Transforming Electricity Into Sound

Today we looked at how electricity can be transformed into light, heat, motion, magnetism and sound. 
As we all know sound is all about vibrations, from the source to the air and finally to our eardrums.  So how does electricity transform into sound?

The example of lightning and thunder is a good one.  As lightning strikes, an electric charge shoots through creating heat in the air around it.  This heat caused the air to expand and contract creating an explosion of sound... thunder. 

A while ago the toothbrush company came out with a fun little toothbrush that plays songs.  While you can hear the music and the words just by holding the toothbrush, you can really hear the music while brushing your teeth, of course because the vibrations produced when the battery circuit is turned on travel along the toothbrush and through your teeth to your eardrum.  But how else could we transfer these vibrations so that more than one person can enjoy the music at one time?  Simple we find a conductor.  We tried a few things; the large metal bowl shown in the video above, a plastic ice cream bucket and our own heads/faces. 

We discovered that the metal bowl acts like a megaphone, taking the vibrations and 'radiating' the sound waves out through the large opening on the other side.  If we placed the toothbrush against the outside edge of the bowl it wasn't as loud as if we placed the toothbrush on the very bottom of the bowl. 
It also seemed that the plastic ice cream bucket was the best conductor and played the music the loudest. 
And our heads; we placed the back of the brush on the side of our face just in front of the ear.  This was a very good conductor but mainly to one person at a time.  Mike found that the volume could be controlled by different spots on his head however I didn't notice a difference.  You can also place the back of the toothbrush over the entrance of one nostril, then plug the other side and open your mouth and voila, you are conducting a sound that is not your own through your body, crazy!

Anyways, it's a fun little experiment.  Unfortunately the clip is very short since the moment I want to record video it sucks up all the battery and the camera dies. 

Prime and Composite Numbers

 Sorting Prime and Composite numbers

JRR Tolkien Artwork

After dissecting this poem by JRR Tolkien we completed our art project.  At first we didn't know what we were going to write but since he just finished listening to THE LORD OF THE RINGS audio book we thought a quote from Tolkien would be a fitting piece.

Printing

 

 The kids got a letter from their auntie yesterday inviting them to come for Spring Break.  It was a good lead into some Language Arts work.  We're working really hard to correct 5 years of poor printing habits, which means paying full attention to each and every letter written as it's written.  But oh how beautiful the finished product is when poor printing habits are replaced with good.  I know it will continue to be a long process but we both know he can do it so it's very encouraging.

The photos below are of his Science project that he brought to the learning centre to show his classmates.  We ran out of time to really focus on printing habits but he still kept it pretty neat so I was happy with that.

Zentangles Part II

I plan on having him do several of these and then I will compile them together on a larger black background.  Can you find the hidden monster and the car? 

It's amazing how stuck we can get sometimes; this is a good exercise to think more creatively.  I'm excited to see how they call come together.

Zentangles Art Project

 Like I've said before, it just feels like there isn't enough time to do everything I want to do and because of that Art has suffered... badly.  And I love art.  But it does seem to take a back seat to the other more academic subjects.  Hopefully though we can make more of an effort to squeeze in some time for art because it really is so important and good for you.  I found this idea on Pinterest.  I guess they're called Zentangles.  The idea seems to be that you draw some sort of basic divider through the blank page, either curves or loops, zig zags or lines; whatever you like.  Then you doodle in each of the spaces.  At first it seems like a challenge to think of lots of ways to doodle but it doesn't take long before more and more ideas pop into your head.  It's fun to mix simple doodles with complex and busy ones.  This is the first  piece he's done.  I hope to have him complete at least two more for this set. 

 I really loved how his tiny circles came out as well as the criss cross lines. 

Globe Trotting

Social Studies time.  On the right is his dark blue globe.  He's using both a globe and an atlas for reference.  His North and South America look great but they may be a little misplaced on the globe.  However I'm sure it will all come together.  It's tough to get all the ratios correct.  Perfection is not the key, but understanding the work better and where certain things like the equator, Tropic of Cancer and Capricorn, Prime Meridian, etc... are the top things we want him to learn as well as a general idea of where continents and Countries lie in relation to one another.

Swamp Boat

Mckenzie just completed his Robotics course that he took with his dad.  It was a 6 week course and although he lost some steam near the end he did complete his project, with help from dad.  He had to design and build his own 'robot'.  He chose to make a boat.  It required them to wire up 5 LEDS with a 9 volt battery, the main power was by a 12 volt adaptor with a voltage adjuster and polarity reverse (aka, they could change the speed and direction).  The idea was that is had 2 motors independently controlled to provide steering.  Two motors running forward at the same time propelled the boat forward, while running one motor forward and the other backward turned the boat.  The front cannon was going to be a water pump but the only pump we found was too expensive.  He also attached wheels to the bottom so that it could be run on both land and water.  Below is a short video clip of it's inaugural run in our bathtub.

Math

 

Since our current Math Program is almost expired, we're doing a little bit more paper math.  Of course this was a very simple exercise that we did today.  Today's number was 348.  Still, it's good practise.  We also did some visual fraction work and multiplication tables. 

We're continuing to do writing exercises called Blabber, exercises in deductive reasoning as well as class and members classification and in Science we're continuing to work on electrical circuits. 

Family Day Field Trip to the Aquarium

What We've Been Up To in Term 2

This term seems like it's flying by so fast and I am in a constant state of feeling like there just isn't enough time to do all the things we need or want to do.  We received his first term report card and were SO pleased with what we saw.  It's his best one ever, so something about this is working.  With two A's and a B, he was so proud of himself too.  Nothing like positive reinforcement to generate more motivation to do well.  His two hardest subject are still his two most difficult but even in those I feel like there is progress. 

 

The way we do things is very casual in regards to planning ahead.  Our day starts around 10 after sister is off to public school and breakfast is eaten and cleaned up.  We decide which subject to dive into and go from there.  Sometimes we'll let the text book be our guide and we'll read through, discuss, possibly make notes, and usually do a review of past material.  But we let the text book be a jumping off point from where we branch into a project.  It's a very 'go with the flow' type style, which seems to work well for both of us. 

 

It's always nice when one subject crosses over with another and often we'll adjust one subjects 'lesson plan' to coincide with another subjects project. 

 

Sometimes I look at what we have in his work binders and it doesn't appear that much has been done so I'm constantly having to remind myself that it doesn't necessarily indicate how much we really do.  We have oral quizes often and lots of discussion but how do you measure that?  I did find it interesting that an hour or two after giving him an oral quiz - which he aced, I gave him a written exam and the results were not near as good so balancing the two can be a bit challenging sometimes.  Maybe my note taking needs to be better. 

 

As of late, we are doing the following:

 

Language Arts: 

*Working on a book report for Stranded.  I've set up the questions I want answered but the idea of a book report and how to put it together is competely foreign to him so I've now stepped in a bit more to guide him through.  After getting hung up on one set of questions we skipped ahead and I also scribbed his draft notes which helped tremendously.

 

*He works on a short and sweet writing project called Blabber which essentially is a 5 minute writing exercise where he just writes anything, non-stop.  No worries about spelling or neatness, just complete sentences, even if they don't connect to each other.

*Typing, which maybe isn't so much of a LA subject, but anyways.  There is a great FREE typing program online which we're using called Dance Mat Typing and can be found HERE

*He's also been doing lots of reading as usual.  He's now got 8.5 good sized books read since September.  He plowed through the last 2 Percy Jackson books in just a month and is half way through the next one in the related series. 

As well, he's been listening to The Fellowship of the Ring on audio while he does building projects for other subjects.

*We play the odd board game which may focus on memory or on reading comprehension

 

 

Math:

*He's been continuing with Math Whizz which has been good.  It's good for him that it continually keeps track of his progress and has a large variety of math 'games' to work with.  It also takes stress out of the teaching/learning dynamic as it's a subject which could easily be very straining on both sides.  However, I wish the program would have a place for parents to better check on what's been done and the progress.  That is heavily lacking and I'm not a fan of that. 

*We've also been doing some work from worksheets that I photocopied last year. 

*We also try to work math eqations into regular conversation because as you know math is just one of those things that you use all throughout each and every day.  So those things can't really be gauged.

*We played Quizmo, which is basically a math Bingo game.  Wasn't a huge hit, maybe because I won, but it was still some good review for simple mental math.

 

Science:

*This term we are focusing on Electricity.  We've been doing lots of text book reading trying to get some basic information down and reviewing often. 

*He is taking a Robotics course which his is more than half way done now.  He and Mike go and work on it together.  There is a lot of math involved in the course as well.  His project is a boat.  I don't honestly know a whole lot about it.  It's nice to relinquish this one over to dad's capable hands.  He's working on it a lot at home also and this is usually where the audio books come in.

 

 

*Coming up in a very short time the learning centre will be inviting the kids to bring in and display a science project  they've been working on.  Well, so far we're in the very beginning stages of this.  He's got his idea and that's about it.  He wants to experiment with what material will be the best conductor of electricity.  Guess we need to get crackin' on this.

*He's also been doing lots of building simple machines/motors with his Meccano set he got at Christmas as well as using his electric circuit board.

 

Social Studies:

*We are going through the text book and discussing things such as stereotypes, ethnocentrism, wants and needs, how to find reliable information, and how to have a more broad and fair perpective.  Most of this is discussion based and hard to track.

*We are also beginning a project which tackles maps, atlases, and globes.  Continents, equator, prime meridian, Tropic of Cancer and Capricorn, the Arctic and Antarctic circles.  He's paper mached a globe, well the first stage.  Next he will build up the continents and begin making it look like a globe. 

The next stage after all of that is done (which will proably take a while), will be to use the points of interest that he's picked out (for example:  pyramids, Hawaiian volcano, Great Wall of China, African safari....) and he will plan a trip for himself which will require him to make a map and itinery for his adventures.  We will then take a closer look into each of those 'points of interest'. 

 

 

*He was recently sick so the day called for DVD's.  We borrowed a short documentary from the library which was about a Canadian girl roughly his age who has been working for years with the homeless in Eastern Canada.  It was a great start for some good discussion on being a global community and how everybody has a story, how anybody can make a difference.  What makes this girl so similar to us and also so different?  How do people start when trying to make a difference?

 

*We also watched more from the Planet Earth series.  We focused on mountains.

 

P.E.:

*His main are of physical exersise is still his bike.  Loves his bike.  He's also doing a paper route which gives him lots of exercise.

 

 

*I started to work on some running/fitness exercises with him but haven't done that much.

 

 

I'm also trying to get him back into Lumosity as we had a serious lapse for a while.  But it's a good way to exercise the brain in a fun way for a short period of time.