Several large organs inside your body keep you alive.  They are often called large or vital organs because without them, you could not live.  The heart, liver, lungs, kidneys, brain, stomach and intestines are all necessary for you to live a healthy, normal life.  But what do they all do? The heart pumps blood through the veins.  The blood travels through veins and arteries, bringing oxygen to your body, as well as vitamins and nutrients.  Your heart pumps between 50 and 90 times every single minute of every single day.  It pumps even while you sleep! Your liver is the organ that has three important tasks.  It cleans the blood, eliminating all of the bad ‘gunk’ that can get in to it.  The liver also produces bile, which is a digestive juice.  The digestive juice is stored in the gallbladder and is used when you have a fatty food that needs to be processed.  The bile breaks it down so it can travel through the bloodstream.  Lastly, the liver stores glycogen, which is glucose.  It is an extra energy source for when your other stores get used up. One organ that you actually have two of is your lungs.  There are two lobes of the lungs that bring air in and out of your body.  The trachea or windpipe comes down from your esophagus and splits in two, entering each lung.  Inside the lungs are thousands of bronchiole, which are about the width of a hair.  These take air to the alveoli or air sac.  They inflate – you breathe in.  They deflate, you breathe out.  Your lung will breathe for you all night long, even as you sleep. 

Another organ where you have two of is the kidneys.  They are towards your back and are the clean up men.  The kidneys main job is to clean the blood out.  The kidneys have about 1 million tiny filters, called nephrons, which work to rid the waste products from the bloodstream.  The waste they filter out is mixed with water, resulting in urine.  The urine slides down a tube called the urethra and in to the bladder.  When your bladder feels full, you know it is time to go to the bathroom!  It is possible to live with only one kidney. Is your stomach growling?  That means your stomach is empty!  The stomach is an organ that processes all of the food you eat.  The stomach is one of the first stops in the digestive system.  The stomach then moves food to another organ in your body, the intestines.  The intestines break food down in to liquid form so it can be processed throughout your bloodstream.   Last, but not least, and perhaps the busiest organ in the body is the brain.  The brain controls the signals for every organ, muscle and movement you make.  Did you blink?  You brain told your eyelid to do that. Did you swallow?  Your brain told you mouth to.  Do you have to go to the bathroom?  Your bladder signaled your brain that it was time to go.  Your organs all work in tandem together to make a healthy you.  Take care of your organs by eating healthy foods and exercising often.  You can learn more about your organs by visiting our Human Organs section here: http://www.sciencewithme.com/worksheets.php?cid=5.
Print and color our Science With Me! science worksheets on the Human Organs.  See how nice they look? For more also see our science coloring books for information on our skin which holds it all together.

Bernie’s got a problem. His father, Mr. Reynolds, says beans sink, but Bernie knows full well that beans float- he’s seen them with his own eyes! Bernie knows how to solve the argument though- he is going to set up an experiment! Do you want to help him?

What will you need?

• a big bowl or bucket
• a bag of dried beans
• a collection of objects to test ( examples: a fish sinker, a bowl, a hair roller, a nail cutter, etc)

Bernie fills the bowl with water. Fill your bowl too!

Now Bernie throws in a handful of dried beans. Bernie’s Dad throws some beans in too!

Did you throw your beans in the water?

What happened?

_________________________________________________________________

Who is right- Bernie or his father?

__________________________________________________________________

Look at the beans. What can you say about beans that float and beans that sink?

_________________________________________________________________

Mr. Reynolds asks, “I wonder what else floats and what else sinks?”

Bernie says, “I can show you, Dad!”

Bernie starts placing his objects in the water one by one.

Put your objects in the water with Bernie!

Use the table below to show which objects sink and which float.

Bernie and his father have learned a lot about things that float and things that sink. Bernie hopes you’ve learned a lot too!

See you next time!!

Bernie and his father have learned a lot about things that float and things that sink. Bernie hopes you’ve learned a lot too!

Parents’ Corner

How did your dinner taste tonight?  Did your mom call you from outside to come and eat?  Did you see the steam come from the food?  Did it smell good? All of these actions are a result of what your senses picked up.  Without senses, you probably wouldn’t have noticed anything! Your body has five different senses that are always working.  They work to allow you to hear, touch, taste, smell and see.   The senses use different organs on your body to perform their function. Hear:  Your ears are responsible for picking up any sounds near you.  The ears filter in vibrations and send messages to the brain so it knows what it heard.  Loud noises, quiet noises and in between noises are processed through tiny hairs that filter the noise in to the ears.  The sense of hearing can be diminished by too many loud noises.  Can you hear anything right now? Touch:  Your nerves are responsible for your sense of touch, not just your fingers.  Often, your fingers are the first thing to touch something, but they aren’t solely responsible for feelings.  Your toes, your elbow, your knee or any body part with a nerve ending (which is every part) can feel something.  What happens when you hold ice? 

Taste:  The tiny taste buds on your tongue are responsible for your sense of taste.  There are about 10,000 taste buds on everyone’s tongue. Different areas on the tongue are set up to filter different tastes, which are sour, sweet, salty and bitter. What does your favorite food taste like? Smell.  Your nose is the only organ on your body that can sniff out a scent.  The scented particles float around in the air and the filters in your nose are the only ones capable of interpreting them.  The nose processes the information it receives and sends a message to your brain to determine what the smell is.  Have you ever smelled burned popcorn?  You won’t ever forget it! Sight: You eyes are responsible for your sense of sight.  The eye takes in images and filters what it sees to the brain.  The brain interprets the signal so you know what is in front of you.  For example, what are you looking at right now?  If you have one sense fail, whether it is short term like a cold plugging your nose or long-term damage, like blindness, the other senses will compensate.  That means, if your sense of sight is gone, your other senses will become stronger.   Check out our Five Senses science worksheet here: http://www.sciencewithme.com/worksheets.php?cid=1 and have fun figuring out what you can hear, touch, taste, smell and see.

For more science worksheets and fun science projects visit Science With Me!

The food that you put in your mouth tastes yummy!  Do you know where it goes after you have finished chewing it?  And what does it do inside your body? Food is processed in your body by the digestive system.  This large system begins with your mouth.  You chew your food and swallow it, where it begins its descent in the esophagus.  Food slides down the esophagus, which is about ten inches long and in to the stomach, where it will be broken down in to smaller food particles by stomach acid.  Stomach acid isn’t as bad as it sounds.  Your saliva is part of the stomach acid, just a different form that begins the whole process. The Big Mixer The stomach is a stretchy sack that holds food, turns it to liquid and moves it down to the small intestine.  It works like a slow mixer as it churns the food and stomach acid.   The stomach acid is made up of enzymes, which are special chemicals that break up the food and turn it in to liquid forms of vitamins and nutrients.  The stomach acid can also kill bacteria or other harmful elements that have entered your body via the food.  Depending on what you have eaten will determine how long it takes to process.  Some food is processed quickly in a matter of minutes.  Other foods like breads and heavy doughs will require a few hours.  Drinking plenty of liquid also helps to keep your digestive system moving regularly. As the food is broken up, it moves in to the small intestine. The Intestines The stomach evenly sends the processed food, now a liquid, to the small intestine.  The liquid food moves through the small intestine and down in to the large intestine.  As it travels, it is absorbed by the body through the wall membranes.  The walls are a very thin membrane on purpose so the liquid food – now nutrients, vitamins and proteins – can be picked up by your bloodstream and moved throughout all of your body.  This is the energy that fuels your body.   Waste The particles of food that aren’t absorbed by your body become waste.  They pass through the end of the large intestine and collect as waste.  Waste builds up and exits through the anus.  You know what that is!  A bowel movement or more likely what you call poop.  Your digestive system works day and night to keep your body full of energy.  You need energy so you can walk, talk and think!  Take care of your body, feed it healthy foods, and drink plenty of water so the digestive system works well.  Color the worksheet Where Does My Food Go When I Eat It to show you know all about your digestive system!

For more science worksheets and fun science projects visit Science With Me!

Did you know you there is actually three parts to your ear the work together for you to hear?  There is the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear.  Each one has a separate function it performs every minute of every day for you.

The Outer Ear
The very edge outer ear is also called the pinna.  It is large, circular and what people go and get pierced!  The pinna is large and cylinder shaped because it traps the sound waves and filters them down to the ear canal.  The ear canal is also where you can find ooey, gooey earwax!  Earwax is actually a chemical that stores up dirt that tries to get in.  The wax pushes it out and anything else that does not need to be in your ear, like germs and viruses.  Without earwax, you might get sick a lot more often!  The ear canal leads to the eardrum, which is the “door” to the middle ear.

The Middle Ear
The eardrum has a thin piece of skin covering it that picks up the sound waves that were turned in to vibrations in the ear canal.  The vibrations pass the eardrum and proceed on to the middle ear, which is made up of three very small bones.  These bones are called the anvil, the stirrup and the hammer.  Each time the eardrum vibrates it moves the sounds to the hammer to the anvil and then to the stirrup.  These three bones push the sounds in to the inner ear. 

The Inner Ear
Once the bones have pushed the sound in the inner ear, they enter the cochlea.  This is a small tube, curled and shaped in a semi circle.  It is also filled with liquid, which the sound vibrations turn in to waves.  Inside this semi circle is thousands of teeny, tiny, microscopic hairs.  The vibrations cause the hairs to move either fast or slow, causing different types of waves and wave signals.  Your brain interprets those wave signals and allows you the ability to hear different sounds.

Above the cochlea are the semi circular canals, which are three smaller loops.  They are also filled with liquid and thousands of hairs.  The hairs and liquid inside these loops moves the same as your head does.  This function allows you to keep your balance. 

Watch our HEAR HERE! science animation found here:  http://www.sciencewithme.com/category.php?cid=1 and learn all about the parts of your ear.
Then print out our ‘What’s inside my ear?’ science worksheet found here: http://www.sciencewithme.com/worksheets.php?cid=1 and see if you can locate all of the parts of the ear.  Color the parts and see if you remember what each one does.

Have fun! Fun science projects!

grokit

Spring is just around the corner.  Soon, flowers will begin to bloom and grow in gardens all across town.  Even though you won’t see any flowers for a couple of months, the plant is hard at work under the ground, preparing to grow.

Dormant
Plants go dormant in the winter.  Dormant means that the roots of the plant hibernate, just like animals.  They are deep underground sleeping, waiting for warm weather to wake them up.  Once they wake up, they stretch down deep and look for water to feed their thirst.  Roots need water or the plant will not be able to grow properly.

Sprout
Once spring arrives and the ground warms up, the roots will shoot up a sprout.  That sprout will grow taller and thicker and turn into the flower’s stem.  Some stems are skinny and others are thick and hollow.  A stem can be brown, yellow, dark green or light green.  The stem is kind of like a straw for the flower bud.  It provides a way for the roots to send water and nutrients up to the top of the plant so the blossom can form.

Leaves
Leaves will grow out from the stem at various intervals.  Depending on the type of plant that is growing will determine how many leaves appear.  Every plant is different.  Some plants have round leaves, some have long, skinny leaves.  And other plants have a lot of fern like leaves making it look like a bush.   Certain plants have very few leaves while other plants are covered in leaves.

Leaves are like water and nutrient reservoirs for the plant.  As water passes up through the stem, extras are stored in the leaves.  If the ground dries up and the flower needs a drink, it will pull extra out from the leaves. 

The Blossom
The flower might not grow on a plant for several weeks after the stem and leaves are showing.  Flowers take time and many nutrients to form.  The flower will be tightly closed and called a bud until it is ready to open.  When it opens, it is called a blossom.  Flowers range in all shapes and sizes.  Their colors run from white to dark purple, pink to blue and light yellow to deep gold.  Flowers come in thousands of varieties!

Flowers smell wonderful and look great in gardens.  If there aren’t any flowers in your yard to enjoy, look online and see how many types of flowers grow in your region.  Then, print out our plant science worksheets, color and label the plant on the worksheet and show it to your parents.  You know all about plants now!

For more fun plant science projects for children and other science fun visit our science for kids website, and register for free!

The Blue Whale is believed to be the largest animal on the planet.  Scientists have studied these enormous creatures underwater for decades, however, determining the exact size and weight is difficult!  There aren’t any scales big enough to weigh them; there isn’t a tank big enough to hold one alive.  So, how do scientists know how big a Blue Whale is?Scientists have estimated the Blue Whale’s size in a variety of ways.  First, when whaling was allowed and whalers caught a Blue Whale, they cut them up in smaller pieces to bring on their boats.  They weighed the individual pieces, but in the cutting process, fluids and other smaller parts were lost in the oceans.  Thus, the total weight of the smaller pieces was not accurate, but close. 

Secondly, scientists measure the length and width and estimate how much weight per foot or inch the whale weighs.   They estimate that whales between 95 and 98 feet long weigh close to 200 tons, or 400,000 pounds!  That is even larger than all of the dinosaurs.Everything about the Blue Whale is B-I-G.  When a calf is born, it is already the size of a full-grown hippopotamus and weighs between 5,000 and 6,000 pounds.  Fully grown blue whales are long, between 85 and 110 feet long.  The whale’s flippers alone measure 10 to 14 feet long on each side.  Its heart is as large as a small car. The Blue Whale’s tongue weighs 6,000 pounds. Fifty people could stand on its tongue.  Imagine that!  The Blue Whale has amazing adaptations that help them survive in the ocean. Blue Whales don’t sleep like you and me. If they did, they would drown. Instead, they take very short naps, often floating near the surface of the ocean. Their color is a medium blue to grayish tint, with lighter shades on the underbelly.  So when you look down in the water, it is hard to see them, even if they are floating towards the surface.     Even though the size of the Blue Whale is large, it doesn’t eat large food.  Their diet is mostly krill, which are small crusty ocean creatures.  The krill come in through the mouth opening, which is no larger than an average sized beach ball.  Blue Whale calves nurse on their mother for seven months, and drink as much as 400 liters of milk every day.Due to commercial whaling in the 1800s and early 1900s, the Blue Whale was close to extinction.  Whaling for Blue Whales was banned in the 1960s due to the extreme low numbers of the mammal.  The populations have recovered slightly, but the Blue Whale remains on the endangered species list.  Since the whaling ban, ocean traffic and global warming have also become a threat to their population.   Whales have crashed in to ships and warmer waters have affected their food supply. With careful observation and continued enforcement of the whaling ban, the Blue Whale does have the ability to recover its numbers.  The Blue Whale is needed within the life cycle of the oceans.See our worksheet here: http://www.sciencewithme.com/worksheets.php?cid=12 and color the picture of a Blue Whale.   
For more fun science projects and kids science games with animals and more you can use our Educational Kids Website.

Saturn is the only planet in the solar system to have a large set of rings.  Other planets might have one or a very small layer or rings, but Saturn’s are extensive.  It has seven groups of rings, with names and smaller groups of rings within them. The seven ring bands are named A, B, C, D, E, F and G.  There are even gaps between the bands that have names.  The bands range from 2,600 km wide to 302,000 km wide.  Those are some big rings! The rings are made of small space particles of planet, comet and asteroid debris.  Each ring is clumps of particles, individual particles or heavy gases.  Some particles are so small, you would need a microscope to see, while other particles are 10 km across.  Ice even makes up some of the rings. Quick Saturn Facts 

• Saturn’s diameter is 74,900 miles around.
• Saturn is 888 million miles away from the sun.
• The average temperature is -285 degrees.
• One day for Saturn lasts 10 hours and 45 minutes.
• Saturn’s year (Time it takes to travel around the sun) is 29 Earth years and 6 months long.
• Saturn has at least 33 moons.  One of Saturn’s moons is so large, that it is bigger than the planet Mercury.
• Saturn has 7 ring groups, with each one made up of thousands of other rings.

Saturn is an unusual planet in that you couldn’t walk on it.  It has no surface!  Saturn is made of heavily condensed gases.  There is ice and rock near the center, but heavy, thick gases build up around the core to give the planet its size.  The gases are condensed because of extreme pressure pushing them together.  The pressure is so strong, that any spacecraft or rock entering its atmosphere would be crushed instantly.   Saturn’s atmosphere is made of hydrogen gas.  The wind is always blowing on Saturn.  Gusts of up to 1100 miles per hour were recorded when the different space satellites were sent for data. You can see Saturn with the naked eye if you know where to look.  Saturn’s rings can be seen with the assistance of a telescope.   Go to worksheet www.sciencewithme.com/worksheets.php?cid=10 to see Saturn in the solar system map.  Color Saturn and its rings.
For more about our Solar System you can use our Educational Kids Website
Solar System Science Games

Pluto, the last planet in our solar system, isn’t a planet anymore.  Well, it is still in outer space, however, it is now called a dwarf planet.  After years of scientific study, astronomers voted to change Pluto’s classification on August 24, 2006. The small size and different characteristics of Pluto are what the decision was based on. 

To be a true planet, it must orbit the sun and be round from gravity. If it has a moon, it needs to be dominate (in size) over the moon and any objects in its orbital path. True planets, like Earth, pick up debris from space.  That is why we have meteor showers, comets and northern lights.  They are all different forms of debris hitting our atmosphere and burning up. 

Pluto doesn’t have enough gravitational pull to draw those objects in to its orbit. Scientists didn’t think Pluto was dominate over its moon either.  They argued that it is just a large piece of planet debris that was pulled in to the gravitational pull of our solar system, and its moon was just another piece of debris that is held near it.  Pluto is only twice as big as its moon, while other true planets are many times larger than their moon. While Pluto does circle the sun, it has an oval shaped path, making scientists argue that it isn’t a true orbiter.  Other planets have circular orbits.  Pluto takes a long time to orbit since it is so far away from the sun. Nothing on Pluto itself has changed, only the classification.  There is still no atmosphere on Pluto.  Its orbit remains an oval shape.  Its crust is made of ice and rock.  Pluto still spins the opposite way that the Earth does. 

Quick Pluto Facts:
Pluto is 1,440 miles around in diameter. (That’s about half of the distance across the United States)
Pluto is 3.7 billion miles from the sun
Pluto’s average temperature is -382!
Pluto has one moon named Charon.
Pluto’s year (or length of orbit) is equal to 248 Earth years
Pluto’s day (time it takes to rotate once) is equivalent to six Earth days, 9 hours and 17 minutes
Find the worksheet ‘color out solar system’ and find Pluto.  http://www.sciencewithme.com/worksheets.php?cid=10

Color it to show ice and rock on the surface.  Notice how small it is in relation to the other planets in our solar system. 

For more about our Solar System you can use our Educational Kids Website
Solar System Science Games

What is a meteor shower? A meteor shower is a neat spectacle to watch in the sky. A meteor is an object, like a chunk of an old planet or comet that is flying through space. A single meteor is also referred to as a shooting star or a falling star. When clusters of meteors fall, it is called a meteor shower. The cool thing about meteor showers is they only can be seen at night and they are pretty. The meteor looks like a bright flash or light streaking through the sky. That is because it is burning when it hits the gases surrounding the Earth. People often mistake meteors as being large rocks or huge chunks of debris falling through the Earth’s atmosphere. Sometimes they are, but usually meteors are very small, and they end up vanishing completely from vaporizing or burning up from their travel. It is rare for a meteor to be large enough to last through all of the atmosphere layers and land on Earth as a decent sized rock. A meteor or falling star will only appear for a few seconds. The meteors are traveling thousands of miles an hour, and once they hit the atmosphere they burn up quickly. Their orbit then ends and the shooting star is no more! Two of the most popular meteor showers happen annually. One such shower called the Quadrantid (KWA-dran-tid) will occur on January 4, 2008. This meteor is named after a constellation Quadrans Muralis, which was visible in the 1800’s near the handle of the big dipper. Something happened to the star and what remains of it is within the meteor shower. The meteor shower will be best viewed over Western Europe and Eastern North America this year. With peak viewing, meaning a cloudless sky, no obstructing city lights and low moonlight, a person can see one or two ‘shooting stars’ each minute. The meteors will begin showing up after sunset and be brighter as the night gets darker. The most popular meteor shower is the one that occurs every summer, called Perseids. This meteor shower was named after the constellation Perseus. These meteors move faster and are usually brighter and longer lasting than the winter show. Perseids may last for several days or even weeks with optimal conditions. The best time to view any meteor shower is after midnight, when the bends of the sun’s rays aren’t competing with the meteors. Depending on where you live will also determine how well you can see a meteor shower. For instance, depending on where the meteor shower is compared to the Earth’s rotation, you might not get to see a shower because it is daylight on your continent!

For more about our Solar System you can use our Educational Kids Website
Solar System Science Games
Solar System Science Worksheets