Mongoose Mayhem

Today was our first official science lab in our Biology class. Another homeschooling mother was super generous in offering a 7wk course in her home for only $15 a kid. I'm thrilled since it would be 10x that at the local science museum.

We started last week and the topic was cells/DNA. Their homework was to create a 3D model of one and present it. We chose to do one of each and found some really fun ideas on the internet.

Mike selected a Twizzlers Double Helix concept using colored gummy bears to represent the four organic bases. Jimmy went with a Jello Cell that used various candies as the organelles. Overall, the creations went very smoothly and we were able to find candy that matched quite well. We used things like Nerds, jellybeans, gumballs, gummy worms, etc. It was undeniably fun! I mean, how often does a kid have a good excuse to buy a load of candy for schoolwork AND get to eat the leftovers? Our only glitch was discovering that Jim had eaten our "nucleus" (plum), so we had to improvise with a green jawbreaker. No harm done.

Everyone presented their models, though I must brag that Jimmy and Mike did an impressive job and had an attentive (perhaps hungry?LOL) audience.

After presentations, the group moved onto bones and had their first dissection. A cow leg bone, fresh from the butcher. Armed with scalpels, they studied the bone layers, dug out the marrrow, looked for nerves - and made a lot of faces :) But they still had enough of an appetite to polish off the Jello Cell at the end of class!

Overall, today's class was a very fun and interesting. Next week's assignment has a few options, including creating a joint or orally presenting info on bone related topics. I'm curious to see what each of the boys chose to do! I wonder if I can convince Mike to do an oral presentation on how a broken bone heals? He absolutely hates public speaking but it would be so great for him to try it out in the this small setting - and he has plenty of experience on healing broken bones! HEHE