Took G and BB to this year's first library homeschooling event, Mad Science: Journey Around the World Through a Scientist's Eyes. We met a few of those "mad" scientists at the camps that the girls attended at Longview this summer, they're good at what they do.
Anyway so today the kids were introduced to some of the giants of science, like Daniel Bernoulli and Marie Curie, which was just a convenient way to segue into some cool experiments, like blowing up a giant plastic bag with one breath, piercing a water-filled sandwich bag with a pencil and not having it leak (thanks to polymers), or talking about frozen carbon dioxide and sublimation. (Can you believe a kid, who looked about G's age, knew the latter word even before the presenter said it?) In one of the experiments, the presenter brought out a little cup of yeast – used as a catalyst when mixed with hydrogen peroxide – and asked the kids what they knew about it. There were a volley of answers, including that it causes breads to rise, and then she called on BB, whose raised hand probably never went down for more than two minutes during the entire 45-minute demonstration: "It makes wine!" Lots of surprised (and dare I say, nervous?) laughs from the parents' section, Daddy would have been so proud.
