Sinister is starting off his school year by creating his own world to command and conquer.
I like this teacher already.
Sinister is in Year 5 OC (Opportunity Class – like a Gifted program in the public school system). In Science they are studying Space – Significant astronomers; Creation of the Golden Record; How to Survive in Alien Environments (biospheres).
As part of his assignment, Sinister has chosen to develop his own terrarium, focussing on the creation of a self-sustaining environment.
It’s a huge project but he is already noticing how to break it up into smaller scientific components.
For example: we bought a demijohn glass jar on eBay for $20 to house his terrarium (with cork plug). However, it needed a clean.
After a bit of research, Sinister came up with the following:
Hypothesis: That we can clean the demijohn with vinegar and uncooked rice; that the vinegar would wash and disinfect the jar without leaving a heavy chemical residue; that the rice would lightly scrub the jar without scratching.
Method:
- Pour about a litre of plain white vinegar into the large demijohn.
- Add about a cup of uncooked rice
- Put in the cork and shake it like a Polaroid picture… Well, make sure you use two hands; it’s heavy!!
- Empty out the vinegar and rice
- Rinse out with copious amounts of water.
Results:
Damn thing pretty much glistens. This mini-experiment produced the exact results he was looking for.
Next week: Sinister figures out how to fill and build the soil layers for his terrarium. That’s a tight neck there on the demijohn … But he has a plan!
Categories: Forensic Friday Sinister's Biosphere
Evil Genius Mum
Evil Genius Mum
- Taking over the world, one blog post at a time
Evil Genius Mum 
I’m looking forward to the next episode! We have several large ex-apple juice bottles (about half the size of that demijohn) that my daughter is keen to turn into terrariums. Just because. But then again she has a science fair coming up… maybe we’ll think of a terrarium-based experiment. Possibly tie in to reading The Martian and watching the movie too? I like the idea of it being a self sustaining environment.
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Let’s be honest: I don’t know if it will be self-sustaining because that’s the assignment… Or partly because he knows how lazy we are 😀 Either way, it’s one of the best projects yet.
And movies: I’ve been tossing around the idea of showing Interstellar. Haven’t seen/read The Martian yet.
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Is your whole family this talented, or what? What an excellent project!!!
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Well, we are still waiting for the bearded dragons to show some potential.. Until then: slackers.
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