CTG week 5- Where Grandma takes over!

Well not completely! This week I had to get recertified in Trauma nursing, so I had 2- 8 hours days in professional development classes an hour's drive away from home. Unfortunately we couldn't line these days up with co-op but the " Amazing Grandma" stepped in and became teacher for those two days. She got rave reviews, and I have been ordered to take classes more often. Good thing I have a good self esteem..lol. This week was about mummies and Pyramids. We/they did several related science experiments. We have been adding in Story of the World Vol 1. I am not doing so well at condensing Streams of Civilization but this has been really helping.

Experiment #1 of the week: Preservation. Which slice of bread will mold/decay faster? So we have one plain, 1 toasted, and 1 covered in bactrain ( antibiotic ointment). Kids predicted that the plain with mold 1st, followed by anti biotic bread, and lastly the toasted piece. Their reasoning is the toasted piece has least amount of moisture for the mold to use.

Project#2: Build pyramids from different materials. Here are their sugar cube and paper models. They also did clay and Lego but I didn't get home in time to take pictures before they demolished them. My very mathematically inclined Hulk was the most precise and efficient builder of pyramids. My mom said he was finished before the girls had even counted out the correct number of "bricks".

Project#3/expirement #2- " How To Mummify An Apple"- This isn't part of the CTG curriculum. I found it online and couldn't resist adding it. Basically each cup has different ratios  of table salt, Epsom salt, and baking soda and an equal slice of apple, and 1 control cup. After the slices of apple are buried in the mixture you leave them be for 1 week. After the week we'll look to see which  combination did the best job preserving the apple slice. So check back next week for more pictures...