Mendel Monsters

Sometimes Trevor comes home from school with creative assignments that sound really fun, like the museum design project for history a few months ago. This week, he came home with science homework about genetics. Working in pairs, the students flipped coins to determine the genotype of two monster offspring. The coin flips represented dominant and recessive traits, including: 

• Face shape (round is dominant, square is recessive)
• Neck length (medium is dominant, long is recessive)
• Body shape (round is dominant, square is recessive)
• Covering (scales are dominant, hair is recessive)
• Number of limbs (four is dominant, six is recessive)
• Digits (fingers are dominant, claws are recessive)
• Mouth (teeth are dominant, beak is recessive)
• Tail (no tail is dominant, tail is recessive)
• Horns (no horns is dominant, horns are recessive)
• Antenna (no antenna is dominant, antenna are recessive)
• Eye position (center of face is dominant, top of head is recessive)

Once they'd determined their offsprings' genotypes, they each drew one of the siblings. The drawing showed each monster's phenotype. While Trevor illustrated his monster offspring, Steve and I did our own coin flips to see what we’d each look like as monsters. Here are the results. Steve’s coin flips led to the hairy, square monster on the left, while mine inspired the scaly, round monster on the right.  

  

As you can see, our phenotypes differ for all but three traits (horns, neck length, and number of limbs). So what would our firstborn look like? In real life, Trevor is a blend of both of us, and the same is true of the monster version of our offspring. Monster Trevor has his dad’s arms, fingers, and mouth, and his mom’s round shape, eye placement, scales, and lack of antenna and tail.

I didn’t get to see Trevor’s partner’s offspring to see any resemblance between the two siblings, but I did grab Trevor’s and scan it before he turned it in. I love it. And I love that his science teacher incorporated art into science for this lesson.

I had great fun illustrating our family as monsters. What an excellent way to introduce kids to inherited traits, dominant and recessive alleles, and genotype vs. phenotype.

Exploring Georgia Through Little Passports

Time for another Little Passports adventure! This time, our virtual trip took us to Georgia. I have never been to Georgia unless you count airport layovers, which I do not. If I did count layovers, I'd have several trips to Georgia under my belt, which is not surprising since Atlanta is the busiest airport in the United States. (Fun fact: I've flown to/from 28 of the 30 airports on this list and will add one more, Detroit, later this summer. The only other airport I haven't flown from is Logan in Boston.) Anyway, my point in all this is that Atlanta is well-known for having a really busy airport. In fact, the model for the Georgia Little Passports state journal is of an air traffic control tower! 

But, of course, there's SO much more to Georgia than the airport. For example, peaches! Trevor and I jumped right into the cooking project because we didn't want to wait to eat some Georgia peach cobbler. Yum!

Did you know that Atlanta is home to the largest aquarium in the world? We didn't! We also learned that Atlanta is one of the largest media centers in the US, with dozens of TV and radio stations, newspapers, and online job opportunities. That activity had Trevor writing news leads for stories, each with the Five W's. Then we solved a matching puzzle about the Civil War sites in Georgia, which was one of the 11 states of the Confederacy. We did a map activity about Savannah's historic district, learned about the animals (and carnivorous plants!) of the Okefenokee swamp. 

The art project was inspired by the Georgia Sea Turtle Center on Jekyll Island. Here's Trevor as he started beading...

... and here is his completed sea turtle! 

Next, we did an activity inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was born in Atlanta in 1929. Trevor dreams that, "Schools will be safe places where there is no bullying or danger." I couldn't agree more. School has always been a happy place for me, as a student, then a teacher, and now a parent. It is appalling to me, and completely unacceptable, that any child would feel unsafe at school. Trevor does feel completely safe at school, thankfully, and has never been the target of bullying. 

The science experiment in the Georgia state journal is inspired by the Forsyth Park's fountain in Savannah. Trevor used my beloved Fiskars hand drill (affiliate link) to make a hole in the side of an empty apple juice container. 

He put a straw in the hole and sealed it with aquarium sealant (affiliate link). When it was dry, he filled the bottle with water, put an inflated balloon over the top, and.... well, better for to see for yourselves!

Trevor and I had a great time learning all about Georgia through Little Passports. When we eventually travel there, we're going to have a very hard time narrowing down all the fabulous things there are to see and do. I guess we'll need to make sure to devote plenty of days to this very interesting state!

Exploring Alabama Through Little Passports

The next state we visited virtually through Little Passports was Alabama. We learned so much about the Yellowhammer State, beginning with what a yellowhammer is! (It's a type of woodpecker, and is Alabama's state bird... although apparently its 'correct' name is northern flicker.) The first thing Trevor did was build the model. If you look closely, you can see a yellowhammer on the branch. 

We worked together on a challenging hidden picture puzzle about jubilees, the unexpected gathering of sea creatures close to the surface of the water along Alabama's Gulf Coast. I've never heard of this before and was eager to learn more. It turns out a jubilee happens when oxygen levels in the water are low. The animals swim close to the surface where oxygen levels are higher. Unfortunately for them, people fish them out with their bare hands! 

We learned that Alabama is famous for its humidity, with moist and hot summers, cool winters, and two tornado seasons (spring and winter). Trevor did an experiment to learn how the warm water along Alabama's Gulf Coast creates clouds. To try this experiment yourself, put warm water in a glass jar. Drop a lit match into the jar and immediately cover the top with the bag of ice. 

A cloud of water vapor will form. Remove the bag and the cloud rises out of the jar!

Next, we did an activity about Alabama's role in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's. It was inspired by the Wall of Tolerance in the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, which sounds like a must-visit when we eventually make it to Alabama. Trevor and I brainstormed a big list of things he and I can do to make the world a better place and added our names to the Wall. 

We worked together on an activity about the Alabama natives, well-known for their pottery, river cane baskets, and wood carvings. Then we did a map activity about the Heart of Dixie. It was easy for Trevor, but my 46-year old eyes had some trouble distinguishing between very close colors in small print. Sigh. Getting older can be frustrating, but as they say, it beats the alternative. 

We solved logic puzzles about Space Camp at the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville. Then we used musical notes to reveal four genres of music important in Alabama's history. We looked at Alabama's timeline and read about famous events that happened in Alabama. Trevor solved a maze about Alabama's waterways. 

Finally, we did the cooking activity. 

We made Alabama cornbread in a cast iron skillet. It was tasty, but (hide your eyes, Southerners) we prefer our cornbread with sugar. And wheat flour. 

Trevor and I had a great time visiting Alabama through Little Passports and look forward to the day we'll explore the state in person!

Exploring Missouri Through Little Passports

Our next virtual trip through Little Passports took us to another state neither Trevor nor I have visited: Missouri. We'll make it there sometime between now and June 2024, of course! In the meantime, it was a lot of fun learning about the Show-Me State through science, puzzles, art, and cooking.

Trevor started by building the model of the Gateway Arch. 

He figured out a number maze using math to learn that the Arch, which stands 630 feet tall, is made of steel and concrete. Then he solved a challenging dot-to-dot of the state insect, the honeybee. Trevor used the Morse code alphabet to decode a message about Missouri's state song, the Missouri Waltz. 

Next, Trevor did a science experiment to learn how natural caves are created by water. Did you know that Missouri has more than 6000 caves, the most of any state? I had no idea. To begin, Trevor moulded white clay around sugar cubes to form a rough, rocky cone shape. 

He put his cave in a tray and covered it with dirt. 

He simulated rain using a watering can. 

After 30 minutes, we returned to look at the cave. Just like water dissolves layers of sedimentary rock to form caves, water dissolved the sugar cubes and left a cave made of clay. Neat! (Unfortunately, the cave reminds me of a monkfish. Anyone else see it?)

While waiting for his cave, Trevor worked on a jigsaw-puzzle activity about the Missouri River, aka The Big Muddy. As he worked, we reminisced about the sightseeing cruise we did along the Missouri during our Nebraska trip last summer. That was a really good trip.

We competed against each other, as we often do, to see who could find the most tornado-related words in the Missouri Word Twister. I won, but barely! We read about famous events in Missouri history, then Trevor completed a fill-in and unscrambling activity to learn about Missouri's state tree. It is the eastern black walnut, but in Trevor's messy handwriting it looks like he wrote 'eastern blue walrus' which totally cracked us up. I'm constantly on him not to be lazy when it comes to writing neatly, so it was a nice change to laugh about his bad writing!

We did a challenging hidden picture puzzle that had us finding animal species that live in the Ozarks. Then we learned more about the physical features of Missouri. We read about Kansas City's many fountains and solved a Venn diagram puzzle to find out the name of the only city in the entire world with more fountains than Kansas City (spoiler: Rome, Italy). I never would have guessed that Kansas City would have so many fountains!

Finally, we did a cooking project inspired by Missouri. The recipe in the State Journal is for fairy floss, served at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis. But we were more interested in another food that became famous after the 1904 World's Fair. Here's Trevor, adding vanilla to eggs, sugar, and salt. Can you guess what we made?

Did you say ice cream cones? If so, you're right! Well, sort of. It turns out that rolling searing hot wafer cookies into cones and pinching the ends is too difficult for both Trevor and me, so we pushed our hot cookies into muffin tins and made ice cream cone bowls instead. Much easier and much kinder on our fingers! And just as tasty.  

Trevor and I had a wonderful time together learning all about Missouri. Thanks, Little Passports!

Exploring Montana Through Little Passports

Montana is the closest state to our home state of California that we have not yet visited as a family. As always, Trevor and I loved taking a virtual trip through Little Passports! We learned so much about The Treasure State.

We started by solving a logic puzzle about the winter sports in Montana (which gets its name from the Spanish word for mountain). We could have predicted that skiing, snowboarding, ice climbing, and luging are popular in Montana, but we'd never even heard of the sport of skijoring. It originated in Norway, but the world championships are held each year in Whitefish, Montana. We like skiing, but will not be trying skijoring!

We did a quick science experiment inspired by the Ringing Rocks in Pipestone, Montana. These rocks ring when you tap them with a hammer, just like a water glass rings when you tap it with a pencil. Increase or decrease the amount of water in the glass to change the tone. 

Next, Trevor and I worked on a decoding activity that taught us about Montana's mammals, including the grizzly bear (Montana's state animal), the bighorn sheep, the gray wolf, the lynx, the moose, and the bison. Speaking of state symbols, we solved a sapphire-themed puzzle (inspired by the Yogo sapphire found only in the Treasure State) to translate Montana's state motto, "Oro y Plata." 

Time for a snack break! The recipe in this State Journal is based on Montana's most popular wild berry, the huckleberry. We didn't have huckleberries, so we made ours with blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries. Delicious! 

I checked, and you can buy huckleberries from Amazon (affiliate link). The price though - yikes!!! Fortunately, we've had huckleberries multiple times before, otherwise I would have been tempted to buy some just to say I'd tried them!

After our milkshakes, we did a map activity about Montana's Dinosaur Trail and learned about the fossils at each of the museums highlighted. Then we read about the famous events that happened in Montana. I was fascinated to learn Loma, Montana is the site of the most extreme weather change ever recorded. On January 15, 1972, the temperature rose from -54° F to 49° F! I can't even wrap my head around that!

The next activity was a calculator math trick. Why? Because the American Computer Museum in Bozeman, Montana shows the forms of communication throughout history that led to the creation of computers. Then we did a word search about Glacier National Park. The photos look beautiful and I look forward to visiting someday. 

We concluded our study of Montana with a science experiment inspired by the Berkeley Pit, a former copper mine in Butte. It's a classic experiment, boiling red cabbage to use as a pH indicator. Although I've done this experiment many times before, we got some surprising results! The first part wasn't surprising. When Trevor added vinegar to the glass on the right, it turned from purple to red since vinegar is acidic. 

The instructions said to add liquid laundry detergent to the second glass of cabbage juice. Our laundry detergent is colored, so I suggested we use a white detergent instead so that it wouldn't affect the results. I meant to grab Dreft, but I actually got the OxyClean. When you mix it with cabbage juice, it turns a bright green!

However, as Trevor conducted the rest of the experiment, the bright green changed to a dark yellow! From left to right, you can see cabbage juice mixed with: hand soap, milk, lemon juice, OxyClean, and vinegar.

Trevor recorded the results, then announced that he wanted to leave the glasses in place to show Steve. 

By the time Steve saw them, the dark yellow had changed to a very pale yellow! All the other glasses were unchanged. We left the glasses overnight to see if there would be any further change, but there was not. It was all very interesting.

We had a great time exploring Montana through Little Passports! I highly recommend trying their kits, whether it's US state like we have, or countries, or science explorations. 

Simple Chalk Eclipse Art

Steve and his sister left yesterday for Oregon, where they will meet up with their parents for the solar eclipse. He has been planning this trip for years. To say that Steve likes astronomy would be a gross understatement. Astronomy is as important to him as crafting is to me. Here's a very simple craft that combines both of our loves. It only takes about two minutes, which is about how long Steve will enjoy totality from his viewing spot in Madras, Oregon. Trevor and I will see a partial eclipse (about 75%) from here in the Bay Area. Affiliate links below. 

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Chalk Eclipse Art

Materials:

• cardstock
• circle punch
• black construction paper
• white chalk

Steps:

Punch a circle from a piece of cardstock. Put the punched circle in the center of the black construction paper. Trace a heavy chalk line around the circle.

While holding the circle in place, use your finger to pull the chalk outward from the circle. (Easy to do, but difficult to photograph!) You can pull the chalk out as little or as much as you want. Older children may want to incorporate prominences, helmet streamers, coronal loops, the diamond ring, or Baily's beads. 

Remove the circle to reveal your eclipse!

Will you be viewing the eclipse on Monday? Where will you be? Let me know in the comments!

Exploring Washington Through Little Passports

Our latest adventure through Little Passports took us on a virtual trip to Washington, my parents' home state. I've spent a lot of time in the Evergreen State and Trevor has been there three times, so it was a lot of fun to get to know the state a little better.

First, Trevor made the model of the iconic Space Needle. I went to the top as a kid, but Trevor has never been there. Someday!

We learned that the Space Needle is 605 feet tall, with 25 lightning rods on top. The elevator ride to the observation deck (located at 520 feet) takes 43 seconds. It took 400 days to build and can withstand a wind speed of 200 miles per hour!

Our next activity taught us about neighborhoods in Seattle. We decoded the names of Washington's National Parks and learned that the Olympic marmot and Olympic short-tailed weasel are endemic to the state. We did a hidden picture activity about mushrooms and a word search about volcanoes. We read about famous events in the history of Washington and then did a crossword to translate Washington's state motto (Alki). We did a rebus about orcas and a dot-to-dot about the Wooden Boat Festival in Port Townsend. 

It's always fun to see what recipe Little Passports has chosen to feature for each state. For Washington it was blueberry jam! Blueberries are one of Trevor's favorite foods, so he was very happy. 

His jam tasted great in a peanut butter sandwich!

The science experiment in the Washington state journal investigates how the Space Needle can withstand strong forces from winds and earthquakes. We learned that the Needle is designed to sway around one inch for every 10 MPH of wind. Wow! The experiment is easy to do and really helps kids visualize how the Needle stays standing in extreme conditions. Give it a try!

Materials: 

• cardboard
• newspaper
• masing tape
• tennis ball
• hair dryer

Steps:

• Roll newspaper into a tube. Add tape so it holds its shape.
• Place the tennis ball on top of the tower. The tube should not buckle. If it does, use extra newspaper to make a tube that is stronger. When the tower is strong enough to support the tennis ball without buckling, remove the ball and proceed.
• Tape the tower to the cardboard base. If it is not stable, make the base wider or heavier. (The base of the Space Needle weighs 5850 tons!)
• Put the tennis ball back on top of the tower. Turn on the hair dryer on low and point it toward the tower. If you've built a strong structure, it will sway but not fall. 
• Try putting the hair dryer on high. Does your structure still stand? Trevor's did!

  

We had great fun with our virtual trip to Washington and look forward to visiting there in person again!

Hands-On Science: Creating a Sugar Water Rainbow

I love hands-on science and so does Trevor. (And pretty much every other kid, ever.) We've been having great fun conducting science experiments and writing about them for Little Passports. The latest is one about layering sugar water to make a rainbow. 

Conducting, photographing, and writing about a science experiment for a company like Little Passports is a different experience than doing the experiment for ourselves. For example, I need to pay attention to what Trevor is wearing or what's in the background of photos in a way that I don't for my own blog. I have to think about their target audience when writing up the steps, in a way that might be different than to publish here. And I need to wrap it all up in a coherent way that summarizes the science behind the activity, removing the personal information that I would add here. It's challenging, but in a good way. I honestly can't think of a better way to earn a living. 

But the downside is that my stories don't get told. The article concludes with the rainbow, lined up nice and pretty with the rest of the glasses. But that's not where the science actually ended for us. Trevor continued to mix and test and predict and guess. He swirled and squirted and poured, learning through play. 

Eventually, he didn't have a rainbow anymore. Instead, he had a dark brown, a dark green, a red-orange and a blue. This inspired a new thought. It's just sugar water - what if we add spices and flavorings to make it taste like the colors Trevor created?

The green looks like mint, so he added mint extract. The brown got vanilla and cloves. He added cinnamon oil to the red-orange, and ground ginger (?) to the blue.

Time to taste!

Delicious! And fun and educational, too. Thanks, Little Passports, for inspiring our science explorations!

Build Your Own Catapult

My next Little Passports writing assignment was about homemade catapults. Right up Trevor's alley!

Materials: 

plastic spoon, tongue depressor, cork, 2 rubber bands and pom poms

Use the rubber bands to connect the spoon to the tongue depressor. Slide the cork under the neck of the spoon. Put a pom pom in the bowl of the spoon and you're ready to go!

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention some important safety considerations. Never point a catapult at people or animals. Launch soft items, such as pom poms, cotton balls, or marshmallows. Choose a clear area, such as the backyard, where nothing will be broken or damaged. 

Trevor experimented with several different methods of launching pom poms, starting with the catapult on the ground. 

He discovered he improved his accuracy by holding the catapult upright. 

There are so many ways to use this catapult for family fun! Set up hoops or buckets with points for each pom pom that lands inside. Use the catapult and pom poms in place of bocce balls. Draw chalk targets on the garage door and try to storm the castle. What other games can you dream up?

Water Glass Xylophone

My latest assignment for Little Passports was to write about musical jars and the science of sound. Even though Trevor has made a water xylophone before, he was more than willing to do it again while I took pictures. This time, he used water glasses instead of plastic containers.

Step 1: Fill five glasses with decreasing amounts of water.

Step 1a: Apologize to rabbit for conducting science experiments in the dining room during his naptime. Explain to rabbit that if he wants to sleep undisturbed, he should not choose the room with the best lighting conditions.

Step 2: Use a metal rod (or wooden dowel) to tap each of the glasses. Add or subtract water to each until they are all in tune. 

Step 3: Add food color to each tuned glass.

 

Step 4: Play a song! You can play Mary Had a Little Lamb, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Hot Cross Buns, and many other simple songs with five or fewer notes. Add more glasses to play songs with a wider range!

 

Step 4a: Catch rabbit listening to music with interest. 

That's all there is to it!