Catching Frogs

We went to Silvermine to catch frogs and tadpoles.  We took a net and a bucket.

The water was shallow and the frogs were very easy to catch without a net.  We just used our hands.

We put the frogs into a bucket of water and took them to show Mom and Dad.

After Dad took some pictures we let them go.

Burn paper with a magnifying glass

I used the sun to make holes in paper.

I took a small plastic magnifying glass and tried to focus the sun onto the paper but it did not work very well.

Then I took a big glass magnifying glass and that worked much better.

I put the paper into a box, and used the magnifying glass to focus the sun into a dot.  If you hold the paper and the magnifying glass very still, then the paper starts to burn.  The box was there to keep the wind away from the paper.

We made goggles to protect our eyes.  The spot of light is very bright so we took some foil from a packet of tea and wrapped it around our swimming goggles.

BEWARE.  Do not look at the sun.  Even the dot of sun on the paper was too bright and hurt my eyes.

Orange peel flames

We found this experiment on a web site called thenakedscientists.

I took a candle that was left over from a birthday cake, and made it stick to a piece of cardboard.

Then I took an orange and peeled it. I took a piece of the orange peel, and squeezed it hard while it was next to the candle.


When I squeezed the skin, the candle flame burst into a big ball, and then went back to a normal flame.  Dad was too slow with the camera.

When I had squashed all of the orange peels, I ate the orange.

This is where we found this experiment.

My own dinosaur land

I am drilling a hole in my washing tub to let the water out. 

Then I planted plants in it.

Then I put toy dinosaurs in it.

This stegosaurus is drinking out of a pond.