Saturday, January 1, 2011

Animal blubber......Antarctica

For Geography, in honor of winter, we are looking at both the North and South Poles.  This week we studied Antarctica.  We found a website that showed current temperatures at the American Science Station, so we could say that Antarctica was actually 2 degrees warmer than we were that day!  The kids thought that was neat.

While researching kid-friendly websites for our study, I came across this blubber experiment

We filled a gallon plastic bag with Crisco shortening.  and had a bowl of ice water also.  Each child felt how cold the water was.  They all said it was freezing.  Then I put a plastic glove on their hand and they stuck it into the Crisco.


I molded the Crisco around their hand so that their hand had an even amount of Crisco around it. 


Then they stuck their "blubber" hand into the ice water.




They all said they could really tell the temperature difference.  Their finger tips was where they felt it the most.  The tips of their fingers were the most "exposed" since they were at the bottom crease of the baggie.  It was fun.

We love Netflix.  We can stream movies for school.  It is well worth the few bucks we spend each month! They had a National Geographic Special on Antarctica (which followed a homeschooling science family).  We watched about Antarctica being the final explored frontier on Earth, an unspoiled gem.  Monday we are watching another penguin special from there.  The benefits of modern homeschooling!!!

This week we also designed our own flags for Antarctica.  Tonight we are watching Arctic Tale since we will be visiting the North Pole next week for school.  So there will be alot more fun in next week's post as we finish our study of the poles.

4 comments:

  1. The winter is the perfect time to study Antarctica. I did that same experiment with my kids, and they loved it, too. It was a bit messy, though!

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  2. Fun experiment! We did a similar experiment and used Vaseline and gloves to show how blubber keeps whales warm! Messy but fun!
    Thanks for linking up this post to the No Ordinary Blog Hop! I'm now following you! If you get a chance, be sure to grab the blog hop button and put it on your blog homepage so others can link up if they want! Thanks!
    Tracy at "A Slice of Smith Life"

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  3. Sounds like a fun messy time...kids 2 favorite things.my daughter's been learning about the poles w/ her leapfrog tag maps.stopping by from the monthly hop.join me at undeserving grace when you get the chance!
    -tara

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