21.2.12 - Nature classroom at FRIM

We went for a nature walk activity in FRIM, Kepong with a group of homeschoolers. FRIM is a lovely place and we enjoy the sights and sounds of nature there. It was the first activity for our fortnightly outdoor nature lesson - Bark rubbing and leaf rubbing. We used this book as a guide: http://www.discovertheforest.org/pdf/book-of-stuff.pdf .

The walkway to the waterfall has been resurfaced and nicely done with cement. It's easier to walk up now. However, the contractors didn't throw the wood (with nails) and just left them lying on the ground, on the way up the waterfall, and that is just a sight for sore eyes 

Reminiscent of the "Sekolah Pondok" days with Uncle S as their "teacher".  

Listening to instructions 

The kids did page 3 of the above book -  Bark rubbing and leaf rubbing. 

Uncle S showing the kids how to do bark rubbing

Doing leaf rubbing 

Leaf rubbing 

Showing their leaf rubbings

Doing bark rubbing

He found another texture and decided to do stone rubbing instead 

Showing the outcome of his stone rubbing

Labelling his work 

We found several winged seeds like these. 

21.12.2011 - Mr Archimedes' Bath

We read a book entitled " Mr Archimedes' Bath" about Mr Archimedes who sat inside bathtub of water and found that the water rose. The animals who joined him in the bath all kept blaming each other for causing the water level to rise.  

After reading the book, I asked S, how come the water rose inside the bath. He thought for awhile and said, "When you are sitting in the water, you are using the space of the water. The water will squash together, so it will go up." This was not directly explained in the storybook, so, I could see that he understood the concept. 


The book was simple and did not mention about the Archimedes principle, by the ancient Greek scholar Archimedes.
"Archimedes reportedly proclaimed "Eureka!" when he stepped into a bath and noticed that the water level rose - he suddenly understood that the volume of water displaced must be equal to the volume of the part of his body he had submerged. This relation is known as Archimedes' principle."
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka_(word)

14.12.11 - Lego experiments in water

We filled up a tub of water and the boys made some lego 'vehicles' that could float in the water. They tested out their designs and kept improvising their designs to make them float in water. Unknowingly, they are learning science and having fun at the same time.

The blue lego on top didn't float so well, so S thought about it and decided to fix to flat "wings"

Fixing the large flat "wings"

It floated very well and S was pleased with the result 

9.12.11 - Playing at the park

We went to the park in the evening. S is still learning how to kick ball. Sometimes he can, sometimes he misses.

Learning to kick ball

"Pounding garlic"

Putting "a dash of pepper"

He thinks that the flower petals resemble a helicopter propeller, twirls and releases it and watches it fall down. 

They took turns to drive the 'racecar'. 

My maid caught a praying mantis. She thought it was like a grasshopper and tried to feed it leaves. Fortunately, I remembered from the Magic School Bus book and video that a praying mantis is carnivorous and eats insects. This is the first time I'm seeing a real-life praying mantis. Its behaviour was a little odd, as it didn't try to jump away at all. In fact, it looked rather cute, with its eyes and head, moving around and looking at me, reminding me of a little puppy. 

A dragonfly

A snowman? I don't know what seeds these are.

2.11.11 - PSN Lab activity - Cold fish & water quality

Our lab time at PSN again. This time the experiments were about:
1) Cold fish
2) Water quality

After learning that we were to do an experiment with fishes, I initially didn't want to participate, but the PSN facilitator said that it wouldn't hurt the fish, and proceeded to get 2 fishes in 2 containers for my boys. 

1) Cold fish

Purpose: To determine if temperature affects the movement of a fish's operculum and mouth

We were given this drawing of parts of a fish

We were asked to count how many times per minute the fish opens and closes its mouth and operculum at different temperatures. Having learnt Science in Bahasa Malaysia when I was in school, I hadn't heard of the term operculum before and now just learned that it meant "penutup insang".  The first count was the current temperature of the water in the fish tank. Then we had to repeat the counting for 2 more times and get an average.

The second was in icy water. Put a block of ice into the jar to get the water to make it colder. Then we had to count again, and repeat for 2 more times. After the first round of counting, I decided to abandon this project and returned our fishes to the facilitator. I thought it was too cruel to the fish. Repeating it 3 times per temperature was too long and too stressful for the fish, I thought. I was also horrified to see a little boy taking the thermometer and stirring his fish in the jar, just like stirring a bowl of soup.

The block of ice reduced the temperature to 18 celcius

Everyone was supposed to do a third round, and put in more ice until the temperature reads 10 celcius, but by then, the children were restless and the moms decided to stop, and return their fishes. We had learnt enough that when the fish is in warmer water, it opens and closes it's mouth and operculum more frequently, compared to being in cold, icy water. We learnt that animals conserve energy when in cold environment. Their body loses hear (and thus energy) when the temperature is colder, thus, their body movement slows down.

The facilitator calls this the 'ICU' by the facilitator. Fish in the icy water have to be left in their jar and the jar put inside the water in the large fish tank in order to acclimatise back to the normal tank water temperature. 

Finally, all the fishes recuperated and lived to see another day 

This rubber fish looks very real

2) Water quality

We also did another experiment to test the water quality of pond water versus tap water.

Using a pipette to drop water into a small test tube

We used a freshwater master test kit to test for pH, Ammonia and Nitrite in the pond water and tap water

Indicator cards

Dropping several drops of the solution into the tube of pond water and tap water. 

The solution changed colour and turned blue indicating the pH of the water. Compare the water colour against the colour and number on the card

Testing for ammonia - the water turned light yellow

30.10.11 - Pinhole camera workshop

We joined the pinhole camera workshop which was held in conjunction with the Eco Film Fest at University Malaya. It started at 11.00 am and we finished by 1.00 pm.

The children were shown powerpoint slides on the science behind pinhole cameras

Daddy did the cutting

Gluing the tracing paper onto the frame

Cutting out the tracing paper

Leaving the pinhole cameras to dry

The kids had to look through the pinhole camera through the small hole darkened by a dark cloth

We were also shown how to make pinhole cameras from pringles can or cardboard boxes. It’s just for fun sake, as it can’t take pictures. 

After the workshop, we went to visit the booths at the Eco Film Fest. There was this large snake and ladders game that E wanted to play with under the scorching afternoon sun.