We had another trip to Erasmus Darwin House in Lichfield. This time the topic was Electricity and Magnetism. Erasmus Darwin must have been a really fascinating man. He was certainly incredibly talented and seems to be somewhat overshadowed by the fame and popularity or notoriety of his famous grandson, Charles Darwin.

They made a spider which was operated by magnets on its legs and under the table and then using magnets, caused the spider to move across the table.

Apparently Erasmus Darwin first did that over 250 years ago to keep his children amused!

It is a really excellent place, as the staff are very knowledgeable about their subject matter and all the children got involved in the activities.

This was followed by a tour of Lichfield Cathedral and a picnic in the park.

This all ties in with Jacqueline’s Science badge that she is doing through Guides and some terrific Sciences resources she found on the Science Trust website.

Tags: children, home education, science by Amanda
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Last week we went to a workshop organised by a Home Education group to Build a Mousetrap. It was terrific fun.

As my husband, Greg, is more of the Maths and Science person, he took the girls.

The idea was that each group would build a section of the Mousetrap, as inspired by the game of the same name.

There were some really excellent ideas for sections of the Mousetrap and it all worked perfectly!

It was a great day. It was very well organised and run and we will be going back for other events.

Amanda Goldston

Tags: children, science by Amanda
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We seem to be having quite a Science focus at the moment.

Stephanie has been doing some Biology past papers for her IGCSE in November. Greg printed her off some Maths papers as well, only he did not look at them properly and printed her off an ‘O’ Level paper (yes, they still exist) and an additional Maths paper.

The IGCSE is a higher level than the GCSE, the O-Level is higher still and the Additional paper is A-Level + standard. I have to say, she did very well!

A couple of weeks ago Greg took Jacqueline to see the Lovell telescope and planetarium at Jodrell Bank in Macclesfield. There was a portable planetarium, which Greg managed to get stuck in and pull down! He claims it was coming down anyway and Jacqueline said her Dad got stuck in the velcro and pulled it all down! Somehow it does not surprise me!

They were able to see the Moon and also Saturn, which Jacqueline was delighted with.

Jodrell Bank run regular events where you can meet the Astronomers, who are more than happy to answer questions. We are looking forward to the next event, which is Astronomy and Archaeology on 18th July 2009.

Science Workshop.

This week our local home education group ran a Mad Science workshop, which was very good. It was very interactive and included several experiments with electricity, lasers, balloons and included firing a rocket!

This was a workshop that was funded by the Family Learning Unit. It seems very bizarre to me that our LA can be so aggressive, unpleasant and unco-operative in so many ways, yet they seem so willing to offer funding for so may activities.

The suspicious and cynical part of me would have to ask why that is the case, yet another part of me views this as a great activity for the children.

Jacqueline is working through her Science badge for Guides and I found a brilliant Key Stage 3 Science book in the supermarket.

Science is really Greg’s passion and he is more than happy to do Science with the girls. He is teaching Stephanie her the syllabus for her IGCSE Chemistry and Physics now as well.

We have found some other Science days out that we will be doing shortly, including the Manchester Science and Industry Museum, Enginuity at Ironbridge and Magna Science in Derbyshire.

Stephanie has developed a fascination for old caves and mines, so I think we shall be visiting a few more of those very shortly!

Have a great day.

Amanda Goldston

Tags: children, home education, science by Amanda
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Hi all,

We had a great day out today. We went to Snibston Discovery Park at Coalville in Leicestershire. We have been there a couple of times and I always enjoy it.

It is a former colliery, which has been made into an interactive science centre. And, yes, you really can play with most of the exhibits.

Unfortunately we picked a day when dozens of primary schools had decided they would do their summer term school trip, so the place was heaving!

There are loads of things you can do, from picking up a car with a magnet (and dropping it from a great height), experiments with electricity and magnetism, a section on energy creation, a toy museum, a history of fashion section, a museum of transport, chance to crawl through reproduction collieries and a tour of part of the old colliery.

It is a great day out. There is also a large nature reserve there, where you can walk in parkland.

Here are some of the pictures of our day.

Playing Connect4 in the toy museum

Electricity and Earthing

Building a Tudor Croft House

Human Body Puzzle

You swing, I’ll just sit here – and go up!

When we got back, we did a bit more Maths on re-arranging equations and did the “Mental Maths train” from the Sunday paper fun section. Then we brainstormed some ideas for the device to measure 500m for Jacqueline’s Science badge for Guides.

I was quite surprised at what we came up with, as I had expected it would have a wheel in it, but it doesn’t. I will report on its progress over the next couple of days.

With abundant blessings.
Amanda Goldston
www.AngelsofAbundance.com

Tags: home education, science by Amanda
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