Science, Daddy Style

I'm sorry this post is so late in coming, but needless to say things have been hectic (and it took me a while to track down the pictures I wanted to include since some were on my phone and some were on hubby's). 
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Anyway, a while back my hubby mentioned that he wanted to do an experiment with the kids that he's wanted to do since he was in high school.  He was never able to do it because he never had an extended period of time near salt-water.  So a couple months before we moved out of the rental house he got the experiment started. 

What was it?  Making our own coral reef.  Cool huh?!?  It requires Daddy’s special skill set as well because his research showed you need to have an electrical current to make it work (hubby’s an electrical engineer / computer science major for those who don’t know).  Essentially you make a current go through the metal mesh screen (pictured below) and the calcium will be attracted to the screen.  Once enough calcium builds up, little critters should come and voila, you have a coral reef.

Daddy showing us his creation

Getting it ready to put in the water

Into the water it goes

Hooking up the power

After a little over 12 hours we were already seeing a slight buildup of calcium.

All the little white dots are calcium building up.

Unfortunately, the stainless steel rod we used as part of the circuit must not have been completely stainless steel because it began to rust and eventually fell off.  We ended up leaving the crate in the canal while we tried to figure out what to do. 

Needless to say, closing on a house and moving ended up taking over our time and we kinda forgot about the experiment.  As we were gathering up the last of our stuff from the rental we remembered that we had left the crate tied up off the back dock (probably not a good thing to leave it there for a boat to crash into).  When we pulled it up, this is what we found.

We even had a few barnacles.

 

Coral!  How cool is that?!

We're not exactly sure why the coral attached to the plastic and not the metal (as the research showed it would), or why it didn't need the electrical current for the entire time it was in the canal but it's pretty cool that it happened. 

I guess all of those questions will be left for another day.

The Conquering Hero

Today, my son participated in a science fair that was held by a local homeschool group.  I admit, I did the typing, and I was certainly involved with the work on the stove, but the idea was his and he gave me the gist of the text that he wanted typed up.

He was the only person in his age group and science category and there were only 3 who participated overall.  Not a very big showing, but that's OK.  Considering he had to give a presentation, the fewer people there the better (in his mind I'm sure).  Considering it was his first science fair and he's only 7 he did really well.  And I'm not just saying that because I'm his mom.  The mom who was hosting it (whose 15 year old son has already won a scholarship to a 4 year college from a previous science fair award) said he did well. 

My goal with this science fair was to get him interested in the idea.  Maybe get his thoughts flowing so that he can start a project for next year that takes a little more research and experimentation.

For all his efforts he got a few crafting supplies (Again, the 15 year old son of the host family won an award at a science fair of essentially a life-time supply of Elmer's products so they decided to share the love with all the kids there).

He also got ice cream.  You see, the host moms parents owns an ice cream shop nearby so the fair was held there, and once the presentations were done we got some ice cream.  (I had a coconut sorbet that was DELICIOUS!  This shop just found a new customer.)

Anyway, I think this was a great experience for my son.   My daughter even wants to do a project next year!