This past Tuesday we dug up the sweet potatoes. The above picture is about half of the larger bed....we also had a smaller bed. 40+ plants in all.
The boys and I pulled vines and dug the roots on the smaller bed while Paul worked on clearing the mess of vines on the larger bed.
The mosquitoes were horrible. The ground on the larger bed was really packed, which made it much harder to dig them up without snapping them in half.
But we got a good amount. I haven't weighed them yet, they are all sitting in a heap in front of our fireplace right now curing.
I'm still not sure about the white flesh. The texture is different too. But having never grown these before, I don't know if the sticky texture will go away as they sit longer. They do make good biscuits, just not quite as fluffy as the orange one we had before. I am not sure if we got all of them out of the ground. It started to rain and Lakin started to look like he had chicken pox from the mosquitoes so we had to go in.
First we reviewed the definition of a mixture and the ways to separate them. Then I mixed 3 colors of water and we discussed how it was a mixture of pigment and water and how we could separate each of the colors back out again.
I gave them a brief description of chromatography and what it meant. Then using 4 different black pens they drew on coffee filters. Then we set dampened cotton balls on the filters and allowed the water to slowly absorb into the filter paper. The above picture is of one of the black inks which separated out into yellow, red and blue....
They started to test all the markers then....they hypothesized that the blue wouldn't separate at all since it was a primary color, but were surprised when purple and light blue came out.
Lesson 6: Solubility
First was vocabulary: solution, solute, solvent and solubility
Then a refresher on the scientific method. This time I wanted them to follow the steps and pay attention to the process....
The Problem: Which solvent will hold the most solute?
Which solute has the greater solubility?
The Hypothesis:
Cale guessed that the water would dissolve more, Rylan guess the alcohol
Rylan said sugar would have the greater solubility, Cale guessed Epsom Salts, Cohen guessed table salt.
The Procedure:
First we measured out 35 mL of water in to each of 3 tubes. They chose which solute they would dissolve first and scooped 1/2 tsp of that solute into the water. Capped the tube and shook. They repeated this process until the solute would no longer dissolve. Then they repeated the same process, but this time using alcohol as the solvent.
The Results:
Water
Alcohol
Salt
4 scoops
2 scoops
Sugar
18 scoops
6 scoops
Epsom salt
18 scoops
>1 scoop
the sugar dissolved just a little bit more than the Epsom Salts in the water.
Conclusions:
Water can hold more solutes, and we discussed a little about water being the universal solvent. Sugar had a greater solubility in both solvents.
It was nice to see them bringing in information from the past lessons...Rylan was talking about molecule size and noticing that the volume of his tube (with 18 scoops of sugar) was about to overflow, but Cale's (with 18 scoops of Epsom salts) still had about 1.5 inches to the top of the tube. Cale had a hard time with that- since the visual size of the E. salts are much bigger than the sugar crystals.
I've gotten a couple questions about this particular item, which has been seen a lot in my past few posts. So I thought I'd give my review and the information on where I got them....
I bought this set of test tubes this summer when I was planning out our year, I wanted something inexpensive, yet durable since my boys are all 8 yrs old and under, I didn't think we had a need for glass test tubes yet. So when I found these I thought they would work perfectly for our needs.
Where to get them:
I bought this set from Oriental Trading Company. Here is the product description from their website: Super Science! Test Tubes With Trays. Includes 16 plastic test tubes with twist-on caps and 4 trays. Each tray holds 4 test tubes. Caps and trays come in 4 vivid colors. Test tubes, 5"; tray, 5 3/4" x 2 1/8" x 2 1/8". For the the set of 16 tubes and 4 trays the cost is $14.99
My take on them:
I love them! If you haven't noticed we've used them a lot. At least once a week, daily now that we are doing chemistry. I love the stands, which hold them securely. We've never had one tip over on us. The lids go on tightly and can withstand vigorous shaking. They've been dropped and didn't crack. I have definitely gotten my moneys worth already in just a couple months.
We used them while we studied water pollution and acid rain. We use them almost daily for our chemistry unit. And we don't just use them for science either.....my younger 2 boys use them all the time too....Lakin pulls a set off the shelf and a cup of marbles and 'sorts' them. Cohen uses them to sort the coins. We've used them to sort all types of objects actually. For small motor control with pouring. To collect items in. To catch bugs in. They are very portable too....so they can go with us to play in the river up in the mountains. To be a temporary minnow or tiny cray fish observation tube. You can fill them with wet paper towels and seeds to watch the roots grow. They can hold colored water to soak up into flowers or celery stalks. Really the possibilities are endless.
The cons?
One thing that would have been helpful in a couple of our experiments would be volumetric markings. But I made do with a syringe and masking tape to make my own mL marks. And that is the only thing I can think of right now. I've been pleased with every other aspect.
I am not sure if we got all of them out of the ground. It started to rain and Lakin started to look like he had chicken pox from the mosquitoes so we had to go in.
