We plotted an area of ground and observed all the living things in the plot. Then we estimated how many of each of those living things we could expect to find in an area ten times bigger.

We learned the parts of our microscope and how to use it.

We made a slide using some typed words and looked at it under the microscope.

It was really cool!

We sliced off a very thin bit of cork and made it into a slide. We also looked at very thin slices of apple and apple peel using the microscope.

We made applesauce. We ate some and canned some in a water bath. Once they were processed, we labeled one to be opened in two weeks and one to be opened in two months.

Two weeks later, we opened one of the jars of applesauce and ate it. It was exactly the same as it had been the day we made it!

We made a slide using cheek cells (dyed with methylene blue) and looked at them under the microscope.

We made an animal cell using Plaster of Paris and Sculpey clay. We made the organelles, baked them, and assembled them in the plaster. We waited for the plaster to cure a few days and then coated the top in glue to represent cytoplasm.

We were really happy with how our cell turned out.

We learned how to read nutrition labels and compared brown and white rice flour. We were supposed to do this experiment with all purpose and whole wheat flour, but we had to adjust it since we can’t have wheat in our house. We tested the flours for the presence of starch using iodine.

We looked at the brown and white rice flours under the microscope. The brown rice flour (pictured) looked like rigid crystals. The white rice flour looked much fuzzier around the edges.

We filled a Ziploc baggie with water and cornstarch and placed it in a cup of water and iodine. We checked it every 10 minutes for 30 minutes and then every hour for 3 hours. The iodine diffused through the baggie, reacted with the starch, and turned the water in the baggie dark purple. We removed the baggie and added cornstarch to the iodine water. It immediately turned dark purple.

We cut a thin slice of corn and made a slide using it. We stained it with iodine (and got a positive starch test) and looked at it under the microscope.

We inspected the underside of leaves and looked for the stomata. We drew diagrams of leaves.

We cut a piece of a thick leaf and looked at it under the microscope. We could see the cells and different colors.

(We are using REAL Science Odyssey Biology 2 this year. As you can see from all these awesome experiments, we are loving it!)