BJU Press Blog

science

Dates to Remember: August

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Most people—especially students—would agree that learning should be fun and memorable. The question is how to meet that goal? One way is to include different events in your everyday life. With this idea in mind, I’ll be putting together a list of events to watch for each month. Here are some activity ideas for the month of August. Enjoy!

wood engraving of Francis Scott Key
Francis Scott Key/Library of Congress/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain

August 1

Celebrate the birthday of Francis Scott Key (1779–1843) by singing our national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.” He wrote the lyrics after seeing the American flag proudly wave as “the bombs [were] bursting in air” during an important battle in the War of 1812. Did you know that there are four stanzas to the song? Read all the lyrics online and then have everyone in the family pick a part to sing. If you need a soprano, let me know.

Christopher Columbus arrives in America
Christopher Columbus arrives in America by L. Prang & Co., Boston/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain

August 3

“In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” This little rhyme helps me every time to remember the year that Columbus came here. This day marks when Columbus left Spain on his first voyage to the New World. He and his crew would arrive in the Caribbean several months later. Columbus’s discovery changed the course of history despite the fact that he never made it to the North American continent. Don’t Celebrate Columbus Day? offers discussion points for how Christians should identify this explorer.

JourneyForth youth titles on a bookshelf

August 9

It’s officially National Book Lover’s Day. Taking a trip to the library or acting out a story are just two ideas mentioned in Summer Fun Meets Summer Reading. But if it’s a rainy day, spending time reading aloud together would be my vote.

August 13

Raise your left hand for International Lefthander’s Day! If you’re left-handed like I am, we can celebrate the fact that we’re always in our right minds. But sometimes our sanity doesn’t help when it comes to completing daily tasks in a dominantly right-handed world. We lefties often have our own “angle” for doing things. Get out some paper and pen to see what each left hand can do; it’ll be fun, ink smears and all.

poetry in letterpress type
© iStockphoto.com/marekuliasz

August 18

If you aren’t very poetic, don’t worry because this day is National Bad Poetry Day. Maybe your family would enjoy a bad poetry competition. Share a haiku, sonnet, “Roses are red / Violets are blue” rhyme, or autobiographical poem on the BJU Press Homeschool Facebook page.

Street in Pompeii overlooking the Vesuvius. Pompeii is an ancient Roman city died from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
© iStockphoto.com/scaliger

August 24

Get ready for an explosion of volcanic proportions! On this day in AD 79, Mount Vesuvius erupted, destroying Pompeii, Italy.  The city remained covered up for centuries until it was discovered and archaeologists unearthed it. Make Your Own Volcano to demonstrate the force behind a natural eruption.

National Park Service
© iStockphoto.com/RiverNorthPhotography

August 25

Visit the great outdoors for the birthday of the National Park Service (NPS). Get tips on preparing for an enjoyable family hike and download a hiking trail journal.

Subscribe to the blog to receive my upcoming event post about events in September.

Make It a Moon Day!

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American Astronaut Buzz Aldrin on the moon
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin on the moon by NASA/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain

On July 20, 1969, one man took a small step, and mankind leaped over another hurdle in its exploration of what lies beyond Earth. When Neil Armstrong set his foot on the moon’s surface, he became the first human being to ever stand on another celestial body besides our world. With some hands-on activities and interesting facts, you can make the moon landing more real and more amazing to your kids this July.

Fantastic Facts

Younger kids like my preschool-aged son appreciate the story aspect of the moon landing, while older children enjoy hearing fascinating facts. For example, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin gathered 47.5 pounds of moon objects, including rocks and other material, to bring back for scientists to study. Another key fact is that the Apollo 11 mission marked the end of the space race between the United States and Russia. Also, the mission’s command module, the Columbia, was named after the science fiction spacecraft in Jules Verne’s 1865 novel, From the Earth to the Moon.

The Unsung Hero

One astronaut on the mission never got to step onto the moon’s surface. His name was Michael Collins, and he was the pilot of the command craft orbiting the moon. He faithfully stayed at his post and waited for Aldrin and Armstrong to come back so that he could take everyone safely home. This Moon Day, let’s take a few moments to talk to our kids about Collins’s job. What was interesting and important about it? Although he didn’t get the opportunity to walk on the moon, he does have the distinction of being one of just twenty-four people who have flown to the moon.

Moon Modeling

Now it’s time to cement the facts into those young minds with a little hands-on fun! Try a moon model craft. For this activity, kids create their own model of the moon out of clay. Shape the clay into a ball if you want to make the entire moon or lay it out flat if you plan to model one section of the moon’s surface. Do an online search to find a close-up of the moon. Fingers, bottle caps, and pencils are great tools for creating the pits, dents, and ridges of the moonscape. If the kids have a tiny space shuttle, astronaut figure, or US flag, they can add it to their clay moon surface.

Moon Day Snack Time

Moon pies are the perfect snack on Moon Day. With a simple recipe, you can make the cookies the day before and then let your kids help you add the creamy white filling on Moon Day. If you have no time to make moon pies, substitute round creme-filled cookies or wheat crackers and spread out a chart of the moon’s phases on the table. Your kids will have fun taking smaller and larger bites to make their round crackers or cookies match the moon’s shape in each phase.

Moon Watch

In the evening, if the night is clear, your whole family can spread out blankets in the backyard for some good old-fashioned moon-watching. Powerful binoculars or a telescope make this activity much more interesting since the children will be able to see the night sky in more detail. As our kids identify the current phase of the moon, let’s remind them of its importance to our world, reflecting the sunlight at nighttime and moving the tides back and forth as God ordained.

Moon Movie Night

If the night is cloudy or rainy and you cannot spend time moon-gazing together, consider treating your little ones to an age-appropriate, moon-themed movie that fits your family’s entertainment guidelines. Gathering around the computer and watching a video of the moon landing helps children of any age understand the event more clearly. A quick clip of President John F. Kennedy making his moon landing promise to the American people helps children understand how important the event was for that generation of Americans. Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown and Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me by Eric Carle are two classic children’s books whose gentle tone, vivid illustrations, and simple storytelling make them ideal choices to close out a wonderful Moon Day.

As we tell our kids about the moon landing, the wonder in their eyes reminds us of one reason why we homeschool─to share these special moments with them.

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Rebecca is a work-at-home freelance writer, novelist, wife, and the mom of two bright-eyed little ones. She credits her success in writing and her love of books to her own mom, who homeschooled three kids from pre-K through high school.

Greenhouse Experiment Results

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When Ginger Ericson needed an example of a controlled experiment for her upcoming seventh-grade Life Science Distance Learning course, my coworker Stephen and I decided to test internet claims that microwaved water causes death or deformation in plants.

Now the plant experiment is complete, and it was a lot of fun. In retrospect, I would love to redo it using the things our team learned. However, the process of learning continues, and there’s plenty of room for us to revisit this project, and perhaps some of you can try it at home.

The Experiment

3 groups of 15 pots from the microwave water plant experiment

After the first signs of seed germination appeared, Krista and Ashley recorded our observations and measurements for four weeks. Our data outlined below involves twelve of the original fifteen pots.

When comparing plants, age is important, especially when dealing with plants that grow as rapidly as ours did. It really means very little to compare a plant that has been growing for six days to one that has been growing for only three days and then announce that the first plant is larger. The four Microwave Group pots germinated a few days later than the others, so the groups could not just be compared to each other on a given date. Instead, all the data presented shows the average height, leaf number, and flower number of each group by day after germination, which we defined as the first day a plant was recorded in the pot.

The average heights of the three groups were similar, but the Microwave Group plants were slightly behind the plants in the other groups.

chart of average plant height by days after germination for BJU Press plant experiment

The average numbers of leaves in the three groups were also similar, with the Stovetop Group being slightly behind the other two.

chart data measuring average number of leaves by days after germination for BJU Press plant experiment

It’s difficult to measure the average number of flowers. We took our measurements two to three times each week, and it is very possible that some flowers may have bloomed, been pollinated, and then died between two measurements. However, the data indicates that the Microwave Group plants began to flower before the others, had fewer flowers, and began to taper off before the other two groups. The Stovetop Group plants had also begun to taper off by the end of the experiment but had as many flowers as the plants in the Control Group. The number of flowers in the Control Group seemed to still be increasing.

The Results

At the end of any project, lessons should be learned that can be applied to the future. This experiment was no exception. Although we were very pleased with how this turned out,  some factors that were not controlled may have affected our results. If you’d like to set up this experiment, we would recommend these adjustments:

  1. Filter the water or use distilled water. Microwaving is a very inefficient method of boiling water, so nearly a quart of every gallon is evaporated. We used spring water, so the evaporated water left a good bit of precipitated calcium carbonate. Since the water boiled on the hotplate lost relatively little to evaporation, this phenomenon occurred to a far less extent. It is possible the excess calcium carbonate might have caused the smaller size observed in the plants in the Microwave Group.
  2. Take measurements every day. We took measurements two or three times a week, and that worked well with plant height and leaf number, but it may have caused some of the unusual results for the flower number. The fact that we used a plant variety specifically bred to complete its lifecycle in less than six weeks may have exacerbated this issue.
  3. Thin the plants at the beginning of the experiment so that each pot has the same number of plants. Some of our pots had only one plant, and others had as many as three. The resulting difference in competition could significantly affect all four measurements used.

What can we conclude?

The plants in the Microwave Group didn’t all die, and they didn’t all evidence horrible deformities—two results suggested on some websites. The plant height is curious, but so is the smaller number of leaves in the Stovetop Group. In the end, the small sample size prevents us from making broad generalizations, but we can conclude that plants do not seem greatly affected by microwaved water.

Keep an eye out for this experiment in our upcoming seventh-grade Life Science Distance Learning course!

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Elwood holds a BA in biology and an MA in English from Bob Jones University. After working with the video lesson department at BJU Press for five years, he now serves as a secondary-level science writer at BJU Press. When not working, he enjoys taking random college classes, reading, playing disc golf, and hanging out with his wife and three kids.

Grandmothers Can Be the Best Teachers

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image of a grandmother and granddaughter video chatting.

With Mother’s Day just around the corner, I don’t want to overlook a very important group of women. They’re called grandmothers. And every child, no matter how old, knows just how grand they are. In fact, grandmothers often have the ability to encourage, inspire, motivate, and instruct children in a way that their own mothers cannot. At least, that’s the role my grandmothers have played in my own life, especially during the years I was homeschooled.

Distance often kept me from seeing my grandmothers face-to-face, but that didn’t stop them from taking an active part in my education. Here are some of the ways they got involved.

Language Arts

Grandma knew written words could make people feel special, and when I had to practice letter writing, she became my pen pal. Her round, flowing script wasn’t always easy to read, but what she wrote told me that I had sent her something important.

Another favorite past time Grandma shared with me as a child was reading. She would often send me books that Mom would incorporate into my lessons. Some of my favorite stories were the ones we read out loud while seated on her high, comfy bed. Uncle Wiggily was and still is quite the character.

Other ideas: Kids love solving puzzles, so try asking your grandkids to help you solve the newspaper’s daily crossword puzzle. Playing a simple game of hangman can reinforce proper spelling. Or start a reading club with just the two of you and later expand it to include their cousins and friends.

Math

Most of my time with both grandmothers was not spent in a kitchen. But in recent years, I’ve had the opportunity to collect their special family recipes and cookbooks. Cooking and baking can be great ways to practice math fractions, especially since the hard work results in a tasty treat.

Other ideas: Counting games are another way to teach sums and times tables. They can be done around the house or while running errands. If you work from home or own a business, your grandkids could play “office” by calculating orders. This teaching moment might work best with a mature young person.

History

Grammie told me stories she remembered about our family heritage. When I had a family genealogy project in elementary school, she sat on the couch for hours telling stories. This trip down memory lane for her gave me a deeper understanding of our family and broader perspective on the society in which she grew up.

Grandma took day trips with me and Mom to historical sites. It became “the thing to do” every time we visited. We often explored places on Georgia’s Antebellum Trail as well as the home sites of famous authors.

Other ideas: Share your perspective on a historical event that has taken place during your lifetime. Introduce your grandkids to people of character that you’re related to or who come from your area. This teaching moment can be done by viewing pictures or art, reading newspaper clippings, and visiting different places.

Science

Every morning Grammie would check her blood sugar and prepare her insulin. That daily routine of hers greatly fascinated me as a young child. It also helped me realize that science has many different facets—even if I didn’t want to learn them!

Other ideas: Demonstrate a plant’s life cycle by asking your grandkids to help you plant flowers or do yardwork. Spend time stargazing on a clear night, and share how our wonderful God made this planet a special place for us to live.

My grandmothers were my favorite teachers because they made ordinary events extraordinary and mundane tasks exciting. They helped me to gain perspective on the past, present, and future. But most importantly they simply invited me to be a part of their lives.

To all grandmothers: Thank you for choosing to invest in the next generation. May God bless you this Mother’s Day!

A Tale of Microwaves and Greenhouses

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Did you ever have one of those moments when you just wanted to test something for yourself? Many good ideas never progress beyond the thinking stage because of a lack of resources, but every once in a while, the opportunity to make that idea a reality presents itself. My coworker Stephen Garrison and I experienced this recently after discussing internet claims that microwaved water causes death or deformation in plants. During our discussion, we gradually realized that we didn’t have to just talk about it; this was something we could test ourselves.

Our conversation might never have been anything more than another one of those unfulfilled good ideas if biological sciences teacher Ginger Ericson hadn’t needed an example of a controlled experiment for her upcoming seventh-grade Life Science course. Our idea seemed perfect because it would be a fairly simple experiment and because it would test a question that buzzes around the internet.

At the beginning, the biggest obstacle to our plan was finding a location to carry out our experiment. This time of year, temperatures can vary wildly in Greenville. Furthermore, the effects of the different water treatments, if any, would be diminished if the plants were exposed to rain. So we needed a controlled environment, one that filtered out factors such as rain and temperature fluctuations.

We were able to gain access to a fully climatized glass-metal greenhouse. This type of greenhouse is completely enclosed, so no rain can get to the plants inside, and the internal temperature can be kept constant.

Our setup was fairly simple.

  1. We filled fifteen four-inch pots with wet potting soil.

shoveling dirt into a pot for plants

  1. We planted three or four Brassica rapa (turnip) seeds in each pot.

turnip seeds in the palm of a person's hand

  1. Three groups received a random group of five pots:
    • a control group
    • a group to be treated with water previously boiled for five minutes on a hotplate
    • a group to be treated with water previously boiled for five minutes in a microwave

five pots of three groups for a science plant experiment

  1. We placed the pots in the greenhouse and allowed the seeds to germinate.

greenhouse used for BJU Press Science 7 plant experiment

  1. Now that the plants have germinated, we continue watering each group with the corresponding water treatment and recording measurements for
    • plant height,
    • number of leaves, and
    • number of flowers.

control group plant

These data should give us an indication of what effect, if any, the different types of water have on the plants. Check back with us to find out the results of this good idea turned into reality.

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Elwood holds a BA in biology and an MA in English from Bob Jones University. After working with the video lesson department at BJU Press for five years, he now serves as a secondary-level science writer at BJU Press. When not working, he enjoys taking random college classes, reading, playing disc golf, and hanging out with his wife and three kids.