Elemental Science -Earth Logic
This link tells you everything you'll need for the program and has lots of samples!!
Unit 1: Space
Experiment 1
Can I calculate the speed of light using a microwave?
Materials: Large Chocolate Bar, Large plate, Microwave, and Ruler
We used a Hershey bar b/c that's her favorite!
This is what it looks like after you microwave it for 1min 30sec. If we ever do this again, I will flip the bar over to the back side before microwaving.
She measured the distance b/w the two melted spots and then completed her calculations in her lab notebook.
Here is just a glimpse of what part of the lab sheet looks like that she had to fill out.
Experiment Week 3
Why Do Stars Twinkle?
She has learned this week that the refraction of light gives the stars the appearance of twinkling in our night sky.
For her sketch this week, Flower's assignment was to label/draw the Life Cycle of a Star.....
Experiment Week 4
Shoebox Planetarium
She was able to see the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper projected on the wall. She continued to make more constellation cards to project on the wall! She never new that there are 88 constellations!
For Week 5 she read a lot about the Zodiac and choose a constellation of the Zodiac to research. She then created a profile page for that constellation. We finished up with a Unit 1 Test the week after....
Unit 2: Our Solar System
Experiment 6
Do the Sun's rays contain heat?
The tea jar outside was darker in color, but the temperature didn't change much due to the temp of the air outside being cold. I think if we do this again while it's cold outside, we will just put the jar in a sunny window inside. We may see a greater change in temperature that way.
Flower did a little project pertaining the phases of the moon with Thumper....Doesn't have anything to do with what she is studying at this moment in ES, but she couldn't pass up the yummy activity!
This was a real treat because we don't buy Oreos ever!
Experiment 7
Can yeast survive on Mercury or Venus?
Gathering supplies
Getting the recommended temperatures for each bottle
Adding 1 1/2 cups of water to Mercury and Earth. Adding 1cup of hot water & 1/2 cup of vinegar to Venus.
Adding sugar to each bottle
Adding yeast to each bottle and putting on the balloons. Wait 10 minutes and observe and measure circumference of each.
Earth was the only balloon that inflated. We waited a few more minutes and Earth balloon was standing up. Mercury and Venus could definitely not support life based on this experiment.
Experiment 8: Does the Moon Change Size?
In this experiment she secured an apple to a fork, her dad stood 5 feet away from her and shone the flashlight in her direction. This was done in a semi dark room. She kept the apple in the same place but turned slowly counterclockwise in a circle. She observed what she saw and concluded her experiment on her experiment sheet.
A few lessons back she made the yummy activity with her sister and brother using oreos to make the moon phases. She added a sketch to her lab book with the phases of the moon.
Experiment 9: Does the heat in Jupiter's core affect the storms on its surface?
Conclusion: The kite fluttered because when hot air rises from the toaster and meets the cold air, wind is created.
Experiment 10: Outer Planets-Uranus & Neptune, Minor Members
Flower made the scaled model of the solar system.
She says she wants to label them. That will help her younger brother & sister with the planet order from the sun!
Experiment 11: Does the size of a meteor change the impact it will have on a planet's surface?
We used a softball instead of a tennis ball because that's what we had around the house.
It made quite a mess!
She had to measure each crater and document it on her lab sheet.
Well, Flower is at the end of Unit 2.....we are watching videos about planets, sun, Earth, and more. Here is one that we plan to watch...... Space.com Video
Unit 3: Astronomers & Their Tools
Week 12: Astronomers
Week 13: Looking Into Space
Week 14: Exploring Space
Week 15: Satellites
In this Unit, Flower had to choose a topic for her science fair project. ES guided her step by step through the process of completing her project. She spent each week adding to her experiment, researching, testing her experiment, drawing her conclusions, and presenting her science fair project.
Amongst all of this experimenting, she still kept up with her reading, taking notes on terms, coloring her sketches, memory work, and keeping up with her dates. It was a busy month but she survived!!
Here is her Science Fair Project that she presented to us:
Crystal Fudge
Great presentation Flower!! A+++
Unit 4: Geology
Week 16: Maps & Mapping
We choose not to do the experiment for this week. Basically you would take a balloon with continents drawn on it or you blow it up and draw the continents on it. Blow up your balloon to make it look like a globe.....take your flat map (appendix in back of book) and wrap it around the balloon, trying to match it up to the continents on the balloon. Record your observations....Then pop the balloon and cut in a certain area. Try to stretch the balloon to match the continents up with the map. Then record your observations and conclusions.
So, we talked about this together and came to the conclusion that it wouldn't work and explained why. We went over Memory work, dates, and terms and called it a day! Flower will follow up on Wednesday with Day 2. She will read and outline from Usborne Encyclopedia of Planet Earth and we will discuss....she will also complete her sketch.
Week 17: Inside Earth
This week Flower is learning about the "Inside of Earth" and had to construct a model of it using yellow, orange, red, blue & green clay. The goal was to be able to see the different layers of the earth when you cut it in half. (We used crayola clay and Thumper & Bambi joined in with her!) She was told to measure each as she covered each layer. We ran out of orange clay which was suppose to resemble the Earth's mantle. It was suppose to be 6cm across but she didn't quite make it there. So make sure you have plenty of clay! She also did the "Want More" project this week which was making an edible earth! We all jumped in for this activity! Yum!
Stick the spice drop in the center of the marshmellow. Make up rice krisy treat mix and let cool to the touch. Wrap the marshmellow with the rice krispy treat into a ball. 
Once you get it in a ball put it in the freezer for 15-20 minutes. Then coat it with Chocolate Magic Shell. Roll the ball in it to coat. Let it alone until it hardens then cut in half to see how your layers of earth turned out.
Week 18: Volcanoes
This week we have been working on constructing our volcano! We have not yet erupted our volcano. I will post it on here when we do! Flower has watched some documentaries about volcanoes off of Netflix.
Here is one from PBS:
These are the materials you will need. Great Stuff is found in the caulking isle of your hardware store or Wal-mart. It's about $4 where we live....ES says to use one but we ended up using 2......this is a pricey little volcano for just a few seconds of glory. If I had to do it all over, we would have just gotten a bottle of soda and mentos and called it a volcano!
**First, wrap your bottle with foil.....we reused a small board, cut a hole in it, put it over the bottle before beginning our great stuff foam. This way, when the great stuff dries we just need to lift it off of the bottle. Doing this will allow you to keep your volcano and do the experiment again!
I urge you to take your time with the Great Stuff. It does not harden up instantly and will keep falling and moving......Do this in stages. Start at the bottom and let it set, then keep going up until finished letting it set each time. If not, check out the picture below to see what happens!!
We ended up adding another bottle of Great Stuff to fill in the missing area. We let it harden and then we shaved it to look like a cone. By this time I was finished with it but the kids really wanted to paint it. They wanted it to look like a volcano in the water.....like it had formed an island. We had gray paint so that's what we used. We may go back later to paint it more realistically, but for now they just want to see it erupt! Here is a very short clip of our volcano erupting! I also advise you to get a name brand soda and not a generic brand. There wasn't enough fizz in our bottle and it didn't even erupt halfway. Urghhhh! All in all, it worked! Hope you have better luck with this than we did!
Week 19: Earthquakes
We choose not to perform the experiment this week. We went over the experiment and Flower completely understood the concept. Plus we didn't own a slinky and I thought it would be a waste of money to do so for just this small of an experiment. She completed her assignments for reading, outlining, and labeled her sketch. She watched videos on Discovery Education and on Netflix about Earthquakes! Here is one from PBS:
**She did prepare her dirt mounds for next week since there will have to be grass grown on one of them.
Week 20: Soil & Erosion
Well, the grass did not grow surprisingly! So that we are not behind, we will continue on with the lesson for this week and not do the experiment again! Bummer! We of course went over the lab and she understands completely the concept of the experiment. I will get some pictures of her in the garden today! We are always planting and fooling with compost/soil so I don't think she is missing any valuable information she does not already know! She is going to be planting the bell peppers today in the garden.....she has already helped with planting kale, broccoli, and tomatoes.
Some garden discussion for today:
- Discuss the needs of the plant; as far as its nutrient needs.
- Discuss the spacing of each plant as well as depth.
- Sun or shade exposure.
- Are we planting our garden where it is protected from the elements of weather?
- As the plants grow, keep watch over any changes in the plant. Is it getting enough nutrients from the soil.
- Talk about crop rotation.
Flower is planting yellow & red bell peppers. Below we have romaine mix, spinach, kale, broccoli rabe, broccoli, and beets. We keep the row cover over the kale and broccoli so the butterflies will not lay there eggs on them. We had a big issue of pulling off hundreds of caterpillars last year....so far, so good this spring!
Week 21: Rocks & Weathering
For this weeks experiment, Flower studied the three types of rocks and how they are able to change. We studied rocks that we have....igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary. We also watched a bit of The Happy Scientist video: Rocks.
In the experiment this week she gathered her materials: mason jar, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, toffee chips, spoon, and plastic wrap.
She had to layer her chips in the jar....observe the layers. She then put the plastic wrap over the jar and heated it in the microwave at 45 sec. intervals. Once melted, she observed the layers and jotted down her observations and drew conclusions of what she learned on her experiment sheet. The chocolate got pretty smelly from burning. We could have gotten by with not performing the experiment. She completed her reading assignments and sketch of Freeze-thaw Weathering.
After layering the chips, mash down the layers with a spoon. Observe and record each time.
Plastic wrap over the jar before....
This was the smelly part.....Here is what our chips looked like after three 45 second intervals in the microwave. Be careful***the jar is extremely hot*** I wouldn't let the melted chips stay in the jar too long after the experiment. Parents, if you can spoon it out, holding the jar with a pot holder or towel, before the chips harden. I had to re-melt our to get it out of our jar. 
Week 22: Rocks
This week Flower researched a rock of choice, Obsidian, and created a profile page about it.
** For the experiment this week, collect 10 rocks from outside and use a Rock & Mineral field guide to identify the type of rock each one is. Label them and place them on a board.
Memory Work this week:
Types of Rocks
Igneous rock
Metamorphic rock
Sedimentary rock
Mineral
Fossil
Some resources we used this week to aid in research and extra learning:
A fun site for some extra learning about the rock cycle.
The Happy Scientist and Discovery Education.
We have completed Elemental Earth Science! Flower has really enjoyed studying it this year. We were not able to finish documenting the rest of the experiments that we've completed! "Life" happens and we just didn't get around to blog about the rest. I would recommend this program to anyone who is looking for a hands on classical study of science. This program is well laid out for you with extra reading & memory work. For a middle schooler, logic child, it can be independent. Discussion is key, though, to make sure your child is retaining & understanding! I will use this again with my younger children!
Newsflash!!
Though Flower didn't finish documenting the rest of the experiments.....have no fear! Bambi, her sister, will pick up where she left off!! Hopefully by spring 2015!
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