Portia's science project

The final phase of Portia's science project. The display board. We worked on this all day Saturday. She is pleased with it and is going to give an oral account of her experiment to other students and teachers and parents. We have practiced what she will tell them so I am sure she will do a great job. We made up little recipe cards for her to pass out with the recipe for the flower preservative that did the best at keeping cut flowers the longest. It goes as follows,

1 tsp bleach
1tsp sugar
2 tsp lemon juice
start out with warm water in your vase.

Oh Mr Maximus

This is what happens when you are the only child at home during the day and you have no one to play with but the dog.







can you tell which one is the dog and which ones are the stuffed animals?

MAXIMUS!!!! Your a cowboy! Awwww Mr Maximus you are so patient, thank you for being such a great friend to Paris while Portia is at school. WE LOVE YOU MR MAXIMUS!

We Have A Winner!

It has become apparent that flower #4 is going to be the winner of Portia's scientific experiment.

The concoction she found on the Internet of bleach, sugar, and lemon juice is working the best at keeping a cut flower fresh the longest.

Flower #2 is in a close second. That one is the commercial preservative that comes with the fresh flowers when you purchase them.

#1 is third, that one is just plain water.

And dead last (no pun intended) is flower #3 with the aspirin in it. I don't know who ever thought of that one but it obviously didn't work.


Here is the concoction/recipe for cut flowers

1 tsp of bleach
1 tsp of sugar
2 tsp of lemon juice

put these ingredients into your vase and fill with warm water (about 100 degrees)

This scientific experiment has been tested and proven by Portia.

The steps and testing of the scientific method

Can an added ingredient make a cut flower last longer? If so which one last the longest?
Now to test 4 different examples.

FLOWER #1 Plain water, nothing in it.

FLOWER #2 For this flower she used the commercial packet of preservative that comes with the flowers.

FLOWER #3 Has one aspirin in the water.

FLOWER #4 Has a concoction that she found on the Internet that is supposed to keep cut flowers the longest. It has 1 tsp of bleach 1 tsp sugar and 2 tsp lemon juice

FLOWERS ON DAY 3 All have opened and #4 is looking a bit better than the other 3

Stay tuned to see how Portia's scientific experiment turns out. :o)

The Scientific Method

Portia's 4th grade science fair prodject is due the end of March.
She has learned that when scientists do experiments, they follow the steps of the scientific method. The scientific method is an orderly way to study a topic of science.

It goes like this;

#1 Ask a question. ( what do you wnat to know?)

#2 Reasearch the topic. (learn all you can about your topic)

#3 Write a hypothesis. (this is an educated guess)

#4 Plan your experiment. (decide what materials you need and gather them, plan your steps)

#5 Do the experiment. (follow your plan)

#6 Write a conclusion (summarize what happened)

#7 Share your findings (like all scientists, you should share your findings with other people at the science fair. Create a display that shows how you did your experiment and what you learned. Make sure to include your notes, graphs, illustrations or photographs.

New adventures and a new horse

Wow, I can't believe that its been 9 months since I posted last....I have sat down several times but just couldn't bring myself to write anything. Oh well, on to new things! This is a picture of Honey. She is my new filly that DeWayne bought for me for our 35th wedding aniv. :o)

She is so sweet and is going to grow into a very big beautiful mare. She will be fun! I think she is supposed to help fill the whole in my heart that was made back in December when we lost one of our bloved horses Casper due to colic. He had been a family member for 13 years.

The kids are going to join 4-H this year so we will be raising 3 lambs for them to show and sell at the fair. This is going to be fun for all of us! I will get lots of pictures and this should make for lots of stuff to blog about! LOL