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Saturday, January 21, 2012

Our Family's History Poem

At our house we have a history poem that all our children have learned during elementary school. Some of them have fond memories of this experience. Others like to commiserate with each other on the crazy things their mother made them do. All of them agree, however, that it gave them pegs to hang history facts on as they went on to further studies in history and literature. So, here in all its glory is our family's history poem:

History Poem
About 3000 BC the Egyptians did
slave away on pyramids.
Two thousand years before Christ's birth,
Abraham walked the earth.
In 1400 BC,
Moses led God's people across the Red Sea.
In 1000 BC or thereabout,
David drove the Philistines out.
But in 586 BC,
the Israelites went into Babylonian captivity.
In BC 334 (three hundred and thirty four)
Alexander the Great fought a Greek war.
Though some dates remain a mystery,
at Jesus' birth we divide history.
In AD 476 (four hundred and seventy six)
old Rome fell and could not be fixed.
In AD 622 in the Arabic region,
Mohammed began the Islamic religion.
AD 800, on Christmas day
Charlemagne was crowned emperor they say.
In 1066 with lots of boats,
William the Conqueror invaded the English coast.
In 1215 (twelve hundred and fifteen),
the Magna Carta gave rights to men.
In 1492 (fourteen hundred and ninety-two),
Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
In 1517 (fifteen hundred and seventeen),
Martin Luther said, "Grace is the means."
In 1535 (fifteen hundred and thirty-five),
John Calvin brought the Bible alive.
In 1620 (sixteen hundred and twenty),
the pilgrims landed in a land that was wintry.
On July fourth, 1776,
Americans declared their independence.
In 1861,
the Civil War was begun.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

William Tyndale's story is coming soon!


“There are certain facts in history which the world tried hard to forget and ignore. These facts get in the way of some of the world’s favorite theories, and are highly inconvenient.... It is fashionable in some quarters to deny that there is any such thing as certainty about religious truth, or any opinions for which it is worth while to be burned. Yet, 300 years ago, there were men who were certain they had found out truth, and were content to die for their opinions.” ~ J.C. Ryle, 1890

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Another Experiment from Archimedes



"Archimedes Principle" explains buoyancy, which is the subject of this second experiment. The student will find that different liquids have different buoyancy. See the last post for an experiment that lays the ground work for this one.




Name of the Experiment: The Buoyancy Experiment

Performed by:________________________________________

Date:_________________________________________

The Problem: Objects seem lighter in liquids. Some objects even float. This apparent loss of weight is called buoyancy. How does the buoyancy of different liquids compare?

The Hypothesis:



The Experiment: You will need: two large bowls, a glass custard cup or small bowl, pennies, salt, and 1 gallon of water. Fill one large bowl with about 2 quarts of water. Float the glass custard cup in the large bowl and add pennies until the cup sinks. The pennies must be added one at a time in such a way that the cup does not tilt to one side. Record the number of pennies on the chart below. Next, remove the cup and dry the cup and pennies. In the second large bowl, add 1 cup of salt to about 2 quarts of water. Stir until dissolved. Float the cup and add pennies until the cup sinks. Record the number of pennies for the salt water. Repeat the experiment two more times to check your results.

Observations:

--------------------------------------------Trial A------Trial B-----Trial C

Number of Pennies to Sink in the Water: ________ ________ ________

Number of Pennies to Sink in Salt Water: ________ ________ ________

Interpretation:



Conclusion: