Review of Big Numbers, Big World

A smaller group joined us for Big Numbers, Big World than for the inaugural Bubble Fun. Is it because the topic was math? Anyway, we were mostly indoors this time due to the wet ground. We used the homemade Montessori bead materials to review small numbers, the decimal system, and powers of ten.



We then moved on to the largest numbers participants knew. We wrote them down, counted the zeroes, and named the numbers. Exponential notation was introduced here - the exponent on the ten is just the number of zeroes! There were signs up around the room, one for each family of big numbers (millions, quadrillions, etc). On the signs were a number, how many zeroes it has, the number written in exponential notation, and the number family it belongs to. The bottom of the sign then gave at least four (4) "things" which were that large. Examples:

1
no zeroes
units
10**0 (this is the exponential notation)
1 moon and 1 sun above us
5 fingers on most human hands
You are probably wearing one pair of underwear!
$3 or $4 is the cost of a box of cereal

100, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000
Quintillion [Europe=trillion]
18 zeros
10**18
Almost a quintillion cells in the human body
5 x 10**18 kilograms is the mass of Earth’s atmosphere
We are 240 quintillion meters away from the center of the Milky Way
10 key strokes on a standard keyboard yields 6 x 10**19 permutations



Then we tried to count as high as we could. We took a sheet of paper prepared with little squares on it and colored in one square for each ten "things" the child had done. It they scratched their nose, ten times, that was one square colored in or outlined (hands got tired!). If a child jumped 10 times, another square. Their papers went home with them to continue filling in. How high can they go?

The video clip Powers of Ten was available for viewing, but the young ones who joined us for this program were more interested in moving their bodies outside than sitting, so another time ...

Review of Bubble Fun

We had great fun at Bubble Fun, this fall's first science activity day. The nearly 30 attendees were checked in by my professional office staff (my 10 and 6 year old children).



Each person selected and labeled their straw, I went through and explained the six different stations which were set up. We captured bubbles on paper using paint-y bubble solution.



We blew bubbles in between two sheets of plastic and watched the movement, shapes, and other fun bubble properties. We created, mixed, and tested to make each person's best bubble solution. Recipes were posted to our board for all to see and try.





Every 30 minutes or so, I did one of the bubble related demonstrations with the help of my professional assistants. In the first demonstration, we burnt bubbles.



The second demonstration we froze bubbles using dry ice. After the frozen bubble demo, we continued to play with bubbles and dry ice until we were able to make bubbles that we could not see through. What you see in this glass bowl here is one of those way cool opaque bubbles filled with carbon dioxide gas.