Mammal Experiment

This is our last week learning about animals in biology.  The boys are each picking an animal to write a report about-and it has to be a specific animal, not just a class of animals.  IJ picked ball python.  Shane hasn't decided yet.  In the meantime, we did two experiments.

The experiment demonstrates the importance of fur or blubber for mammals, who need to regulate their blood temperature.  We had two sets of "blood." One set represented an orca and the other represented a hairy mountain goat.  (The experiment calls for plain water, but I added red food coloring to make the experiment more realistic.)

The orca set asked, "What takes more energy to stay warm in, cold air or cold water?" One bottle went into the freezer and the other into cold water with "icebergs."

The hairy mountain goat set asked, "Which goat stays warmer, the hairy goat or the bald goat?" One bottle sat on the counter and the other nestled into a scarf.  The scarf does not contain any goat hair, so we used our imaginations.

We were amazed at the temperature difference between the orca bottles.  The cold water was ten degrees warmer than the air in the freezer, but the "blood" from the ice bath was a good fifty degrees colder than the "blood" from the freezer!  This was a great way to see why marine mammals need so much more blubber than land mammals in the same temperature.  And why we get so cold swimming down at the pond in the summer.  And why hiking scouts shouldn't get wet.

I've incorporated writing into every subject for the boys, especially Shane.  He is facing his first written portion in the annual standardized tests this spring and I want him to be completely comfortable.  I don't expect him to score very high considering he is younger than 99% of the 4th graders (and a large percentage of 4th grade boys are Ian's age).  But I do want him to practice and do well.  I had him write the data for our goat set and write up the conclusions.

But sometimes picture is worth a thousand words:

Of course my silly boys had the most fun toasting each other and drinking the red water with their lunch.  Sigh.