Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Hydrogen

We did all the normal stuff today. The math, the language arts and the history. Where it got a little more interesting and different was when we did some science.

I have a couple of little periodic tables but over the year we'll be building a big periodic table on the kitchen wall with index cards. We put up our first one today. It was Hydrogen and on the card we've included the atomic weight, number and the symbol. Also, the Latin root 'hydro' and Greek root, 'genes'. I'm also thinking we'll add the electron configuration as it seems to be a fairly simple concept. Here's the card:



It's not a masterpiece of design and 100 or so of those taped to the wall is soooo going to ruin the paint but oh well, we had fun.

We did watch some footage on the Hindenburg disaster. When Catherine asked what caused it I explained that it was the hydrogen of course. But not so! A little googling on the matter came up with the theory that it was actually the very flammable shell of the airship that was the initial problem. Of course once the flame got through the shell and ignited the hydrogen...

I have a few more neat things planned involving hydrogen this week but I'm hoarding them for later posts.

7 comments:

Choi Family said...

Hi There,

I was so thrilled to know how similar we are. Christian mom, atheist dad, homeschooling kid and currently learning chemistry...k..k..k...
http://primary3homeschool.blogspot.com/2007/09/chemistry-5.html

Dawn said...

We are similar! I only wish we were a little closer so I could invite you over for tea and a chat. :)

I'm definately going to be reading your blog...It's fantastic!

kitten said...

You have the coolest ideals! And it's cool you found someone so much like you!

Hanley Family said...

That is a really neat idea. We haven't quite started on anything as exciting as the periodic table yet...we are still having fun with our butterfly nets, but I will keep this in mind when we get there!

Dawn said...

I got the idea from howtoteachscience.com. The lady that runs that has a nice email workshop on building a foundation for your kids'science education. I'm going to write a review down the road but the workshop is free (she appreciates donations though!) and has great advice whether tou're kids are preschoolers or teenagers.

So yes, I'm brilliant but no, this wasn't my idea. :)

Anonymous said...

You may be interested in the photo periodic table that was published in Popular Science. It is sooooooooooooo cool!

Here's a link to view it. You can purchase the poster on various websites if you google it.

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/periodictable/

Dawn said...

I know that poster! I'll actually be linking to the site of the guy who made the poster in the next day or two because we'll be doing an experiment to isolate hydrogen that he has on his site.