No weekend science fun this weekend, but you might enjoy this free video by Robert Kampf. He discusses what is science and comes up with his own definition.
Category: Find Out More (Page 5 of 20)
Ever have those little organizational tasks you know you should do, but there never seems to be enough time? Today I finally finished one of those. I’ve made a list of all the science experiments posted here at Growing With Science, organized by topic. Now you can click that little button that says Experiment List at the top of the page and you can quickly (hopefully) find a fun science activity. Looking for a science fair project? The list should help you there as well.
if you ever have any questions about the posts, would like to know more, or if you have a topic you’d like to see covered, please feel free to send me an e-mail at growingwithscience (at) gmail (dot) com.
I was so excited about the new summary, I’ve included here. Enjoy!
Below is a summary of the science experiment blog posts, organized by topic. The links to the posts are in red.
Biology
Mycology (Fungi)
- Making a spore print
- Characteristics
- Decomposition Experiment
Ecology
What’s Under a Rock?- Exploring a habitat
Botany
- Make an algal collection
- Investigate food chains
- Investigate how humans use algae for food
- Algae produce oils that can be used for biofuel
Mosses, Ferns, Liverworts and Horsetails: Science Activities
- Identification
- Searching for Spores
- Moss habitats
- Tree Transpiration
- How far does the water have to travel from roots to top of the tree?
Experiments with Tree Leaves:
Putting the leaves back on the trees- leaf identification
Fall leaf color chromatography
Saguaro Cactus Activities
- Why Spines?
- Waxy Coating
Ornithology (Birds)
Zoology (Animals)
- Fainting goats
Experiments with Isopods (pillbugs or rolypolies)
- Identification
- Frog songs
- Eat or be eaten
Ocean and Shore Animals
Investigate an animal (sea slug) that can make its own food
- fish anatomy
- moving through water
Science with Pets
- Identification/Classification of Rodents
- Food/Nutrition
- Making Houses and Toys
- Animal Behavior
- Mouse Development
Entomology (Insects)
- Gardening for bees
- Honey bees and water
- Honey bee communication and dances
- Bee nests
Where do insects go in the winter?
- Ant anatomy
- Ant pheromones
Human Biology
Experiments with the senses of taste and smell
Chemistry
- Shape-memory alloys
- Shape memory polymers
- UV beads
- Density
- A Density Column
- Elephant’s toothpaste
- Acids and Bases
- Using chemicals to make light
- Glowing under ultraviolet light
- Light sticks
- Day-Glo
Physics
Activities having to do with hunting for planets outside the solar system.
- Make a rainbow
- Activity: Make your own spectrometer from a cereal box.
- The Doppler Effect
Investigate the amount of light pollution and how it effects how we see the stars at night
Experiments with movement of floating trash
- Test sand samples with a magnet
- Make sand
- Ice spikes
- Ice cube rescues
- Freezing and thawing water
- Floating and sinking
- dry ice
Boats and Floating
How long can a paper boat float?
Results of paper boats
Can you make a boat travel across a bathtub without touching it?
Results
Do pumpkins or apples float?
Why do they float?
Movement of water in small containers
Meteorology
A few posts back I talked about Latin and Greek and scientific names for organisms. Today let’s look at some conventions used with insect common names.
A. Is it honey bees or honeybees?
When in graduate school, I learned a convention from Dr. Roger Morse for insect names (I have since learned the idea originated with Robert E. Snodgrass). The insect names that are taxonomically correct, such as honey bees are actually bees, should be written as two words. Insect names that are not accurate in identification are given as one word. For example, whiteflies are not really flies, but are relatives of aphids, and thus should be one word.
Quiz (answers at the bottom of this post):
Pick the correct common name according to this convention:
1. Butter fly or butterfly?
2. Crane fly or cranefly?
3. Dragon fly or dragonfly?
4. Lady bug or ladybug?
5. Leaf-footed bug or leaf-footedbug?
Photo from Wikimedia
6. Bumble bee or bumblebee?
The convention is only a rule of thumb, however, because there are definitely exceptions:
Photograph by Craig Pemberton. Wikimedia
Although this creature is really a wasp, it’s common name is velvet ant (2 words).
B. Mantis or mantid?
This distinction is more difficult. I had learned that either is correct, that is the two terms are interchangeable. There is, however, a growing convention that mantis only be used for the insects of the genus Mantis, and that all others be called mantids. (Whitney Cranshaw, Colorado State University).
I personally like to use mantids for the plural, it is just easier.
For a searchable list of common names for insects of North America, see the Entomological Society of America
Let me know if you have any questions about insect names or would like to learn more.
Answers:
1. butterfly
2. crane fly (two words)
3. dragonfly
4. ladybug (Note: if you use beetle, then it is two words, lady beetle or ladybird beetle)
5. leaf-footed bug (2 words)
6. Bumble bee (2 words)
For more information, see Roberta Gibson Writes.