Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Science at our fingertips...

Yesterday and today we have had our television
volume turned down and kept an eye on it as we
did our other work, while waiting for the launch
of the test flight of the Ares I-X rocket.

At one point yesterday we stopped watching after
learning that the weather was not cooperating.
Today looked as if it could be a repeat and then
suddenly they were counting down.

Watching this event brought questions from Mikey
and just a few quick clicks on the keyboard brought
some answers. I thought perhaps you might be interested
in the NASA sight on this particular launch...

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/constellation/ares/flighttests/aresIx/index.html

For example we learned that this mission lasted:

2 minutes

After this two ships were assigned to gather up
the important items which fell back into the ocean.

The rocket flew at Mach 4 - Four times the sound of light.

...and more.

Enjoy!

On another science topic...
we were so sad to see a fire cause
much damage and destroy more than
$120,000 of neighborhood property
while costing the life of a family dog.

This morning I looked at this link
http://www.qfd57.com/fullstory.php?95265
and found out more information about
our fire company and this fire.

Most 911 systems are likely linked
to similar fire house blogs where you can
follow stories that are pertinent to your
young students. I had mine write a page
about this fire and their feelings as
they processed this, too close to home, tragedy.

4 comments:

Beth said...

Thanks for the good ideas! We've chosen a different route for school last week...dropped the video school and are much less uptight as we had been!
Our days are now MUCH more enjoyable!
Becca (12) just researched why the atmosphere is colder as you move away from the earth. She did this just because she was interested in it! This seems to be a much better way to learn than the way we were doing it before.(She now has time to investigate other things, not just what is on her video...)
By the way, do you have a good way of keeping transcripts for high school? Since we dropped the other program, we will now be responsible for diplomas and transcripts. I'm planning to go to our state homeschool conference but that won't be until spring...
I know that there will be info there.
Thanks! Beth

Becky K. said...

Hi Beth,

Two things to recommend when it comes to making up High School Transcripts.
1. Look around at sample transcripts to choose one a format that you like.
2. Go on your state Education web site and see what the actual requirements for graduation are in your state.

Now you have everything you need to make up your transcripts. Anything you do outside of the requirements should be added in as you see fit. I know you are very likely to have a lot of these types of items if your state is like PA. Our basic requirements are quite simple. However, our students always "overachieve" when it comes to arts, music, science or something. Especially when we let them learn those things that interest them and they learn to enjoy the learning process.

Have fun!

Becky K.

Deanna Rabe - Creekside Cottage Blog said...

Oh Beth, how exciting! This is the way kids should learn most things - because they are interested in it! They don't even feel like they are learning because they are naturally satisfying their curiosity!

Becky - this was an interesting post - I am going to check out the fire dept links...

Beth said...

Thank you, ladies! I am excited again about having my girls home!