science today

One thing I love about homeschool is that there really is some great curriculum - I enjoy teaching and the kids enjoy learning.  This year our science is Apologia Astronomy and it is fantastic.  [No one is surprised since we did Apologia Swimming Creatures last year and it was easily one of the highlights of our year.]

So I often major on the reading and minor on the activities but with this book I can really easily pull together some fun stuff.  So thankful because my 'free time' to work on creating science projects is just about NADA.

Today we did this radar mapping activity that was a big hit.  I 'hid' some objects in a box and taped paper towels to create a box lid.  I used a marker to draw and number a grid on the paper towels.. and printed a matching grid for each kid.  Then I colored a bamboo skewer so that every inch or so was a different color.  [This took about twenty minutes.  Perfect.]

This morning we discussed how radar works, and why radar is necessary for mapping the surface of Venus (thick cloud cover, if you didn't know).  We then used our skewer as a simulated radar signal and poked the skewer through the paper towel (the cloud cover) until we 'hit' something in the bottom of the box (the surface of Venus), and then recorded the height-marking color on the skewer.

We had almost 100 squares on our grid so skewer-poking opportunities abounded :)

And then when the entire box had been "mapped", we tore off the paper towel and checked our accuracy.  Our mountains and valleys were..... a roll of toilet paper, a pair of socks, an upside down bowl and a medicine bottle.

Yay for at home science, and easy memorable activities, and our surprise at finding a pair of Daddy's socks in the bottom of the box ("Does Daddy know that you have his socks in here?!?!")