Science Day a Success...

Wednesday Science Day went well. After the morning daily work stuff, we had plenty of time for fun with science. We're working on the building blocks of chemistry right now. First we reviewed states of matter. Then we explored atoms and molecules and made paper models of Nitrogen, Hydrogen, Carbon, and Oxygen. We combined them to make water, carbon dioxide and ammonia (NH3). The girls really got into it. I think Grace really just liked playing with glue and paper. But Elli really enjoyed it and worked independently in her Atoms and Molecules workbook afterwards. She has a chemistry set and the plan was for her to do that, too, but she ran out of juice I guess and didn't get to it. We took a break from Chemistry and reviewed Geology. I rented a video about the Grand Canyon called Marty's Grand Adventure. It was produced by Creation Scientists so I was interested to see what kind of credible information it contained. It was mostly entertaining (which is debatable, actually; it was incredibly cheesy and overacted), but it did contain some interesting arguments. I think we need a more seriously produced dvd from the same perspective. (Finding evolution scientists perspective is so embedded in everything, it would be ridiculous to get a one-sided education.) Grace liked the movie anyway, and Elli thought it could have been better. Maybe that's because one child is a first grader and the other is a middle schooler. Hmm....
In summary, science day was fun. The girls liked the project and actually learned something. We'll be moving into the carbon cycle and the water cycle, but first it was good to give Elli a fun introduction to the periodic table since she'll be studying it seriously in her workbook.
We also rented a video called Astronomy 101, which Grace really enjoyed. The Girl Scout troop is going to be having a night sky watch on Friday night, so it was coincidental preparation. She's really excited about it. She definately enjoys her science!!