Science Chapter 1 - Anatomy & Physiology

Samuel LOVES Science. If only he loved writing as much!! He wants to be an Inventor when he gets older and find the cure for cancer. He also wants to be a Geologist, a Physicist and an AWANA Leader. So I feel it’s my job to foster these dreams and expose him to as much as possible. When I showed him our Science book for the year he was SO EXCITED!

I have been really impressed with this book and all the extras available online. I’ve had really good luck finding lots of supplements on Pinterest to dig as deep as he wants into each topic. The first chapter introduces anatomy and physiology. It touches on history and how the early Scientist invented medical equipment and  progressed through the years. We dug a little deeper by Googling each of the inventors to learn a little more about them. Then we added them to our homemade timeline.

What is Science without EXPERIMENTS!

Our first experiment was based on the ancient Egyptians way of preserving bodies by making them into mummies.

We peeled two apples

We covered one completely in a baking soda and salt mixture and left the other exposed to the air.

The one left out didn’t get as brown as we thought it would.

The mixture around the other one solidified except one hole in the bottom.

The inside was brown and mushy which is what we expected to happen to the other one.

Our hypothesis was the exact opposite of what would happen to the apples. We may have done it wrong, but either way Samuel understood the concept. We then took a field trip to the Science Museum where they just happen to have a mummified body. The day we went we lucked out because there was even a presenter there showing the chemicals they used in the mummification process. Samuel asked LOTS of questions and I love that the presenter engaged with him and appreciated his curiosity. What I don’t love is that my camera was out of battery power and I don’t have pictures of it. Samuel and Isaiah were both a little spooked out that it was a REAL body in the case.

The next experiment was based on Robert Hook’s invention of the compound microscope. we put a piece of plastic over a really tiny word and then put drops of water on it to watch it magnify so you could read it. We tried it with different sizes of water drops and talked about how the water bends the light to magnify the words. fascinating!

Magnifying water droplets

We then moved into cells and Samuel was completely intrigued by this. We watched several videos online:

Mighty mitochondria – http://www.youtube.com/watch/?v=6_2oN1oTK-g

Cell Structure – http://www.youtube.com/watch/?v=Hmwvj9X4GNY

Then Samuel had to make a cell using the craft supplies we had on hand. He did a REALLY great job and I helped him label it because he HATES writing!!

Because I love to add food things into our lessons we made an edible cell. (The idea is in the Apologia book) The boys were thrilled to get to play with eat the extra candy.

The cell didn’t quite solidify like we thought it would which gave us an opportunity to revisit how chemical dyes interact with other things. Seeing this has made them think twice about what snacks they chose. I LOVE LOVE LOVE when good nutrition choices are THEIR idea because the probability of them sticking is much greater.

Because we have a friend who has done a ton of research on mitochondrial Disease Samuel has heard the word a lot and was very interested in learning the ins and out of how it all works. (Or rather doesn’t work!) We found a few more videos in You Tube and read a lot of the posts together from here: http://babyfoodsteps.wordpress.com/

We started this unit in October and never got back to it until NOW! So we had a little refreshing to do. I had Samuel watch a few of the videos again and then fill out this diagram: http://www.crayola.com/free-coloring-pages/print/human-cell-coloring-page/

Then I had him read this: http://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=9&article=1367 Samuel LOVES to read, but Isaiah was not one bit interested.

And we started this lapbook: http://www.cyncesplace.com/Journal/anatomy-lapbook-cells/ She has lots of other great resources on this page, but most were beyond my children’s level. We are still working on the lapbook because Samuel has to write in it!!

Then we moved on to investigate DNA a little further. We watched this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy8dk5iS1f0&feature=player_embedded

and some of this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-vZ_g7K6P0&feature=player_embedded

After that we decided to have another fun snack time and made DNA double helix strands from here: http://teach.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/dna/eat_DNA.html these were so much fun to make.  I wish the Molymod plastic molecule building kits weren’t so expensive because my boys would LOVE them!

Isaiah making sequence one on his DNA ladder.

Samuel making sequence two on his DNA ladder.

The completed double helix pattern
TGGTTTAGAATT

Mine and Isaiah’s double helix pattern
TACGTATGAAAC

Isaiah loves marshmallows so during the second half of the activity we learned the names each chemical base the colored marshmallows represented. He ate:

Green = Adenine

Pink = Thymine

Yellow = Cytosine

Guanine = Orange

Then we made labels for our models. Samuel was fascinated that they form pairs so specifically with (A) always pairing with (T) and (C) always pairing with (G).

I know I need to figure out how to put links in my post neater and how to put books in a wigit-thingy-do and I’ll get there, but for now….I’m just happy to be posting!

Here are some other books we are using during reading time:

And anything we can get our hands on at the library! We hope you are encouraged to share these activities in your home, and if there are any Science fans reading this Samuel wants a playdate with YOU!

You can see the fun we had during Worley Summer Science Camp here:

http://ourstoryoursong.wordpress.com/2012/06/12/worley-science-camp-day-1/

http://ourstoryoursong.wordpress.com/2012/06/13/worley-science-camp-day-2/

http://ourstoryoursong.wordpress.com/2012/06/14/worley-science-camp-day-3/