Grow Stalactites with a string

Mira d'Aire

Stalactite:
a cylindrical mass of calcium carbonate hanging from the roof of a limestone cave: formed by precipitation from continually dripping water

Alvado

Stalagmite
a cylindrical mass of calcium carbonate projecting upwards from the floor of a limestone cave: formed by precipitation from continually dripping water


in http://www.thefreedictionary.com

Let´s try to do our own stalactites and stalagmites, with water and salt.
At first sight may look simple and easy, but in fact is a lot difficult because it will depend on a lot of variables.

What we need:

• Epsom salts,
• water,
• 2 identical glasses,
• string or paper towel,
• 2 paper-clips or weights,
• spoon,
• bowl or pot,
• a good place to leave the glasses siting for a few days

How to:

1. Fill a glass twice with water and dump it in the pot,
2. Add 1 Epsom table spoon;
3. Mix;
4. Repeat again and again until the solution is saturated;
5. Heat the heat the pot on a stove, caution!
6. Add more salt and keep stirring, hot water can  dissolve more salt, do not boil the water;
7. Split the water for the 2 glasses, try to be the more exact as you can;
8. Find the location where they will sit for the next few days...;
9. Leave a 3 or 4 inches between the glasses;
10. Cut a string big enough to cover the distance between the glasses and hang down to the bottom of both glass;
11. Tie the paper clips in both string ends;
12. Place each one on a glass;
13. Wait, observe ad take notes.

What happens?
After a few days we will notice a little stalactite on the string.
With a bit of luck you will be able to see a stalagmite too.


Why?
The water travels through the string and the salt goes with it. While the path is vertical the salt "plays along" with water, but when the path becomes vertical, the gravity wins and the saltwater is pulled down. The water trickle and leaves the salt behind on the string. With time the salt will form a  stalactite.
If you are lucky and wait enough time you will be able to see the stalagmite formation, under the stalactite.

NOTE THIS:
This demonstration is not so easy as it seams.

• You need a strong and concentrate solution of salt;
• For better results immerse the string in the solution, before you place it between the glasses.
• If the water is dripping very fast increase the distance between the cups, that will reduce the inclination angle.
• Do not use a wood surface, it may damage the wood.

A step further:

• Use different strings;
• Use other salts;
• Use different concentration solutions;

Important:

• Change one thing at time;
• Register everything

Sources:http://www.sciencekidsathome.com,
Dicionário de Mineralogia e geologia ilustrado

Et voilá!
Geology in the kitchen

Enjoy!

Build a Terrarium- Ecosystem inside a jar

In National Geographic

A terrarium is a completely self-sustaining ecosystem in a container that is designed to house small animals and plants under controlled conditions.

The closed nature of a terrarium creates an environment easy to control, allowing the simulation of environments from desert to rain forest.
In general it is made in a clear naked container, but can also be constructed in wood, for example.

The top can be open or closed depending on the environment we want o recreate. When open it's protected with a net to prevent the "escape" and the entrance of living beings.

How does it works?

The plant resets the oxygen, the light is a source of energy, the water comes from moisture in the soil. As the dead leaves fall and decompose providing food for the soil.

We can build a Terrarium, that's today proposal.

What we need:

• transparent glass container, with a wide opening,
• small stones,
• activated charcoal, you can buy it in a pet shop,
• potting soil,
• small sponge,
• a net with a fine mesh 
• canvas
• moss and/or plants.

How to:

1. Chose what plant you want to use, they must be small and slow growth;
2. Place the small stones in the container -terrarium;
3. Spread a small amount of activated charcoal on the top of stones;
4. Take a piece of canvas and make a small cut in the middle
5. Cover the charcoal with the canvas;
6. Place a sponge (with 3cm wide) in the canvas cut, this will take the moisture to the plants;
7. Cover the all hing with soil; 
8. Place the plants. Just like you will do it in the garden;
9. Spray your plants with water;
10. You can add o your garden some action figures;
11. Close the Terrarium with the net;
12. Wait to see if it works.

At first the Terrarium will look fragile, but after a few days the ecosystem will start operating normally. It's normal if the first try fail, but don't give up, use different plants and different soil and try again.

Et Voilá!
Can you make it work?

Enjoy!

DIY- Bird house

Our restless love this kind of crafts. This is how we did our own bird house.
We bought the house already made in the store; of course you can make one from the scratch.

What we need:

• a plain wood bird house;
• sand paper;
• small branches, acorns, leaves, sticks, whatever you can find in the garden;
• white glue; 
• varnish;
• brown acrylic paint, or another color you prefer;
• wire.

How to:

1. Sand the bird house;
2. Paint it with your elected color;
3. Let it dry for 3 to 4h;
4. Varnish it;
5. Let it dry again;
6. While you wait between the point 3 and 5, look for small branches, acorns, leaves, sticks, whatever you can find in the garden, to camouflage the bird house.
7. Cut the branches and the sticks in the right size, don't worry if some of them are larger or smaller, nature is irregular.
8. When the varnish is dry, cover one of the house walls with white glue,
9. Glue the branches and the sticks, don’t worry with the space between them, we will deal with it later,
10. Let it dry,
11. Chose another wall and repeat the step 8 and 9.
12. Go on until all the walls are decorated;
13. Leave it to dry for 24h;
14. Glue other elements to cover the spaces between the branches and let it dry again;
15. Varnish;
16. With the wire fix the house on a tree, don’t use nails;
17. Wait until the new inhabitants move to the new condo.

NOTE: do not glue the box cover (bird house roof) 


Et Voilá!
A little help for wildlife!

Enjoy!

The mysterious blast

Magic Science Tricks video.

TRICK Nº3. The mysterious blast


NOTE: This trick must heave adult supervision.

What we need:

• candles,
• matches,
• sodium bicarbonate, baking soda,
• vinegar, normal, without flavor,
• a glass container, with a large opening.

How to:

1. Light the candles;
2. Leave it burning for a while;
3. Pour the vinegar in container;
4. Add half a measure of bicarbonate;
5. Quickly put your hand over the cup, keep your hand there for a few seconds, until the bubbling calms down
6. Hold the container 1 in above the candle wick;
7. Tilt it as much as you can without the liquid content spill over the candles.

What happens?
The flame extinguish.

Why?
When we mix vinegar and baking soda a reaction happens, in this reaction water (liquid), carbon dioxide (gas) and sodium acetate (liquid) are formed. The bubbling is the result of this.
When we place our hand on the flask we don't prevent the gas to escape, we just slow it down, a small amount of it stay inside the container. When we tilt the container near the candles the CO2 escapes, and as result the O2 (oxygen) concentration drops, resulting in the extinction of the flame. This happens because one of the 3 necessary elements for a combustion is missing- the O2 -Check more information about this.

NOTE: CO2 molecule is heavier then O2 molecule.

That's why CO2 is a extinguishing agent, but like all extinguishing agents it can't be used indiscriminately:

Referências:
http://www.fiocruz.br/biosseguranca/Bis/lab_virtual/fogo.html 
http://www.fire-extinguisher101.com/agents.html

Et voilá!
It's Magic

Enjoy!

Instant facts- Just add water 20

The gray whale migrates more than 10,000 miles each year, the longest migration of any mammal.
in http://savethesea.org

Instant facts- Just add water 19

The oceans occupy nearly 71% of our planet's surface
in  http://savethesea.org

Beach shell frames- Summer DIY

You can find a few summer activities here, but this one is really a summer activity.

The idea is to make some frames for our pictures using materials we find on a summer walk along the beach. I don’t know about you but every time I come home from the beach we bring tons of stones and shells...

This tutorial will help all restless to use their stone/shells collection to do something that will remind them, when the winter comes, the hot and nice days of summer.

What we need:

• a photograph,
• tape,
• white glue,
• shells,
• exact-O knife or scissors,
• Pencil or pen,
• ruler,
• cardboard can be a piece of a cardboard box,
• Thick cardboard,
• Acrylic paint, optional,
• Sand from the beach, optional,
• Varnish, optional.

How to:

1. First of all chose the photo you want to frame;
2. Make 2 little rolls with the tape and fix it to the cardboard;
3. Outline the picture with the pencil;
4. With the ruler and the pencil draw the frame format, if you can't make it symmetric draw it clearly asymmetric, otherwise will look weird;
5. Take the photo off;
6. Again, with the ruler and pencils help, draw a second outline 1/2in around the original photo outline, like the photo is 1/2 smaller;
7. With the exact-O knife cut the frame;
8. Place the frame on the tick cardboard;
9. Draw the frame exterior outline on the cardboard;
10. With the exact-O knife cut the second cardboard, remember to cut "inside" the pencil stroke, otherwise the back cardboard will be bigger then the front frame;
11. Spread white glue on the frame, not too much or the shells will drown in glue;
12. Place the shells like your imagination/creativity tells you to, you don’t need to fill up all empty spaces;
13. If you want to use sand, now its the time, cover all the frame with it;
14. Wait for 24h;
15. If you wish to use acrylic painting:
1. First option is to dye the glue, before apply the glue mix paint on it as you wish;
2. Second option is to paint shells after the glue, wait 24h before apply the paint.
16. Remove the excess of sand;
17. Glue the photo in the frame back;
18. Let it dry for 2h;
19. Glue the cardboard in the back, to protect the photo;
20. Varnish it if you want.

Et Voilá!
Summer in a shot!

Enjoy!

Instant facts- Just add water 8

Chinese Sturgeon its a carnivore fish with a life span in the wild of 50 to 60 years.

in http://environment.nationalgeographic.com

Hunting animals with a camera

The child must understand there is live everywhere, under the stones, near the pool, on the sand under our feet...

What we need:

• a camera, preferably cheap, the child can broke it, it can be a cell phone or disposable, for example,
• a computer, for downloading photos,
• a notebook,
• a pen.

The project is simple but requires some hard work:  

1. Stimulate your child to find a spot with live. Let him/her to take the camera everywhere he goes. Let him to look, to find and to capture the moment with it;
2. Its allowed to capture same species in different locations;
3. Tell him to take note of the place, time of the day, and other important information when shooting, for example, "Park, 2:30PM, very hot, 5 animals photographed in the grass, 2 near the swing";
4. Download photographs to your computer;
5. Place them is a special folder, named it after the place and/or the day where your child took the photos, your restless can do this, on the notebook write down the name of the folder corresponding to the location described previously;
6. Let your restless child name each photo with the animal real name. Let him look for the names he doesn't know on the internet and/or books…;
7. To finish you can place all the pictures on a slide show, he will be amazed with all the animals he saw.

The duration of this project is variable, only parents and/or educators can evaluate the availability of children for this project.
Set a day, or a specific hour during the day to catalogue and download the photos, or, and trust me on this one, it will be the chaos.

Attention: 

Explain to the child that in any case he/she should arm the animals he/she is shooting, tell him/her not to hold them in his/her hands... any of this actions can lead to the animal dead or trigger defensive reactions.

If the child prefer use the vegetable kingdom

Et Voilá!
Life is everywhere waiting to be found!

Enjoy!

Black hole magic

Today we are going to do some magic!
Your restless will be amazed!

What we need:

• chose a easy cleaning surface, as always, to avoid problems,
• rubber gloves,
• metal can, any size will do
• Styrofoam, like the ones in the images.

How to:

1. Put your gloves on;
2. Make a large pile of Styrofoam;
3. Pour the acetone in the can, about 1 in high;
4. Ask your restless to set aside the quantity of Styrofoam he/she thinks to fill the can;
5. Drop the pieces into the can one by one;
6. Keep dropping;
7. The pile is finish? Grab some Styrofoam from the big pile and keep dropping;
8. If everything goes as planed the big pile will disappear before your eyes into the can, like it was a "black hole" that grabs everything around it.

Results:
Styrofoam vanish in the can!

The actors:
The acetone is an organic compound (CH3)2CO, is a highly flammable liquid with a high level of solvency. A lot of compounds dissolve on acetone, like nail polish.
Styrofoam is made of polystyrene. Manufactures use a blown agent that helps to transform the polystyrene in Styrofoam, the product this procedure originate is a highly porous and rigid polymer, with high percentage of air, trapped on porous

What happened?
In fact what happen is very easy to explain. Styrofoam is a polymer, made of several chemical units linked (like all polymers), acetone works on this links breaking them. Once the Styrofoam is made by thousands of air bubbles, all that remains at the end of the chemical reaction is: air.
Styrofoam is a very light material and with a lot of air inside, that makes it perfect o disappear with a small quantity of acetone.

After all where did the Styrofoam go?
When Styrofoam dissolves in acetone it doesn't disappear. Don’t forget  the statement "In nature, nothing is created, nothing is destroyed, everything is transformed". Polystyrene molecules continue in solution. Styrofoam solubility is very important when comes to recycling. Polystyrene in acetone solution can be extracted and used to make new materials avoiding its accumulation in sanitary landfills.

Caution:
Kids must be kept away from acetone,
Use other acetone then the nail polish remover for better results.
Verify if what you are using is really Styrofoam and isn't other similar biodegradable product

Et voilá!
It's a kind of magic!
Tcham tcham!

Enjoy!

A garden on the balcony

Another super restless idea from Andreza's blog to reuse plastic bottles (we also recycle / reuse here)
Its a simple concept, planting aromatic herbs in your balcony using bottles as pots.
Your restless will love the idea of those "little green things" growing outside, and its halfway to make them eat their vegetables.


We will need:

• 3 plastic PET bottles,
• pot soil, enough to fill the bottles,
• fertilizer,
• sand,
• seeds of parsley and chives,
• water,
• exact-O knife,
• scissors,
• shovel and rake,
• flowerpots clamps,

How to:

1. Cut the bottles with a sharp knife, open a hole with 20 cm on each bottle,
2. Punch a hole in 2 of them.. on the bottom;
3. Don't punch the third, this one will catch the water that falls from the other 2;
4. If your restless kids want to decorate the flowerpots, now its the moment, they can use paint, paper, or anything else they want;
5. Mix 3 parts of pot soil, and 2 of fertilizer, you can use exterior fertilized pot soil, 
6. Place this soil on both punched bottles,
7. Seed and water the plants (already done this here)
8. Place the sand on the third bottle. 
9. Chose a wall you can drill and attach the flowerpots clamps to it. Leave 20cm between each one.

Hang the system to a height that allows children to see the plants.

Variations:
there are several ways to do this project. You can chose to use a string system, is cheaper the the final result is the same. for this you will need 2 fixation points, you can use 2 nails.
You can plant anything you want, not just shovel and rake.


Et Voilá!

Thank you Andreza!

Enjoy!

Autumn colors- answer to reader

Marco send us an email, he wants to know why in the autumn leaves are not all the same color:

"Hello, leaves are yellow here where I live, but i saw pictures from another places where the trees have brown, yellow, red leaves... I want to know why leaves dont have those colors here."

Marco, the thing is leaves color is determinate by several variables.

First lets see how it works.

Leaves work as natural factories for nutrients.

Using roots, plants get from the soil all nutrients and water (H2O) they need to live. From the air they get carbon dioxide (CO2). With sun light help they transform CO2 and H2O in Oxygen (O2) and glucose, without them the live as we know it, would not be possible.
Glucose is a sugar, and plants use it as a source of energy, allowing the plant to grow this transformation process is called photosynthesis.
Chlorophyll is a pigmented molecule and has a active role in photosynthesis. Chlorophyll gives the green color to the leaves and, even more important, they absorb sun light and therefore make possible the growing process.

How do leaves change color?
When summer ends and the fall begin, days become shorter. This fact works for plants as a trigger to begin preparing to the winter cold- like other living things.

During winter, there isn't enough light to carry out photosynthesis. Trees get in "stand by" mode and they will live from summer stocked nutrients, slowly the nutrients factories turn off the production. Green Chlorophyll vanishes from leaves. This changes lead to a kind of migratory process of nutrients from leaves to stem; here they will be protected from the winter cold. That way, later when spring arrives, those will be used to form new leaves, and the process will repeat itself
As the nutrients migrate to a safe place, leaves stop producing chlorophyll, and the green start to vanish. This allows other pigments to show their colors, like yellow, brown, red, etc, in fact this colors always been there, they just were not visible in the Summer, because chlorophyll concentration were to high.

Why so many colors?
The range of fall colors is enormous, some of them are hereditary, different tree species show different colors sets, and others depend on temperature range.

Vivid colors can be seen in places with great luminosity but with low temperatures (0 to 7ºC). England, for instance, where the fall is rainy but with temperate clima, leaves show yellows and cloudy-browns.
As winter approaches colors fade away and leaves fall from the trees.
After falling from the tree, leaves can't get water or nutrients and slowly dry, and lose all the rest of pigments.

Marco, you live in a place where the type of trees and the characteristic temperature of your autumn are suitable for yellow colors (probably carotenes- identical to those on carrots).
In other places red colors, scarlet or purple indicate the presence of anthocyanins, this pigments are only formed when the temperatures goes down a bit more.

References: internet images; sciencemadesimple.com

Et Voilá!
Autumn full of color

Enjoy!

Homemade rain gauge

The rain is here, and is causing a huge mess.

In Portugal the higher precipitation value registered was back in January of 1977, in a place called Penhas da Saúde.
When measuring precipitation scientists have a goal, a very simple one, to determinate the water quantity that falls in a given place during a given period of time.

The measure is done by collecting water with a rain gauge, and estimating the high that it would reach if there was no evaporation, no infiltrations, and no draining.
The quantity of precipitation is measured in mm or in, in a given time period in a given area, that means, for example 24in/ft2/24h.
Today we will see a easy way to do this measure... in your own backyard. In fact the procedure is very simple and doesn't require any special material, obviously we will not collect scientific precision data, but its good enough to have a good idea on the procedure.

First of all, this experiment can only be done in the rain season, and because we are not using scientific equipment, is convenient the temperature is low, otherwise the water will evaporate.

We are going to build our first tool on the homemade "meteorological station", the rain gauge

We will need:

• paper,
• pen,
• ruler,
• plastic bottle, with a flat bottom,
• large can, can be a bucket or similar, the bottle has to fit in,
• waterproof pen, an alternative is to arrange water resistant tape where you can write,
• insulating tape,
• shovel,
• a corner in the backyard, that is not protected from rain.

How to:

1. On a sheet of paper draw a graph, the X-axis and Y, on the X-axis mark the day, the days can be different from the day of the month you are in, the important is you know the number of days you experience has. Day1 can be the first day of the test, you can record the duration of the test in the title bar of the graph, for example, "Rain on granny’s backyard- from 10/11/2011 to 10/12/2011", the y-axis is the amount of rainfall in “in” (I advise to mark the bottle not in “in” but in 1/10in or millimeters);
2. Wash the bottle, remove any glue or paper;
3. The bottle is round on top and straight on the bottom, cut it in 2 pieces in the place it becomes straight, its about 1/3 from the top (the neck).
4. Use the ruler and water resistant pen and mark in on the straight part, which now looks like a big water glass, I advise to mark the bottle not in “in” but in 1/10in or millimeters, the more small is the measure the more accurate is the reading;
5. Place the top of the bottle (upside down, type funnel) at the bottom (glass);
6. With duct tape firmly attach both parts;
7. Dig a hole in the "corner of the backyard," this place has to be exposed to rain;
8. Bury the bucket / bin;
9. Place the bottle in;
10. When you put the bottle the experience begin, record the time of the day;
11. Every day, at the same time, and during the entire period of your experience, register on the chart the height of water on the bottle;
12. After each reading, empty the bottle and put it back into place;

NOTE: As an alternative to plastic (PET) bottle can use a tall glass flask and a plastic funnel, the procedure is the same.

References: http://www.meteo.pt

Et voila!

Enjoy!