6 posts tagged “science”

Purse

It started with my new purse-- it's made from woven candy and soda wrappers.  I really like it, and now that I'm carrying it around, I am having conversations with strangers and friends about other ways to make bags from recycled materials.  It's interesting. 

Anyhow, I was at the library yesterday, and the librarian told me that you can make a tyvek like material by using plastic grocery bags together. 

I was intrigued.  And I'm looking for another craft for my brownies to do at the next meeting, so when I got home, I started poking around on the web for advice.

Etsylabs has a tutorial for the basic technique.  Make has a video on youtube, showing how to make a messenger bag out of mainly black trash bags. 

Make a Messenger Bag Out of Trash Bags!

What I'm intrigued by is the idea of being able to make kind of a patchwork affect by using different colored bags.  I have found one person online who is doing the kind of thing I'd like to do, but, the instructions aren't dumbed down enough for me.  I'm going to have to experiment some, I guess.  Anyhow, here is the best fused plastic bag I've seen so far:

Heartbag

Isn't that neat? 

I spent a few minutes ironing some bags together today, and I'm wondering if I'm too much of a perfectionist for this-- they wrinkled up a LOT and it bugs me.  I had a mix of LDPE and HDPE bags, though, and I'm guessing I'd get less wrinkling if I used only one kind.  FYI, the crinkly bags you get at the grocery store are HDPE, and the shiny, thicker bags you get at Target are LDPE bags (bread bags are also LDPE). 

My basic idea for the brownie craft is for me to fuse a foundation material ahead of time, and have some shapes precut out of colored bags, along with having bags available for the girls to cut their own shapes. Then the girls can make up some kind of picture on their foundation, and when they're done, I'll use the iron to fuse it on.  Originally, I was thinking that they would be making either sit-upons (a girl scout tradition to keep your butt dry when you sit outside) or placemats.  But now I'm not sure that they'll be big enough for either, with the shrinkage.  Maybe we can fuse a "frame" around the picture? 

The craft is going to be part of a science badge-- how better to learn about plastic than see it melt?  I have some ideas about how to teach them about thermosets vs thermoplasts, so it is really science.    :)

My {B} is taking an interest in organic gardening. I'm as surprised as anyone, but she wants to raise worms for vermicompost.  It's not the first science experiment I'd choose, but it does seem like the easiest way to compost, and worms are low maintenance, low commitment kind of pet, so we're going to give it a shot.  We have a book that made it all seem pretty simple, and since it's still pretty cold here and so it seemed unlikely we would be able to dig some out of the garden, I thought I'd see if we could buy earthworms that were otherwise destined for a fishhook. 

The plan was:

• Buy worms
• Buy bin
• put "bedding" in bin
• add worms
• add the stuff at the bottom of my refrigerator drawers
• stick under the sink and wait for worms to turn our yucky stuff into fertilizer and more worms
• PROFIT! (just kidding)
  

Gnomes_plan

We brought them home, and carefully assembled our wormery-- 3" of shredded paper, 2" of soil, and then we dumped the worms on top, and waited for them to dive into the dirt the way the book said they would.  Instead they sat in a morose heap on top of the dirt.  They moved around enough for us to know they were alive, but that was all.  I started googling for help, and read that worms like coffee grounds, so I dumped this morning's grounds on top of them, and they recoiled in vermi-horror.  That's as lively as they've been. 

Wormheap

• Canadian nightcrawlers are NOT composting worms, and it's almost impossible to raise them in captivity.
• They are kept refrigerated because if they get much warmer than 65 F they die (actually, almost anything makes them die, it's a wonder they exist at all).
• We will never be able to catch earthworms here because they aren't native to this area.
• The ideal composting worms are European nightcrawlers or red wigglers.  Either can be bought online by the pound, but that's more worm than I'm really looking for at the moment.
  

European_nightcrawlers

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Wednesday afternoons are busy at our house, so I try to make some kind of crockpot meal most weeks to make the evening run more smoothly.

Today I had a pork roast, and decided to use this recipe from Allrecipes: Pork Roast with Thyme.  It's a pretty simple recipe-- first you put sliced garlic into some slits on the top of the roast, and then you pour a vinegar/thyme mixture on top.  Then it's supposed to go in the oven, but I put in the crockpot instead, and after a couple hours, I went to check on it. 

Bluegarlic

Radiation from mobile phones delays and reduces sleep, and causes headaches and confusion, according to a new study.

The research, sponsored by the mobile phone companies themselves, shows that using the handsets before bed causes people to take longer to reach the deeper stages of sleep and to spend less time in them, interfering with the body's ability to repair damage suffered during the day.

The findings are especially alarming for children and teenagers, most of whom – surveys suggest – use their phones late at night and who especially need sleep. Their failure to get enough can lead to mood and personality changes, ADHD-like symptoms, depression, lack of concentration and poor academic performance.

The study – carried out by scientists from the blue-chip Karolinska Institute and Uppsala University in Sweden and from Wayne State University in Michigan, USA – is thought to be the most comprehensive of its kind.

Published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Progress in Electromagnetics Research Symposium and funded by the Mobile Manufacturers Forum, representing the main handset companies, it has caused serious concern among top sleep experts, one of whom said that there was now "more than sufficient evidence" to show that the radiation "affects deep sleep".

http://news.independent.co.uk/sci_tech/article3353768.ece

There's this and the fact that I don't want them to become one of those I kids I see on apparent "family outings", lagging behind their family, hunched over their cellphone, texting desparately.  And there's the whole texting while driving issue, but I'm sure that will OBE* by the time my kids are old enough for a license.

Hat tip, Dawn

* OBE= "overcome by events" I thought this was a common acronym, but apparently its a military thing I picked up when I used to work for the Navy.  Someday I'll show you my tattoo, LOL!

Planet Earth

Ok, I admit that I almost missed this.  Today is the last day of International Space Week this year.  On October 4th 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, the world's first artificial satellite, and the space race began, so in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the space age, there's a lot of info online, but not all of it is appropriate to my kids. 

• I found some fun, free, activity packs here: http://www.spaceweek.org/education.html

• The NASA office of Education has an impressive range of activities.

I think we'll be trying the egg-drop contest at our house (in the spaceweek.org International activity guide.)

I'd like to build this Pop Rocket, but I'm not sure where I'd get a film canister.  We've been using digital cameras for years.