Tsunami!: Tsunami Demonstration

Tsunami! is the story of

If you're feeling ambitious, you can make a very cool tsunami demonstrator following the directions found here. 

If you're not up for such a task, you can make simpler models using 2 liter soda bottles.  While this simpler model probably doesn't have the same impact as the fancier versions, it does have the added bonus of allowing students to take part in its construction and manipulation.

Fill the 2 liter bottle with about 2 inches of gravel.  (I used sand because I had it on hand, but gravel works MUCH better).

Then pour about 250 ml of water (about 1 cup) into the bottle.  Cap it tightly.

Gently lower the bottle to its side, so the gravel forms a slope at the end of the bottle (you'll see that the sand doesn't work so well at this point, in the picture below).  The gravel slope represents the sea floor and then the beach.  The water represents the ocean.

Use the palm of your hand to smack the bottle cap (i.e. the end of the bottle opposite the gravel slope), to generate a wave.

Observe the wave formation and the way it crashes upon the gravel.  Also note the way the water sloshes around on the gravel following its initial crash - the danger of a tsunami extends beyond the initial landfall. 

Natural Things Quiz Winner!!

Congratulations to Jerry B., winner of the Exploring Nature subscription!  I'll be sending your contact information to Sheri and she'll be in touch with your subscription information. 

Thanks to everyone who entered the quiz.  Make sure you stop by Exploring Nature - even if choose not to purchase a subscription, there's lots of free material available! 

Natural Things Quiz Answers

Thanks to everyone who participated in both the Natural Things Swap and the follow-up quiz.  I hope you've all enjoyed it as much as I have.

I'm planning another one for next fall, so watch for more information around the beginning of September.  And keep your eyes open for possible items to swap!

1. Goldenrod

This is a golden rod gall - that bulge (the gall) was once the home for a goldenrod gall larva.  It was nourished and protected by the plant stem until it was time to emerge and finish metamorphosis. 

I wasn't familiar with these before the swap, and am anxious to check out the goldenrod fields next fall to see if I can find more!

2. Soybean seed and seed pod

3. Magnolia Seed Pod

4. Flint

5. Slate

Tops & Bottoms: What Parts of Plants Do We Eat?

Tops & Bottoms is a cute story of a bear and a hare.  Bear is lazy and finds hare's offer to share the harvest of his garden with him a good deal.  When deciding how to split the harvest, hare asks bear if he prefers "tops or bottoms".  Bear chooses the tops, and is quite dismayed when hare's half of the harvest yields carrots, radishes, and beets while his half is a pile green stems and leaves.  The silliness continues for two more harvest seasons.  Will bear get some food out of this deal by the end? 

It's a fun story that points out the different parts of plants that we eat.  Challenge your students to plan a meal that includes the following plant parts:

• Root
• Stem
• Leaf
• Flower
• Fruit
• Seed

 Or, if you're feeling ambitious, you can assign each student to bring in one item and you can have a lunchtime plant salad bar, in which students have to build and eat a salad that contains all of the plant parts. 

Here are some items that could be used for each of the plant parts.

Roots

beet

carrot

radish

Stems

celery
potato (tubers are considered a modified stem, not a root)
onions (bulbs are considered a modified stem, not a root)

paper plates and napkins (for serving)

Leaves

lettuce

spinach

Flower

artichoke heart
broccoli (this could also count in the stem category)

edible flowers

Seeds

sunflower seeds

lima beans

corn

soybean (edamame)

peas

Fruit (these are broken down by different classifications of fruit, as might be discussed with older students, with younger students you'd just stick with "fruit")

pepo - cucumber, pumpkin, melon

drupe - peach, olive, cherry

berry - tomato, grape
pome - apple, pear

Others (if you're interested)

ferns - fiddleheads

gymnosperms - pine nuts

sprouts - bean sprouts, alfalfa sprouts

grasses - rice, wheat, oats

Zack's Alligator: Measurement and Graphing Exercises

Zack's Alligator is the story of a boy who is given a tiny alligator on a key chain, with the instructions to water her every day.  When given water, Zack's alligator grows and grows and they're off on all sorts of adventures. 

You can have your own adventures in science with a growing alligator.  (Of course you can use another other "Growing" animal, the alligator just complements the book nicely).

Before you place the alligator in any water, take some measurements.  The number and type of measurements you take will depend upon the age of your students.  Some possibilities:

• Length (nose to tail)
• Width - across the head
• Width - from toe to toe
• Thickness
• Mass
• Volume
• Density (not a measurement, but could be calculated if you have mass and volume data)

I did this with a very young student, for whom measurements are meaningless, so we traced around the alligator.   (FYI, I used the back side of a sheet of freezer paper - I could get a nice long sheet of paper, and it's plasticated, which was important since future tracings would be made when the alligator was wet).

After measuring, the alligator can be placed in a large tub of water (you want to make sure it has room to grow). 

Each day, for about a week, take each of the measurements.

At the end of the week, you'll have a collection of data.

Our data was a picture, showing the alligator's growth:

If you have numerical data, you can create graphs that illustrate the rate of growth.  You can then analyze whether the alligator grew faster in one dimension than another or if they all grow at the same pace. 

The Lorax: Over-Harvesting

The last time I mentioned The Lorax  it was as a story to share for Earth Day.  I included some follow-up questions to get your students thinking about both the story and the world around them.   

If you're looking for an activity to use with the book, consider the over-harvesting challenge (first posted on March 30, 2010). 

Set up this activity to help students understand that sometimes humans take more natural resources than nature can produce.


Put students in groups of 2 or 3. You'll need 152 pretzel sticks for each group. The pretzel sticks represent trees/lumber

Within each group, you'll need someone to be the protector of the trees - he or she will 'plant' more trees each round. You'll also need someone to be the lumberjack, who 'cuts down' trees each round. If you have a third member of the group, he or she can record the data each round; if there are only two group memebrs, they can both record as the scenario plays out.

Begin with a 'forest' (pile) of 120 trees. Additionally, the protector will have a supply of 32 more trees

During each round, the following will happen...
- The protectors will 'plant' 4 trees from their source.
- The lumberjacks will double the number of trees they are 'cutting down' each round, starting with 1.
- The recorder records how many trees are left at the end of the round.


After explaining the scenario, but before beginning the actual process, ask students to guess how many rounds it will take before there are no natural resources left.

What can we do to protect our natural resources from over-harvesting?
********************************************
Here's a table you can set up to help your students record their data:

Natural Resources + Trees Added - Trees Consumed = Trees remaining

The first two rows of data should look like this:

120 + 4 - 1 = 123
123 + 4 - 2 = 125


You could also use Goldfish crackers for the activity - replace the lumberjacks with fishermen and you're all set!

Goldilocks & the Three Bears:

Goldilocks and the Three Bears is a well-known fairy tale and provides a great opening for scientific inquiry. 

Whatever version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears you prefer, you'll come to the spot when Goldilocks goes to eat the porridge.  She finds that Papa's porridge, in the largest bowl, is too hot; Mama's porridge, in the middle-sized bowl, is too cold; and the Baby's porridge, in the smallest bowl, is just right. 

Does this part of the story make sense, scientifically?  Would the largest vessel keep something the hottest?  What about the smallest vessel keeping it warmer than the medium-sized one? 

It's easy to test it out for yourself!

You'll need 3 jars/bottles/beakers, each a different size.  If I were at school, I would use three different sized beakers.  Because I'm working from home, I used three different sizes of Mason jars: a quart jar, a pint jar, and a half-pint jar.  You'll also need a thermometer.  I used a candy thermometer, because that's what I had at home. 

Fill each of the jars with hot water.  However hot you can get it to come out of the tap is fine, it's not necessary to heat it further. 

Take a temperature reading right away, so you know your starting point. 

For younger students:
Set a timer for 15 minutes and when it sounds, take a temperature reading for each jar.  If you wish, you take an additional reading after another 15 minutes.

For older students:
Have the students, working in lab groups, take and record the temperature of each jar of water at regular intervals (1, 2 or 3 minutes).  These students can then graph their data, which will show the rate at which heat is lost from each vessel. 


I started with water that was 125 degrees Fahrenheit.  After 15 minutes, I had the following data:
Papa (Quart jar): 115 degrees
Mama (Pint jar): 109 degrees
Baby (Half-pint jar): 100 degrees

After completing the activity, graphing and drawing conclusions, students can re-write the tale, incorporating what they learned from the lab.