Monday, February 1, 2010

Scientific Proof That I'm Right

Once again the schools are closed today due to snow. And once again the merciless mommy is making her kids do schoolwork. And I think I'll be able to get away with it until Ella is old enough to talk on the phone with her friends and figure out that when it snows this much they don't have to do anything school related. Then I might be in trouble. But until then...bwaahahahaha!!

Many thanks to those of you who asked if Ella finished her work card or if she had to pull a math marathon. She did a great job and finished everything by Friday afternoon. And I mean early afternoon, not "4:59 and 59 seconds still counts as afternoon" afternoon.

One of our last adventures of the week was our first science experiment. We're using Apologia's Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day for her science text so we're learning all about birds and critters with wings which, unfortunately for me, also includes insects and other creepy crawly things that have mastered flight. Ick. Anyway, our first experiment was to make two different gliders out of cardboard and straws and see which wing design was more aerodynamic.

Ella loved this and couldn't wait to test fly her gliders. First she had to fill out an experiment worksheet where she had to write her hypothesis. She guessed that the narrow glider would fly further because most planes have long narrow wings. I peeked ahead in the text so I knew that the long narrow wing is more aerodynamic, but I was more than a little worried about whether our backyard experiment would work out that way. Ella would have to toss both gliders the exact same way to accurately measure which one went further. I'll admit it, I was pondering ways to rig the experiment if necessary. Now I'm not proud of skewing scientific research for the greater good (*cough* United Nations), but I was willing to to toss the gliders myself with a little extra oomph on the narrow one if it came to that.

But dear friends, never fear, my integrity is still intact. It turns out that the laws of science can't be thwarted, not even by an enthusiastic 7 year old. The narrow wing glider won hands down. And when we sat down to complete Ella's worksheet and I asked her what her conclusion was she said, "That I was right!"

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