black board sign saying ‘Antarctica Research Lab’:
- We also had a handy white board for recording purposes just behind the door:
- I brought in our living room table to use as the lab bench:
- And then filled every nook and cranny with every little bit of science equipment we owned:
We included:
- a tape measure and rulers to measure depth of snow, length of ice blocks, height of penguins etc.
- a compass for any intrepid explorers who wish to brave the sub zero Antarctic temperatures
- binoculars to be able to study penguins at a great distance
- a magnifying glass for examining specimens
- a scale to weigh pieces of ice, specimens, penguins and for comparative studies.
- Conical flasks, beakers, pipettes, turkey basters, test tubes
- Thermometer for testing inside and outside temperatures
- And basically anything else I had floating around that might have been considered even vaguely scientific…
Then we added our scientists:
And boy did they have fun:
….mixing and stirring; pipetting and turkey basting:
….preparing slides, and viewing them under the microscope:
Who knew an Antarctica Research Lab could hold such treasures?
After they had played to their hearts content, they happily joined me in some Antarctic themed snow experiments, on which I shall be posting tomorrow.