Exploring the lunar surface

Since jr scientist A has quite an interest in outer space, we decided to investigate why the moon looks like it does. I ran across this experiment in Pop Bottle Science (yes, I know, this has nothing to do with pop bottles). We looked at some pictures of the moon with all its craters and I asked jr. scientist A where he thought all those bumps came from. He didn't have any idea so we got out a container and some flour and made a mock lunar surface. Then I rolled a piece of play-dough into a little ball and threw it into the flour resulting in a mock crater in our mock lunar surface. Jr. scientist A had lots of fun making craters and it seemed to really make sense to him. It was a great way to explain an otherwise difficult to conceptualize idea (I wish I could take credit for coming up with the experiment!)

Electromagnets

After previous unsuccessful attempts to make an electromagnet (and my clear deficiency in electrical experiments), we turned to my first science teacher, Dr. A, for a little help. After finding the right type of wire (who knew there's a lightly insulated wire labeled specifically for making electromagnets - well I didn't, but thankfully Dr. A did!), we quickly had our electromagnet up and running, complete with a light switch that turned the magnet on and off. Jr. Scientist A had fun flipping the switch on, picking up metal objects like paperclips and silverware, and then flipping the switch off and watching them drop. Some paperclips did get temporarily magnetized, making the dropping effect a little less dramatic and the concept a little less clear, but it was still quite a success.