Growing corn, a summary

Our corn growing experiment is finally at an end. We went from popcorn kernel to ears of corn. I have to admit I didn't imagine that we would actually pull this off. We knew almost nothing when we started - even mistaking the flowering part of the corn stalk for the corn - but with a lot of luck (and some research along the way), we actually grew corn. Jr. scientist A loved watching his corn grow and get taller than him. He was so excited when we got to pick the first ear of corn - he wanted to tell everyone! Now what can we try to grow next year?

Mentos-powered fountain

I've been wanting to do this one for awhile. We added mentos to diet coke and got a big fountain of cola. We tried to add 4 mentos but couldn't get more than 3 in before the fountain started (I had also hoped to get far away before it went off, but oh well). Jr. scientist A really liked this one. Jr. scientist E also joined us for her first experiment, but I think it was too fast (a few seconds in total) for her to notice.

Our experiment bears fruit (well, vegetables)

I didn't think it would work, but our corn experiment is actually starting to grow corn, and the tiny corn is getting bigger each day. The plants are now taller than jr. scientist A and are still growing. Who would have thought our humble little popcorn kernels would grow into this!

Making colored paper

We're trying to see how the sun affects different colored paper, so we decided to make our own colored paper with printer paper and food coloring. We cut strips of white paper and filled some shallow pans with water and food coloring. We let the strips soak in the pans overnight and moved them to wax paper the next morning to dry (flipping occasionally). Once they dried, we had pastel-colored paper!

Catapult

We built a mini catapult using popsicle sticks, rubber bands, and a bottle cap using instructions from Supercharged Science It was quick to make and worked really well. Jr. scientist A had fun learning how to work it (and where NOT to stand when you're using it) and catapulting leafs, berries, and crumbs.

Vinegar and baking soda balloon, take 2

We decided to revisit an old favorite experiment - inflating a balloon using vinegar and baking soda. Since last time we had trouble getting the balloon on the bottle before all the gas escaped, we tried poking a hole in the bottle cap and attaching the balloon to the bottle cap. That let us quickly screw the cap on, balloon attached, before the gas escaped. We even tried filling the balloon with vinegar so that we could squeeze it out of the balloon and into the baking soda filled bottle after the cap was on. That let us control the reaction and capture the gas pretty well.

From seedling to plant

We planted our seedlings that we grew from popcorn kernels. We had a fun time filling biodegradable pots with soil, sticking in the seedlings, and planting the pots. I wasn't really sure if they'd survive the transplant, but we dutifully watered them every day. Within a few days we started seeing little plants poking out of the soil. Since then they've just kept growing and growing. It's neat to see what our little popcorn kernels are turning into. We're now working on trying our hand at baby carrots.