Homeschool Talk: Science Experiment

My resolution for this school year was to do more science experiments with Nathan (7th grade). I love science and I love doing experiments, but I've slacked off a little the last couple of years. So, this year I am making a real effort to do them. We did our first one this week. It was fun. Here are the directions if you want to try it out...

Sugar Cube Race:

Supplies: Sugar cubes, water, spoon/stir stick, clear glasses, stopwatch

Directions:
Fill a glass with 2/3 c. water. Drop a sugar cube in it and time how long it takes to dissolve. Then, have the child come up with ways to make it dissolve faster.
My son tried stirring and heating the water. Then, he combined the two and stirred a cube in heated water. We timed each one and recorded the time on a chart.

Now, when the experiment was finished I just couldn't bring myself to throw out perfectly good sugar water! That would be a waste. So, I gave the kids some more sugar cubes and lemon juice. They made their own homemade lemonade. That was a big hit and we didn't waste anything!

My son was learning about solutions and mixtures so the lemonade fit right in. We are also going to churn our own butter. I have a churn so we do that every once in a while anyway, but it fit into this chapter so nicely that I decided it was time to make butter again!

Here are the kids making their lemonade...