Cleaning with Ketchup

The Jedi had been reading his assignments for his upcoming science lab at the local University and in the text he found a little science project. Since we had all of the materials, we decided to give it a try.
The experiment...

The experiment:  Will ketchup clean a penny?

The hypothesis?  The acids found in the ketchup will clean the penny and make it shine like new. 

The results?
Well, let's just say I won't be filling my bleaching trays with ketchup anytime soon!

The Jedi's hands actually absorbed the ketchup.  As you can imagine, he smelled like ketchup for at least two hours despite frequent hand washing.  All I can say is, "Yes, I would like fries with that."
Ta Da!!!  Not all that impressive really.  You can't tell from the picture, but it's a teeny tiny bit cleaner, really, it is. 

When attempting to determine WHY (pray tell) the ketchup didn't do that well cleaning, these ideas came to mind:
Ketchup is a very mild acid so maybe it needed to soak overnight?  (We rubbed it for 15 minutes)
Maybe it was our type of ketchup.  Perhaps the absence of High Fructose Corn Syrup made a difference...after all, they use acid to make HFCS.
Maybe we had a really dirty penny?
Maybe it wasn't dirt on the penny? 

The Jedi wanted to explore this further by trying hot sauce, but after the affects on his hands from the ketchup, I said no way! 

Light as a Feather Stiff as a Board

Have you ever played Light as a Feather Stiff as a Board?

It was a silly game I used to play at sleepovers, but when the Jedi decided he wanted to do levitation all I could think of what that annoying chant from my childhood!

Well, what on earth am I talking about today?  Magnets.  We've been studying Earth Science and more specifically, natural resources.  Magnets can be both natural and man made.

For this study we were using neodymium magnets which are a combination of iron, boron and neodymium.  Because neodymium is a rare earth element it is much stronger than your average ferric refrigerator magnet.

If you've ever tried to levitate magnets, it's nearly impossible.  Luckily for us, my mother-in-law bought the Jedi a magnet levitator.

By turning the lever at the top we lowered a magnet that was competing against gravity to levitate the square neodymium magnet between two pieces of pyrolytic graphite plates.

It's very hard to see, but there is daylight between the magnet and the bottom plate.  It takes a lot of concentration and slow movement of the hand (everything a Jedi should be practicing anyway) to get the magnet to levitate.  We never could get it centered, but it was fun trying out all of the different magnets included in the kit!

If you like magnets, here's the link for the kit:

K & J Magnetics

Solar Fudge

I was ready for the Jedi this morning and had his lessons re-planned and ready to go early again.  We began with grammar.  I'm using the Bob Jones University English grade 6.  We've only done 3 lessons, but so far it's a great fit for the Jedi.  While he's a wiz at Math, English is not his passion.  Today we talked about diagramming sentences...they still teach that?  Yes, and apparently it's still important.  I actually enjoyed going over compound predicates and the Jedi seemed responsive.  Although, I believe I forgot to mention we were eating left over birthday cake during the lesson.

We separated to do our work and I logged on to my class and responded to some discussion questions.  I'm on my second to last class for my Masters and although the end is in sight, the fog has yet to clear.  I can't believe I've made it this far, but I still feel like I have so far to go!

The Jedi had just the right amount of assignments today and no busy work.  That is another reason I love home schooling.  If he grasps a concept, we can move on!  He finished just in time for us to run over to the allergist and get our allergy shots.  (We live in the South and are allergic to just about everything.  The only way we can breath is to be on shots.).  Then, we had to make a quick run to the grocery store and Sams to pick up some food and supplies for our afternoon science project.

Last summer the kids made a solar oven out of a shoe box.  They cooked s'mores in it and enjoyed learning the science behind it.  I thought I'd take that lesson a step further and see what else we could make.  We had a pizza box laying around (we'd just finished it at lunch) and I sent a text to another home schooling mom for ideas and recipes...

First we started with our pizza box...

The Jedi traced a sheet of paper on the lid and then cut three sides of the traced rectangle with a blade.  (He was supervised, don't worry.)  Then, we lined the inside bottom of the box with black construction paper.  We covered the top flap with covered with aluminum foil.  Then we rolled up newspaper and put in along the inside edges of the bottom of the box to create insulation.  Finally, we taped plastic wrap (I was out so I had to use press 'n seal) to both sides of the lid to create a seal.

Then, we got out an umbrella...

(This was another idea I got from my friend too.)  We lined the inside entirely with aluminum foil.  I believe you're actually supposed to cut the metal out with wire cutters, but I wasn't about to ruin my ONLY umbrella.  Well, there is that Dora umbrella my daughter still uses, but she would not have been happy if I disassembled that family heirloom.

Then, we mixed up our recipe for solar fudge...

1 1/2 cups Semi Sweet Chocolate chips
1 & 3/4 cans of Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 tsp vanilla
(That's it! - I didn't know what to think either)

We poured it into two brownie pans lined with non-stick foil.  I hate to make a mess...

Then, we set up our solar ovens and put the brownie pans in each one...

Fifteen minutes later we stirred each pan.  The fudge in the umbrella cooker still looked like it did when we set it in there, but it mixed well and we thought it might be fully cooked.  It's hard to tell.

The one in the pizza box didn't stir as smooth and the chips hadn't fully melted.  We gave it another 10 minutes before bringing it in.  

As we brought each one in, we gave it another stir and then put it in the fridge.  I suppose it could have hardened at room temperature, but we're not patient people when it comes to chocolate. 

Here's the final product:

It's still a bit gooey and I'm not sure if it will ever cut like normal fudge, but it tastes super sweet!

We had a great time doing this and Jedi's Sis came home just in time to join in the fun.  Tomorrow we'll discuss how it worked and why one oven cooked faster than the other.