Monthly Archives: January 2010

How to Teach Science During Breakfast… With Bacon

January 28, 2010
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I love bacon. I can’t help it.  It hasn’t yet reached the level of an addiction; however, I have found that I sometimes spend a little too long in the bacon aisle at the grocery store.

Nevertheless, I’ve always been told that the secret to life is to find something you truly love and then try to make a living off of it.  Why not try to blend my true love for Science with one of my most favorite foods?

Just for the record – I am talking about pork belly bacon here.  I don’t have anything against Canadian bacon (which actually comes from the middle of a pig’s back AND NOT CANADA!) or turkey bacon (which I believe is a truly horrible joke.)

There’s an easy way to use this greasy fried goodness in your Science lessons:

First, you may want to review the four main concepts of science to look for while cooking bacon:

Second, what are atoms doing in the bacon?

You probably already know that bacon (like everything else in the universe) is made up of atoms.  What you may not know is that all atoms, even the ones that bond together to form bacon, are in constant motion.  That’s right. I know this doesn’t make too much sense to you.  And I have to admit, if I were to see a slice of bacon move around on its own I’d probably be running as fast as I could out my home!  But ALL atoms are in constant motion.  Even the atoms that make up a delicious slice of bacon are vibrating in place.  But…

…these atoms are really going to start moving once we add some heat!  Which brings us to the next topic:

Third, (and my personal favorite) how do you get that amazing aroma to diffuse through the air?

Diffusion is the movement of a large group of atoms into areas without many of the same atoms.  Confused?  Let me explain…

When you add heat to an atoms, they tend to absorb that energy and become a little more “active.”  All of the atoms that make up bacon tend to stay attached to each other while they are laying there (beautifully, might I add) on the cold skillet.  As the temperature increases, the atoms tend to move much faster until the water in the bacon starts to boil (that’s the amazing sizzling sound you hear) and the solid fat within the bacon (that’s the white part of the bacon slice) begins to melt into a liquid.

While this is happening, the tissues of the bacon are heating up and beginning to cook.  This releases all kinds of different chemicals into the air, some of which include that delicious aroma.  Now for the big question –

Does that aroma stay put in the skillet?

No way! A huge amount of these chemicals are surrounding the cooked bacon at first; however, they diffuse away into the air and throughout the house. These chemicals that are released into the air have a huge amount of energy from the hot skillet.  They are speeding away from that skillet as fast as they can!   Now on to our next concept…

Fourth, what is happening to the density of the bacon as it cooks?

The answer to this question is both a blessing and a curse.  The bacon’s density (the amount of atoms contained within itself) begins to decrease as the heat causes the water to boil and the fat to melt into the skillet.

It’s the saddest part of breakfast – watching the bacon shrink down to 1/3 of its size.  I won’t lie.  It’s heartbreaking to me.  But I can’t experience that amazing aroma without it; therefore, I take the good with the bad.

Fifth, are any atoms created or destroyed during this process?

No! The Law of Conservation states that atoms cannot be created or destroyed, only rearranged into different things.

For example, not a single atom was destroyed when the solid fat in the bacon melted in the skillet.  They simply absorbed the energy from the stove, broke away from each other, and started spilling out throughout the skillet as a liquid.

And no atoms were created in the mouth-watering smells that filled the room.  What you smell are the new arrangements of atoms from the chemical reactions taking place within the hot bacon and diffusing throughout the house!

There you have it!

Atoms, Diffusion, Density, and the Law of Conservation – The only tools you’ll ever need!

Find out more about these and many more scientific concepts within the Classic Science Curriculum.

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How To Teach Science During Breakfast (Intro)

January 26, 2010
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It always amazes me to see so many people think they need expensive equipment to teach the basics of science.  Did Newton need a digital scale to study the effect of gravity?  Did Einstein use a telescope to study the relationship between light and the planets?  I’m afraid not.

Most of the historical giants of science never had access to expensive equipment.  In fact, most of these great scientists used nothing more than a pencil and some paper.  It was ideas that made their science come alive.

And you can do that too!  All you need are the right ideas (and maybe a few kitchen utensils too.)

Luckily for you, all the ideas you need can be easily learned.  I spoke about these four concepts in an earlier post that can be used when discussing scientific explanations.  These four concepts are:

Check out the following posts on the Science of Breakfast:

How to Teach Science During Breakfast… With Bacon

How to Teach Science During Breakfast… With Coffee

How to Teach Science During Breakfast… Soggy Cereal Science

How to Teach Science During Breakfast… With Pancakes

Find out more about scientific concepts for your family within the Classic Science Curriculum

Be certain to check back every Thursday or subscribe to the Blog of Mr.Q for weekly updates.


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4 Concepts You Have To Use In Teaching Science

January 16, 2010
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I knew I was in for trouble the minute I looked at the schedule.  The curriculum I had been provided for my eighth-grade science classroom contained rocks and minerals, astronomy, chemistry, and (drumroll please) human reproduction.

I was doomed.

My first instinct was to run as fast and far away from this place as possible.  These topics couldn’t be any further apart from each other!  After weeks of therapy and truckloads of medications, I finally calmed down and looked at this curriculum rationally.

I needed something to bring all of these topics together, so I searched for similarities that I could reinforce throughout the year.  What I discovered has been the backbone of my teaching style throughout the years.  I can honestly say it has changed the way I look at the natural world AND how I present science to my students.

Here are the four concepts you can use every day to enhance your child’s understanding of science:

  • Atoms: Everything is made of atoms.
  • Density: The amount of atoms within every object is known as the density of the object.
  • Diffusion: Areas with lots of atoms tend to move to areas with fewer atoms.
  • Law of Conservation: Atoms cannot be created or destroyed, only rearranged.

These four simple concepts can be easily applied to nearly every scientific explanation I have ever encountered as an educator!

It makes sense when you start to look at the natural world as a collection of atoms… 

Atoms are the building blocks of the universe.

The food you eat, the water you drink, and the gas you breathe are all made up of atoms.  And, since atoms act much like building blocks, I had unlimited potential for turning this into a learning experience.  The first thing I did was to provide a massive box of building blocks to my students and asked them to construct a box out of the blocks.

Some students used dozens of blocks to construct their box while others only used a few.  It became apparent to the students that there were several ways to accomplish the task of creating a box.  This provided an easy way to model the various size of molecules (groups of atoms).

When we examined these blocks, some students filled them up with extra blocks.  This provided a great way to demonstrate density…

Boxes of a similar size that were empty contained fewer blocks than those which were filled up.  Since the density of an object is measured by the number of atoms it contains, the empty boxes had a lower density than the full boxes.

Next, I instructed the students to tear down their boxes and make something else.  I allowed them at this time to share with other groups.

All kinds of new creations were being made:  cars, people, chairs, digestive organs (that is another story in itself…)

Secretly I had placed one group with nothing but blocks that were the color red and made certain they had used more blocks than any other group.  No other group used any red blocks at all.  Some students noticed this but I made up some story about how the red blocks were antisocial. (Remember… I’m dealing with 14 year olds here!)  Naturally, most groups shared their blocks throughout the activity.

When they were finished we looked at all of the creations.  It became very apparent that the building blocks had moved from the “red group” throughout the room.  You could say that they “diffused” into other structures where they had not been before.

At the end of the hour, I asked them to count all 5,288 pieces to make certain they were all present.  This took a little longer than expected, but after a brief search under a pile of books, all of the pieces were found.   Naturally, no new blocks were discovered (created) and none were destroyed, but they were easily rearranged throughout the day.  After I stated that fact, I had one student quickly point out, “Hey!  That’s just like the Law of Conservation!“

I’ve been hooked on these four concepts ever since and look for each of them within every lesson I teach!

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Homemade Avatars – Voki

January 3, 2010
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Let’s face it, science is rooted in communication.  If scientists could not work together to share their ideas or discoveries, the fields of science would slow down to a crawl.  But how do we encourage young scientists to share their knowledge and discoveries with the world and still provide a safe internet environment?  I give you… Voki.

Voki  www.voki.com is a free service that allows you to create your own talking voice character.  These animated characters or “avatars” enable people to express themselves on the web with a voice but as a talking character.  You can customize your Voki to look like you or take on the identity of lots of other types of characters–animals, monsters, anime etc.  You can even have your Voki speak with your own voice by adding your voice with a microphone, upload, or by phone.

Click on this link to check out a simple avatar I created for this blog post:

http://www.voki.com/php/viewmessage/?chsm=14bd9b1099342ee7e1061c4d446bc27e&mId=400764

What can you do with Voki?  Check out a number of cool uses here:

http://www.squidoo.com/voki

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