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By Mom Unplugged, August 13, 2008 7:45 am

Last week I just flew our new plane from Denver to my Arizona hometown and thought I’d share a few photos of the spectacular scenery over the Rockies. Enjoy!

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By Mom Unplugged, August 11, 2008 7:19 pm

Finally, here is my hot post that disappeared into the ether last night. Thanks so much to Julie K in Taiwan, Angi and Nature Mama for having the brilliant idea of emailing me the post from their Google Readers. That saved me at least an hour of rewriting! I was so down on computers this morning, but this evening I am uplifted by the fact that three people I have never met in “real life” can help me out! Thank you!!! Now, on to the post:

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The theme for this week’s Unplugged Project was hot. Finally, we managed to get back on schedule and do it, although we broke away from our usual craft project and went in a more scientific direction.

While away this summer, I found a number of good books in my Dad’s favorite thrift store (he’s a packrat too). One is called Science Experiments You Can Eat by Vicki Cobb (more about the book at the end of this post). While we were trying to come up with hot ideas, my 7 year-old daughter picked up this book and wanted to choose a food-related project. We decided on Caramel Syrup: Sugar Decomposes from the Kitchen Chemistry chapter.

Older children will find this scientifically interesting and fun to do. Younger kids will enjoy the end result!

The goal of the experiment is to teach about chemical compounds and how they can sometimes be broken down into completely different substances. Although I always liked science in school, I am not a chemist so forgive me if I am not 100% perfect in my description.

Since I am a terminal nerd, I didn’t trust the book’s very simple explanation, and actually researched sugar and how it decomposes. I learned that sugar and its breakdown process is rather complicated. (If the mysteries of caramelization keep you awake at night, then read this.)

I tried to keep it 7 year-old simple and explained to my daughter that sugar is actually carbon and water fused together. When you heat sugar, it breaks down into its original carbon and water elements. I showed her the scientific formula for table sugar (sucrose): C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁ . She already new that H₂O was water and could see that in the formula. After I explained that C meant carbon, she saw the carbon and water in the formula.

Heating the sugar would cause it to become watery (the release of the water) and dark (the carbon). It would no longer really be sugar.

What we needed - sugar, water, a heavy frying pan:

First my daughter poured half a cup of sugar into the frying pan:

We heated the sugar over medium-high heat and my daughter stirred it:

After about 5 to 10 minutes, the sugar started to melt:

As my daughter continued stirring, the sugar melted further and began to darken and become very watery:

Finally it turned “straw-colored” and we had transformed our sugar into a new substance - caramel. We turned off the heat and slowly added half a cup of water in order to create a runny, edible solution. I did the pouring as the caramel was so hot that it steamed and spattered:

The shock-cooled caramel formed a brittle sort of candy-lump that we just had to taste:

My daughter continued stirring the mixture on low heat for about another ten minutes - until the big caramel chunk dissolved into a solution:

This is what we ended up with: a delicious carbon-water mixture that we ate over ice cream!

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If you haven’t heard of Science Experiments You Can Eat and you have scientifically-inclined children (or you homeschool), you might want to check it out of the library. Ours is an old version (1972), but the new one is supposedly revised and updated. I haven’t seen the new one, but our book has the following chapters about the science of food: A Kitchen Laboratory; Solutions; Suspensions, Colloids, and Emulsions; Carbohydrates and Fats; Proteins; Kitchen Chemistry; Plants We Eat; Microbes; and Enzymes.

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If you did this week’s hot Unplugged Project, please put your link in Mr. Linky below so we can all find you. If you didn’t, please read how to join in, and consider doing next week’s project.

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Next week’s Unplugged Project theme will be:

Trees

Have fun!

Comments (11)

By Mom Unplugged, August 11, 2008 7:35 am

Thanks so much to Heather for pointing out that the post I published last night somehow unpublished itself. Half of the post is now missing and I shall have to spend about an hour redoing it. AAGGHHH!!!!

Since my friends and I are doing a baby sitting coop this week and it is my turn to watch 9 (yes NINE) children, I will probably not be posting my project now until tonight (unless I can sneak it in before they all get here today).

Sorry for the difficulties. Don’t you just love computers???

Comments (13)

By Mom Unplugged, July 28, 2008 6:48 am

Hooray! We managed to participate in the Unplugged Project this week! This week’s theme was flat.

My step-mother wanted us to make some “flat” stepping stones for a muddy patch of her garden here in Upstate New York, so I got brave and bought concrete, something I’ve never worked with before.

Our supplies were the smallest available bag of quick-set concrete (40 lbs - ugh!), a bucket that we wouldn’t reuse, a stick to stir, some old shoe boxes for molds, and an assortment of “treasures” - dollar store shells and buttons, glass stones from a garage sale, and pieces of a cereal bowl that we broke by accident earlier in the week:

I mixed the concrete with water in the bucket. My advice: don’t try to mix too much at once. It is VERY hard to stir. Next time instead of trying to dump from a 40 pound bag, I would scoop some powder into the bucket so as to keep the mixture small and manageable. You can do several small batches like this, mix it more easily and thoroughly, and save your arms!

We poured the concrete into the molds and the kids began decorating:

We let them dry in the garage overnight. Tip: to move the now heavy and floppy shoe boxes without bending them and messing up the wet creation I slid a rimless cookie sheet under each one and transported them to the garage without damage.

24 hours later we were able to remove them from the molds. They came out very easily:

And here they are! Aren’t they lovely? My step-mom is thrilled:

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What did you do this week for flat? If you joined in the Unplugged Project this week, please put your link in Mr. Linky below and leave a comment. I am still on vacation (until Wednesday), so I will try to visit, but can’t guarantee.

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The theme for next week’s Unplugged Project is:

Rough

Hope to see you next week!

Comments (9)

By Mom Unplugged, July 21, 2008 6:01 am

Well, I am still away on vacation. Last night I returned to Upstate New York and my children after a week in Florida.

Thanks for all the well wishes and such. I had to leave for Florida suddenly, but not due to any emergency. As some of you know, I am a pilot and we finally decided to buy a new airplane after a 7 year airplane hiatus. The plane was ready a bit earlier than planned and a last minute cancellation opened up an unexpected training slot for me, so I had to rush off to Florida in a hurry.

An intense week of training away from my children meant that yet again, I did not do the Unplugged Project! But I am sure many of you did, so I am putting up the Mr. Linky where you can link to your glass projects.

As I am still on vacation, I may not get around to everyone, but I will try.

Finally, I have noticed from the comments quite a few new comers to the site. Welcome! Normally I try to respond to each comment personally by email, but as I am away, it has been impossible to do that. But I would like to say welcome to Unplug Your Kids and I am so glad that you are enjoying the site!

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The theme for next week’s Unplugged Project will be:

Flat

No promises, but I really hope to be able to join in that one!