08 February 2008

friday photos: junior scientists edition

We've had a sudden boom in the popularity of science around here. We went to the (highly interactive) science museum last weekend, and since then, James has been declaring his intention to be a scientist when he grows up (this is the first thing he's wanted to be that wasn't a stay-at-home dad), and he's suddenly very interested in the science experiment books he got for his birthday. (Okay, he was always interested in them, but this week we've done our first experiments because he has been so insistent.)

Of course, since James wants to be a scientist and perform science experiments, so does Evan. This necessitates performing two experiments at once, every time. So far we've done three experiments, and learned the science behind them (I use the word "learned" loosely, since I'm not really sure how much James is really understanding or retaining): adding soap to water and pepper (like this), adding bleach to colored water, and, the best one, soaking an egg in vinegar to remove its shell (leaving the membrane intact, though).

Photos below the fold.

Here is Evan whole-heartedly getting into the pepper-shaking part of the first experiment:

James dripping soap into the water/pepper mixture (you can sort of see how the pepper spread away from the center where he added the soap):

Evan was not keen on touching the slimy shell-less egg:

James, hoever, was happy to both hold his egg, and pose for photos:

A close-up of the egg, because that's pretty cool:

Happy Friday, everyone!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That looks like so much fun. That's awesome that you're helping the kids learn and have fun at the same time. Cute pics!

Anonymous said...

that's interesting! some time ago when i was babysitting the kids, brina said she'd draw an experiment for me and it took me a while to get what it was that she drew - in the end she informed me it was the egg&vinegar experiment. looks like james and your boys would get along really well :)
lovely pics!
m.

Anonymous said...

oops, typo: brina and your boys.