Growing With Science Blog

Tag: Fun Science Activity (Page 7 of 10)

Weekend Science Fun: Build a Bird Nest

October 3, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Continuing with the bird theme, let’s build a bird nest. But not just a small one, how about building a child-sized bird nest?

Growing With Science Nest

Building a nest is a fun activity for this time of year because there are usually a lot of leaves and branches around. I’ve done this activity with six-year-old children, but it is appropriate for almost any age. It would be best if you could do it outdoors, although some of the materials could be used inside if necessary.

First gather materials to create nests. I recommend using items you can recycle or compost. Here are some suggestions:

  • Cardboard strips
  • Hay or straw (pet supply or craft stores)
  • Grapevines (craft stores)
  • Shredded paper
  • Fallen leaves
  • Branches

The first year I did this activity I was lucky to find two actual nests that had blown out of a tree. Of course you know not to take bird nests out of trees, because birds sometimes reuse their nests. I always leave the nests outside near where I found them so birds can reuse the materials. Gather pictures of bird nests from books and magazines, too. Birds and Blooms magazine often has pictures of bird nests.

bird nest

I showed the nests to the children and talked about some of the reasons birds build nests.

  • Place to raise young
  • Shelter from adverse weather
  • Place to rest

You can also read a great book about nests (see below).

Now have the children build their own human-sized nest. They can work in groups, too. Be prepared for messy fun.

Note:  If you are working with a number of children, they may remove materials from the nests of others. Decide how you want to deal with this in advance. I told them that birds in nature really do take materials from other birds’ nests. Eventually they decided to leave one member of a group in the nest while the others went to gather supplies, just how birds sometimes handle the problem.

Make sure you have your camera ready. You will find there are many creative ways to make nests. Take pictures of your “birds” sitting in their nests.

Reward your “birds” with some bird-themed treats. Easy snack nests can be made by melting butterscotch chips in the microwave (see package for instructions) and mixing with crispy chow mien noodles. After it is cool enough to handle, shape into nests.

Related Books (Contain affiliate links to Amazon):

Birds Build Nests
 by Yvonne Winer is our absolute favorite book about birds and bird nests. It has fabulous illustrations of many different birds and their nests.


How and Why Birds Build Nests (How and Why Series) by Elaine Pascoe, Joel Kupperstein, Editor and Dwight Kuhn, Photographer


Birds & Blooms

Weekend Science Fun: Exploring Fall Color

September 26, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Coming from a place where the leaves on the trees turned brilliant colors each fall, I guess having the calendar say that it is fall made me yearn for some color. Is there any better way to get children outside than to go check if any tree leaves are turning their autumn colors yet?

During your trip you or your children may have some questions about the whys and wherefores of leaves turning yellows, oranges, reds, and maroons.

Most trees have green leaves during the growing season. Look closely, however, and you will notice not all the leaves on a tree will be the same color. New leaves will be a lighter, brighter green. Older leaves will be dark green. Leaves that are about to fall off are yellow.

How do scientists study the colors in plants? One way is to perform a simple color separation or “chromatography.” The materials that reflect or absorb certain colors when subjected to light are called pigments. In the following test, we are looking for the pigments found in growing plant leaves.

The chromatography does require some time, at least an hour, so prepare your children in advance. It also requires rubbing alcohol. I tried to use water as a solvent instead and it just didn’t work.  Note: If you are working with small children around, make sure they won’t try to taste the mixture, because of the rubbing alcohol.  Read and follow the warnings on the label carefully.

You will need:

  • A spinach leaf per child (spinach is full of pigments)
  • Small clean containers, like a yogurt cups or jars  (paper leaks) for one per child
  • Tool to chop the spinach leaves (requires adult supervision)
  • Rubbing alcohol (adult should pour)
  • Stirring utensil that will fit in containers
  • Coffee filter cut into about ¾-inch-wide strips that will fit into the container from top to bottom, one per container

Chop up the spinach leaves into tiny pieces. Put the chopped bits into the bottom of the containers. They should cover the bottom in a layer, up to ¼-inch deep. An adult should pour in just enough rubbing alcohol to cover the leaf bits. Stir a few seconds. Slide the coffee filter strip into the container, so that the bottom touches the alcohol/leaf mixture. Rest it against the side. Now wait for about an hour.

The alcohol should slowly move up dry part of the coffee filter, carrying the pigments as it goes. The heavier pigments will travel more slowly, the lightest most quickly. Once the wet alcohol front nears the top of the strip of coffee filter, remove it. Check the colors. Lay it on a piece of paper towel or paper and let it dry a bit. Often the colors of the pigments will show more intensely once the alcohol has evaporated.

Your coffee filter might look like this:

 

The green bands at the bottom are chlorophyll pigments. The plant uses chlorophyll to convert the sun’s energy into food. If you look closely, there are two bands of green, with some yellow. Those are the two chlorophyll pigments, named chlorophyll a, and chlorophyll b.

Just above the green is an intense yellow band. The yellow is a group of pigments called xanthophylls. Xanthophylls make corn yellow. When chickens eat plants with xanthophylls, they can use it in their eggs to make the yolk yellow.

At the very top, is a thin orange band. Those pigments are carotenes, named for the first plant tissue they were isolated from, carrot roots.  Carotenes are also found in pumpkins and squash.

Now compare the colors in the growing spinach leaf to those of the autumn leaf. What colors are the same? What colors are missing in the leaves? What colors are in the leaves but not in the spinach?

 

First I notice very little green in the autumn leaves. The chlorophyll pigments break down in the fall leaves. I do see the oranges and yellows. The carotenes and xanthophylls have been there all along in the growing leaf, but masked by the deep green. When the green disappears, we can see them.

I see another color, however, that wasn’t present before, an intense red. The red pigments are called anthocyanins, and are known for making flowers, and vegetables like beets, red or purple. It turns out that certain trees make a lot of anthocyanins in their leaves in the fall. It wasn’t there earlier in the year.

Right now scientists don’t know for sure why certain types of trees produce the anthocyanins. One suggestion is that the anthocyanins act like sunscreen to help protect the leaves while the last bits of nutrients are being moved out and down to the roots for storage over the winter. Another suggestion is that red trees are less visible to insects. Harmful insects may lay their eggs on trees in the winter, and may choose trees that are yellow over those that are red.

In any case, aren’t the colors amazing?

Weekend Science Fun: Science with Your Pet Guinea Pigs

September 19, 2008 / / 11 Comments

Quick, what is a Cavia porcellus?

If you know it is a guinea pig or cavy (another word for guinea pig), then you probably already have one of these sweet little creatures. Today we are going to look at a few science activities you can do to learn more about guinea pigs.

Classification
Guinea pigs are small rodents originally from the grasslands along the west coast of South America. Well, at least scientists originally thought they were rodents. Some studies of DNA sequences published in the journal Nature during the 1990’s seem to indicate that cavies aren’t rodents. The debate lingers on. If you are interested in genetics, this might be a science topic for you to tackle in the future. (If you need to brush up on what a rodent is, check links in the “Science with Your Pet Mice” post.)

There are some other South American animals that are relatives of domesticated guinea pigs. One is a small brown animal named Cavia aperea. Others are the so-called yellow-toothed cavy, Galea musteloides, and the Muenster yellow-toothed cavy, Galea monasteriensis, which wasn’t discovered until the late 1990’s. More distant relatives are the Patagonian cavy and even the capybara. There are a lot of interesting rodents in South America. See if you can find pictures of them.

Guinea Pig Anatomy
Learning about the parts of your guinea pig can help you understand how your guinea pig functions, and help you determine if your guinea pig is healthy. Here is a website that discusses details of guinea pig anatomy (probably for older children).

Nutrition
Back from when I was a student, I still remember another graduate student complaining that during his thesis defense exam one of the professors asked him “What other mammal besides humans lack the ability to make its own vitamin C?” The student didn’t know the answer, but I did. One of the first things you need to know to keep guinea pigs as pets is that they need vitamin C added to their diet because they can’t make it themselves. You need to use foods that are specially made for guinea pigs, and add fresh vegetables to their diet that are high in vitamin C. Some examples are kale, parsley, and limes.

Guinea pig breeders also recommend feeding guinea pigs hay. Hay is dried grass. As well as being an aid for their digestion, it also helps keep their teeth in good shape. It makes sense they would like grass, since they are originally from grasslands.

guineas

Once you’ve covered the nutritional basics, you might want to give the guinea pigs some food choice tests to see if they have any preferences. One of our guinea pigs seems to love grapes, where the other one could care less. The grape-loving guinea pig runs away from tomatoes, though. See previous pet science posts for ideas about setting up a choice test to determine what foods your guinea pig loves best. Just remember to always supply lots of pellets and hay so they never get hungry.

Growing Wheat Grass
Gardening for your pet is always fun. Here are some instructions for growing a mini-garden indoors, which your guinea pig is sure to enjoy. (You should check this one just for the pictures). Cats like grass too. If you choose to use soil, make absolutely sure it is organic. Some soils may contain pesticides, which could harm your piggie.

If you find that you like doing this, grow some sprouts or wheatgrass for yourself to eat, too.

Housing
In nature guinea pigs live in burrows, so they like to have a house to retreat to. A fun project is to design and build a house and see how the pigs like it. You can use cardboard boxes and tubes, or if you have access to woodworking equipment, try wood. Just be sure to use materials that are non-toxic.

Our piggies let us know they thought one of the cardboard houses we provided was too small. They played “flip that house” with it.

Guinea Pig Sounds

I talked about how cats use sounds to communicate last week. It turns out that guinea pigs make an interesting assortment of sounds as well. If you have a guinea pig, listen and record the sounds it makes. Some of the sounds might be described as coos, squeaks, and teeth chatters. Oh yes, and the loud “wheek, wheek, wheek” whenever the refrigerator door opens.

If you don’t have guinea pigs, hear some at Jackie’s Guinea Pigs.

Behavior
Because guinea pigs tend to be timid and run and hide when startled, some people have dismissed their intelligence and disregarded the notion that you might be able to train them. It turns out that guinea pigs are quite intelligent and engaging. With gentleness and patience, you can teach a guinea pig a few tricks.

(Video has music and a pop-up ad.)

Although getting your guinea pigs to do tricks like that looks like a lot of fun, it also takes time and patience. You might want to start out with behavioral enrichment. What’s that? It is simply providing an interesting and safe environment for your guineas so they don’t get bored. Most guinea pig guides now suggest that you get them out of their cage for at least an hour per day. Provide a safe place for them to exercise and explore. Provide toys such as mirrors, balls and bells. A small box full of shredded paper with a hole in one side will provide them something to explore. Just be sure your guinea pigs seem relaxed and interested. If they seem restless or scared, try to provide something for them to hide under until they feel safe, or return them to their cage and try again later.

By the way, be alert to the fact that guinea pigs often won’t urinate or defecate while away from their box. If your guinea pig seems uncomfortable and has been outside for a while, put him back inside his cage for a little while. Yes, some guinea pigs can be housebroken.

guinea

And speaking of needing to go, I seem to have wandered on here more than I intended. If you have any further questions, feel free to leave a comment.

Books with more information (linked titles and images go to Amazon):

For an introduction to guinea pigs for younger children, you might want to try:

I Love Guinea Pigs: Read and Wonder by Dick King-Smith and Anita Jeram (Illustrator) Dick King-Smith has some wonderful fiction books told from the point-of-view of animals. In this case, he has written a nonfiction book that is an introduction to owning and caring for guinea pigs. Note: This book does address the issue of death of a pet.

The Proper Care of Guinea Pigs by Peter Gurney
Peter Gurney is a beloved advocate of guinea pigs, who was well known in the community of pet owners.

The Guinea Pig Handbook (Barron’s Pet Handbooks) by SharonVanderlip , D.V.M.

Guinea Pigs (Animal Planet® Pet Care Library)by Julie Mancini

Training Your Guinea Pig (Training Your Pet Series) by Gerry Bucsis and Barbara Somerville contains information for taking care of guinea pigs as well as suggestions for activities.

Gordon’s Guide to Caring for Your Guinea Pigs (Pets’ Guides) by Isabel Thomas is illustrated both with color photographs and with humorous illustrations of Gordon the guinea pig, who narrates the book. It covers the basics of guinea pig care clearly and concisely. Everyone who is thinking of adopting a guinea pig would do well to read this book first.

(Full review at Wrapped in Foil blog)

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