Science in the Summer Day 4

Last day!  Today's lesson was similar to yesterday's in that there were stations.  The young students learned about more ocean creatures like lobsters, crabs, barnacles, sharks, and brine shrimp.  Some specimens were spaced out at a few different stations, and they could spend a few minutes at each observing them.

Swimming brine shrimp

Barnacle replica

Dissection of a shark that was explained

Megalodon tooth the size of my hand

It was great for me to be able to help out Science in the Summer.  I got to interact with the kids as they learned and help them out.  The past four days were a wonderful experience!  I hope to participate as a volunteer again next year.

Science in the Summer Day 3

Everything was hands on today. There were five stations and at each there were a variety of underwater critters: sea horses, seashells, corals, sponges, and echinoderms.  I wish I have some pictures, but I didn't bring my iPod.  The children got to examine the specimens with magnifying glasses and draw the ones of their choice in their notebooks. After that, everyone received a sheet of blue paper that turned light blue when placed in the sun.  They chose some specimens from the stations to place on their paper, so when the sun's rays hit the paper, the objects would cast shadows creating dark blue images of what was placed there.  When the paper turned light enough, I helped bring them in and soak them in water so the paper would not react to light anymore.  Tomorrow, everyone gets to take theirs home.

Science in the Summer Day 2

There was much water involved in today’s lesson.  It involved a variety of things, like dropping water on pennies, floating paper clips on water, and creating Cartesian Divers.  I loved helping the kids try to float paper clips, but my favorite part had to be watching the awe on their faces when they were trying out their Cartesian Divers.  I’ve never even heard of the one until today, and it is pretty fun to see it in action. Everyone had to bring in a one liter bottle for this experiment, but the eyedroppers were supplied.  After I filled them up with water, the children filled their droppers halfway full, so it could float on top of their bottles.  Making sure no water would spill out for the next step, they made sure their bottle lids were screwed on tight.   To make the Divers work, the children had to squeeze hard for their eyedroppers to sink to the bottom.  This happens due to the pressure changes.

On a side note, I'm changing my website name to cjssweetmemories.blogspot.com because it just suites my posts more.  Either that or cjsadventures.blogspot.com, but that was already taken.  Oh well.

Science in the Summer Day 1

I'm volunteering at my local library to help out with Science in the Summer sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline.  I help out during Session I which the 2nd and 3rd graders attend.  This year's topic is oceanography, and today the kids learned about the three types of water (salt, brackish, and fresh) and density.  They combined their two newly learned ideas by creating a density tower with each type of water.  To simulate real life circumstances, salt water was dyed blue and got 3 spoonfuls of salt, brackish water was green and got 1 spoonful of salt, and fresh water was red and got no salt.  As predicted, the red 'fresh' water floated on top of the green 'brackish' water which in turn floated on top of the blue 'salt' water all because of their densities, which amazed the children for awhile.

Birthday Presents

For my birthday, I did not have a big celebration with my friends this year, but I will be having one when my sister comes back from college.  As usual, I was allowed to do anything for my special day, so I passed my precious time by watching a lot of television.  Right before I went to watch the fireworks I spent way more time prepping than I usually do, but hey, since it was my birthday I had the privileges to do so.  

I got these gifts from my family.  Love them so much!!! I also got some perfume from my friend--unfortunately no picture because I received it after I took these pictures.

From my parents:

Always wanted a hair straightener for the opposite reason, curling hair!  But my hair is too short right now to work so I'll have to wait. 

From my sister:

Beautiful Vera Bradley hairband in my favorite color!!!  Hairbands are my most worn accessory.  But I have a feeling I'm going to be wearing this one a lot more often.

Love this one!  Owls just remind me of wisdom and Athena from Greek mythology.  Their eyes are so haunting and piercing yet so gorgeous.  I need to give my sister the other necklace when she comes back! 

Happy Fourth of July and Birthday!!!

Happy Birthday America! And it's also my own birthday too today!  Since my birthday falls on the 4th of July, I'm always super festive and love watching the fireworks.  It's become like a tradition to me.  So I hope you stayed safe and enjoyed your fireworks.  Long live life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  Here's a little 4th of July setup I created to celebrate.  

I have a scarf, flower crown, and tiara here, all very patriotic.  

I even painted my nails to celebrate! I wanted to post this a long time a ago, but procrastination got to me. So thumb and pinky are red.  Pointer finger in a sparkly blue, the same technique I did in my 2013 Holiday Manicure.  Middle finger is an original red, white, and blue striped pattern.  And finally, the ring finger is a pearlescent silver.  I tried to this manicure as patriotic, while as sparkly as possible.

 On a side note, I will probably be posting what I got for my birthday in the next few days.