Growing With Science Blog

Category: Fun Science Activity (Page 80 of 112)

Weekend Science Fun: Sea Slug Color

January 24, 2010 / / 4 Comments

Have you ever thought about sea slugs and why they are different colors? It turns out color can be pretty important in sea slugs.

One sea slug, (Elysia chlorotica), is green. Recently scientists investigated the color and found out that the sea slug makes its own food with chlorophyll! Chlorophyll, as you probably know, is the pigment plants use to make their food via photosynthesis. This sea slug not only borrows chloroplasts from the algae it eats, but also can make its own chlorophyll. It is the first animal to be shown to have that ability. Cool! ( Wired Science has a copy of the original article from ScienceNews. Both sites have ads, but the Wired site is less busy.)

Here’s a video that shows the sea slug eating algae. (The video is silent.)

This video from National Geographic shows other, more colorful sea slugs (nudibranchs). (You’ll have to close a pop-up ad.)

Why are these sea slugs so bright? The colors are to warn predators that they aren’t good to eat.

Activities:

1. Draw and color your own sea slug.View images of sea slugs by searching images online, or look for photos in books to help you. Research a particular sea slug. Find out where it lives, what its habitat is like and what it eats.

Tidepool Coloring Book has a drawing of a nudibranch you could use, as well as images of other tidepool creatures.

2. Writing Prompt:

Imagine what our world would be like if more animals could make their own food from sunlight. Imagine green cows or elephants. Now, write a story about it.

Related Activities:
Fieldwork has extensive lesson plans for a high school level marine biology/oceanography class. For example, here’s the lesson on Mollusca/beaches. The author recommends that you have access to a body of salt water to be able to do the hands on activities. Check out the “busy fieldworkers.” Now, that’s my idea of learning.

Tide Pool Invertebrates post from last summer

Thanks to Carl for the heads up about the green sea slug and Susan for leading me to the Fieldwork site.

Weekend Science Fun: Taste and Tongues

January 18, 2010 / / 0 Comments

This weekend we were inspired by the book Animal Tongues by Dawn Cusick to do some some science experiments with our tongue and sense of taste.

1. Dry Tongues and Taste

Gather:

  • a paper towel
  • some sugar

Normally your mouth is wet because of saliva. Let’s see if the wetness has any impact on taste. Use the paper towel to dry your tongue. Once dry, keep your tongue sticking out. Pour a small amount of sugar on your tongue. Can you taste the sweetness? Bring your tongue into your mouth and allow the saliva to wet the sugar. How does it taste now?

Go ahead and try some other household items, like salt, saltine crackers, etc. What about wet items?

2. Smell versus Taste

Gather:

  • blindfold
  • two flavors of ice cream, (or other type of food that tastes different, but has the same texture)
  • spoons
  • fresh cut lemon wedges

Ask volunteers to wear the blindfold. Hold the lemon under their nose. With the lemon still under their nose, ask them to taste samples of the two different flavors of ice cream. Can they tell the flavors accurately?

Expansion:  try to tell different foods apart with a blindfold on, while holding your nose.

 

If you think these activities are fun, try a few of the experiments at Neuroscience for Kids

I will be reviewing the book that inspired these experiments at my Wrapped In Foil blog.

honeybee tongue

Honey bees have complex tongues.

Weekend Science Fun: Winter Botany

January 9, 2010 / / 4 Comments

Winter is not always the best season for botany lessons outdoors, but there are still plenty of fun things to explore indoors when it comes to plants.

Today we are going to investigate how plants survive harsh periods when they can’t grow, such as periods of cold weather or drought.

Gather:

  • Storage roots:  carrots, preferrably natural with tops (not baby carrots)
  • Bulbs: like onions
  • Seeds:  dried bean seeds would work well, as well as packets of carrot and onion seeds
  • Perennial fruit:  such as blackberries

Or at least gather some pictures.

Look out the window on a winter day. Where are all the plants?

Plants have different life cycles. Some plants are annuals, meaning they complete their life cycle in one growing season. At the end of the season the plants release seeds that fall to the ground. Take a look at the seeds and examine the outer layers, called seed coats.

The seed coat keeps out decay organisms and helps the seeds survive until conditions are right for growth.

A few of our common edible plants are biennials. Plants like carrots and onions require two growing seasons to complete their life cycles. In the first growing season they store up food in the root or bulb. The root remains protected underground over winter. The second year the plants utilize that food to grow flowers and produce seeds. (Show the roots, bulbs and seeds).

Try planting a carrot root or onion bulb. What do you think will happen? (Note:  to save food, simply plant the carrot top and the bottom, white part of a green onion.) See if you can grow the plants until they flower and produce seeds.

Other plants are perennials, which live for three or more years. Of these, some survive the winter as storage structures like bulbs, rhizomes or corms. Daffodils are bulbs, crocuses are corms and irises are rhizomes.  Bushes and trees have woody stems that survive above the ground as well as roots underground. Strawberries, blackberries, grapes and peaches all come from perennial plants.

If you get a chance, go on a walk and look for plant seeds, storage roots and other overwintering plant structures under the leaves and snow.

For a free gardening poster that covers the basics of a plant cycle, go to Welch’s Harvest Grants for school gardens at Scholastic. If you click on the Parents’ side– look at the right hand sidebar for a “How Does Your Garden Grow” poster in .pdf format, as well as a garden activity sheet (a maze and seed marker template.) Note:  if you use the poster, you might want to mention the bean seed is found within the green bean fruit and show an example. It also is on the Teacher’s side.

For more plant activities, try Kitchen Scrap Gardening activities at GrowingWithScience.

(which reminds me, I should really start working on that again :-))

Let me know what you find out!

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2026 Growing With Science Blog

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑