Paige and the Bean Stalk

The sprouting beanstalk - by Paige
(click the picture to see animation)

OK, admit it. There was a time in your life when you actually believed in giants who lived in the sky and the city in the clouds.  And what's wrong with trading your cow for some magic beans?? As a child my conclusions about the sky and space were not too far off - I figured that you could get to the moon with a long enough ladder.  Ah well, great accomplishments must begin somewhere.  Here is a link to a great movie about a boy who dreamed of outer space, built rockets and made it to NASA.

Oh yes, back to the bean stalks.  This project involves the following objectives:

• Grow a plant from a red bean
• Learn about the parts of a growing plant
• Learn about what a plant needs - air, water, sunlight and...

Both Paige and Ellie had a try at growing the plant.  At first Ellie's plant was "winning" and Paige's were all but shrivelled up. Then Paige put some attention into looking after her remaining bean and raised a successful sprout.

Have a look at the album featuring pictures they took while growing the plant.
[Google account needed]

Paige also submits her drawings here showing the parts of the plant at various stages of growth.
[Google account needed]


Learning Objectives:

• Science - plant nutrition and growth
• Link to a great doumentary on the food industry

Teachable moments: Let's build a Robot! We'll call it "Bob"

Another late night, feeling bored.  Hey, wait!  We can build a Robot.

Parts you need:

• A few small servos
• Some batteries or a power supply
• A radio control unit and receiver

First we need to make the gripper so the Robot can pick things up.  Use a hot glue gun (Low temperature, please) and stick together some sponge and popsicle sticks.

Then we stick on the first part of the arm - then the second.  It's like a real arm!

Just for fun we put the whole thing on a spindle so that it can turn. Stick it all to a base of cardboard or foamboard and "VIOLA" - a Robot arm.

We adjusted the remote controller so that the movement of the controls matched the direction of the Robot.

His name is "Bob".  How come robots are always given boys' names?  We dunno but it seemed to fit.
He seems to have a personality. 

Next:  Give him some googly eyes and clothes :)

Playdough sculpture

Paige did this sculpture using Playdoh.  It is sea monster with a long body. It's interesting to see how she visualized the part that would be exposed above the water

Progress with animation tools

Here is an example of animation that Paige did using Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 and Jasc Animator

It shows sketchlines and various frames that are combined to show a cat walking.  Ask her about "Warriors" and you will get an avalanche of discussion on the imaginary social life of cats.

She also has quite a passion for sharks.  Paige, Ellie and Mommy had a great movie time recently where they watched the documentary "Shark Water" - you can go to Paige's blog for more on this topic.  NOTE: some of the pictures are not for the light hearted. Uurgh.

Accomplished artist Terri Austin Beech is currently helping Paige to improve her drawing skills

More experiments with Electricity

Ellie talks about Electricity

We started using some science kits made by ScienceWiz.  Both Paige and Ellie work with them at the same time - Paige helping with the instructons and Ellie doing the practical parts.

The Electricity kit includes all the materials you will need to make the activity fun and engaging.  Here were some of the favourites:

• Make a battery from lemons and coins
• Build an electromagnet
• Make an electric motor

These kits are available online but we were able to purchase them at a local hobby shop:
http://www.modellandcom/

Paige now has her own blog

Check it out at

http://paigey5000.blogspot.com/

What is Electricity?

Ellie got a toy that teaches about the Solar System.  The red ball represents the Sun which is supposed to light up when the toy turns on.  An effort to fix the bulb turned into a lesson on electricity!

My toy isn't working - let's fix it

OK. Is this battery a good one?

This one is good!  1.5 volts is normal for a new battery.

This one is not so hot

Well at least we got the Halloween flashlight working