Owl pallet and the other stuffs 1

Lucy and me had fabulous time last Sunday in Cambridge science festival.
She thinks the most interesting activities are the antibody model and dissect of owl pallet.

Here is the antibody model she made.



Plastic plate resemble the cell membrane, which is the barriers on the outside of cells. They separate the insides of cells from the outside.

The blue pipe cleaner resemble the trans-membrane protein. They are molecules which go through cell membranes , so they can pass messages from the outside to the inside of cells.

The red pipe cleaner resemble the antibody. Antibodies are proteins which recognise and stick onto other molecules. Your body makes antibodies which help protect it against disease. Antibodies can be made and used as medicines.

How to do the model?

You need a plastic or paper plate, some different color pipe cleaners, some metal rings, a pair of magnetic jewelry clasps.

First poke some holes on the plate. Then use some pipe cleaner to thread through the holes.
Finally put the pair of magnetic clasp on the both side of one pipe cleaner, and twist the pipe cleaner to make a 8 shape.

How do seeds grow

Plants come from seeds. Each seed contains a tiny plant waiting for the right conditions to germinate, or start to grow.

There are three needs to be met: water, warmth, and a good location (soil) .

During the early stages of growth, the seedling relies on the food supplies stored in the seed until it is large enough for its own leaves to begin making food through photosynthesis.

The seedling's roots push down into the soil to anchor the new plant and to absorb water and minerals from the soil. The seedling's stem with new leaves pushes up toward the light.

The new plant need water, warmth, nutrients from the soil, and light to continue to grow.

Materials: Jam jar, napkins, seeds.

We used black bean, and mung bean.

First we put some napkins in the jars, then I pushed some beans down the napkin near the jar.

I left those two jars in a sunny spot.

Please remember to water everyday, keep the napkin wet.

Growing things

My daughters are always very excited by the sight of daffodils every March. They want to grow flowers , vegetables.

Lucy loves to grow plants and flowers that will attract wild life like bees and butterflies. Julia likes sunflowers best.


Lucy's wild life plants












Peas




















Sunflower

Non-newtonian fluid

This is a intimating or mysterious new word for kids.

We talked about gas, fluid, solid while we were making the non-newtonian fluid.

So what do we need? Just mix the water and corn flour, and food colouring! We made some pretty pink one.

Next question, how to play with the mixture?

You can punch it, poke it fast or poke it slowly, and shove your hand into the fluid slowly, and pull your hand out abruptly.

Or you can grab a handful, let it drip slowly between your fingers.

A non-newtonian fluid is a fluid whose stickiness ( proper word viscosity) is changeable based on applied force.

If you punch or poke abruptly into the mixture you made, the stress introduced by the incoming force causes it behaves like a solid. your hand or finger will not go through.

However if you poke it or shove your hand into the fluid slowly, the mixture will behave like a liquid.

Mixing colours

It's great fun for kids to mix paints to make new colors. You can use the primary colors (red, blue, and yellow) plus black and white to get all of the colors of the rainbow.

Sometimes kids will mix lots of colours together,they will end up having a big splodge brown on the paper.

We used food colouring, and kitchen roll to show how the colours merge together, the results are stunning.

You need :
1) Some kitchen roll paper sheets.
2) Three primary food colours diluted with some water.

Children( 3+) can do this by themselves. First they fold the kitchen paper serveral times, Second dip every side in the different food colour, then third unfold the paper, admiring the results!

The two primary colours will naturally merge together slowly to produce new colour.