Posted in Science
I FINALLY get to write something about homeschooling! Well, I suppose I could write something about it nearly every day, but I fear my readers would get bored to read again and again, "My son took too long to do his Math today, so we did not have enough time left to do art."
Well, today I can post something a little bit more interesting than that. We have been growing a Stalagmite (this is a cave formation) in our basement for quite awhile, and now I get to post some pictures about it!
Naturally, stalagmites and other speleothems form in caves from mineral saturated water slowly dripping, evaporating, and leaving the minerals behind, as years go by, the minerals build up into beautiful and stunning natural rock formations that motivate many people to explore deep into the earth just to get a picture. My littles and I decided to just simulate this in our basement, maybe when their older we could try some actual Spelunking.
Well, today I can post something a little bit more interesting than that. We have been growing a Stalagmite (this is a cave formation) in our basement for quite awhile, and now I get to post some pictures about it!
Naturally, stalagmites and other speleothems form in caves from mineral saturated water slowly dripping, evaporating, and leaving the minerals behind, as years go by, the minerals build up into beautiful and stunning natural rock formations that motivate many people to explore deep into the earth just to get a picture. My littles and I decided to just simulate this in our basement, maybe when their older we could try some actual Spelunking.
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October 8th Day #1
October 8th Day #1
We mixed some Epsom Salts in warm water, we kept stirring the Epsom Salt into the water until no more would dissolve. Then we divided the water between two canning jars, wet a cotton string in the water, and suspended it between the jars. We put a saucer in between the two jars, and sprinkled a few grains of salt on the saucer directly below the string. Here is what it looked like when we were done:
Now, here is a close up of the saucer. As you can see there is a little salt on the saucer to help get things started, and the water is already starting to drip down on the saucer, but there are no formations growing yet.
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October 9-12 Days 2-5
Then we waited, and waited. We checked each day for next four days, there was virtually no change. Oh sure, the puddle of water on the saucer got a little bigger, but that was it. There was nothing worth taking a picture of. So instead of a picture I will just post this:
And we will pretend that he is a spelunker who has gotten himself into an uncomfortable position.
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October 13 Day 6
Well, by the time we got to Day 6 and still had seen no changes. The littles and I were getting a little worried that nothing would happen. I went downstairs that day with no expectations at all. Surprise, Surprise! Look at what we found!
In case that just looks a puddle to you, let me tell you that if you look closely you will see CRYSTALS growing! Here is a close-up, so you can see them better:
Okay, so you are probably not as excited by this as I was, just imagine that you have been checking on this every day for six days and nothing happened until now!
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October 14 Day 7
October 14 Day 7
Just one day later, and we had a little "bump" on our saucer:
Here is a closer view of our "bump".
Now I know some of you might be thinking that what you see is a stalagmite, and you are correct that it is sort of a cultured one. However, my littles and I quickly came to prefer the much more technical term of "bump".
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October 15 Day 8
The bump is continuing to grow, (Oh no! Its alive! Its alive!---just kidding.)
We took three pictures of it that day. Here they are:
I took the picture at three different angles to try and show how this thing was really shaped, but I am afraid that the pictures don't really do it justice.
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October 16 Day 9
Here is how it looked:
In this bottom photo you will notice that the top looks a little misshapen. Actually it was fairly smooth, but a drop of water had just landed on it, and for a short while it looked like this:
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October 17 Day 10 The Final Day.... or is it?
Now, the book said to run this experiment for ten days. So here is what our stalagmite (a.k.a. "the bump") looked like on day ten.
Now here is where we ran into a problem, my kids seem to think of this thing as their new "pet"! So they did not want to "do away with it" just yet. I plan to take the next photo on day twenty, (October 27th). I will take no pictures between now and then, so the next time I post about this we will get to see how much change took place over ten more days.
So until then... who knows what kind of rambling I'll be posting?
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