Meet Fernando our American Green Tree Frog!

Meet Fernando, our green tree frog!

While swimming in our pool this week, Madison and I made a fantastic discovery. There was a tree frog hanging out on the side of the pool. We proceeded to watch it during the course of our swim as it made its way to a nearby umbrella pole. It leaped with great precision.

Green Tree Frog

We continued to watch the little green frog move about, and we were quite astounded when he made a downward leap towards an extension cord coming off our back patio that was almost  6 foot. It was absolutely amazing how it had such accurate precision. Soon the frog was near the patio and wedged itself into a very small crevice as though it was hiding.


That began our fascination with Fernando. When we originally found him, he looked something like this. (Note, this is a web image, I did not actually take any photos of the frog in the beginning.)

This began a bit of a science quest. We decided to catch the little frog and see if we could make it a descent habitat.




Madison and I did some research to find out exactly what kind of frog it was,  the various things this frog would need: air, food, water and plants. We determined that it was an American Tree Frog and its scientific name was Hyla cinerea. We also tried to tell what sex the frog was, we determined by the size of it's ears that it was likely a female. After assembling the various items to create a new habitat, this is how it looked.

The next step wold be collecting bugs for it to eat. The first day, Madison could catch the bugs anyway possible. It took a while, but she finally managed to scrape up a few ants.

The next day, I asked her if she could figure out a better way to catch the bugs. After some research on line, we decided to catch some bugs using a 2 liter bottle bug trap. Pictured below.

2 Liter Bug Trap

The bug trap worked great, but the bait we put in it was a slice of orange. This only attracted ants. We really wanted some crickets. This led to more research. We determined that we needed to change our bait. 

Crickets are omnivorous, so they eat both plants and meat,  so we tried pepperoni. It worked! After only a few ours we had a happy little cricket to feed Fernando. 

We noticed that the pepperoni was looking a little gross, we decided to try peanut butter. It worked too! 

We were well on our way to providing a stable meal for our new pet! 

After 5 days of observing our frog, we noticed that our frog change color! Fernando was now a very dark shade of green. I knew that frogs could change color, but I didn't realize that she would change so dramatically! We needed to do more research! After digging around the internet, we came to two conclusions; the frog was either stressed, or it was changing to blend with its surroundings.

Day 5 - Fernando the Frog

After some deliberation, we decided that if we were stressing the frog, it would not be worth keeping it. We still didn't want to let the frog go, but instead we would let Fernando decide. We removed the lid, and waited patiently for the frog to make its choice. After a few hours, we finally found that Fernando wanted her freedom. 

What's is a cell?

What's in a cell?

A cell is the basic unit of all living things.

In Madison's 4th grade science we have been exploring the properties of cells.

Not only do I want Madison to know what a cell is, but what a cell is composed of and also the different functions that the each of the individual parts of a cell does.

So this brought us to today's fun science project:

Creating a Model of a Plant Cell and an Animal Cell. 

Obviously, this was a very fun project, and one that she could take pride in.

For each model we used Jello for the base, and candies for the parts of the cell. We then combine it with labels to identify the various parts. A very yummy science lesson. :)

Begining Robotics

For Christmas Madison received a beginning robotics kit called the Co-bot. (Jr. Scientist - Tumbling Robot)
This kit was surprisingly awesome, and a great learning kit for her.

For the price point ($32.95), this is a fantastic robot!!! My 7yr old and I put it together following the directions. For us the directions were easy to follow and it was nice that there were not too many little pieces to deal with. She put the majority of it together herself (Note: the switch was hard for my 7yr old to turn off. ) The manual was excellent in direction, and also an excellent tool with bonus material written in it about understanding how gears work, how sensors work, and general robot motion. I would highly recommend for the beginning engineer/ robotic fanatics.

Another great thing about this kit is that it can be taken apart and put back together again, so once you are done with it it can be a great tool for learning how it works, fixing it and general mechanics.

The scientific method - What would be the best way to keep a Banana?

I've been trying to figure out a way to best teach Madison about the scientific method. This is what I've come up with. :)

Madison wanted to know what would happen if you put fruit like a banana in an air tight container. Would it still rot? Good question, one that I didn't know the answer too. Madison and I have designed an experiment to find out the best way to keep a banana. Following the scientific method we will soon answer this question.

Day 1 - (experiment started 12- 31-14)

Purpose: If you put fruit like a banana in an air tight container. Would it still rot? This was our original question. After analyzing for a while and deciding on our experiment method we decided to change the question to: What is the best way to store a banana?

Research: How can we set up an experiment that will answer this question. Based on our research we decided the best method would be to use a vacuum sealer, and possibly Oxygen absorbers.


Hypothesis: (an educated guess) - Madison had observed that the cloth stockings we use for Christmas were always stored in air tight containers. I explained that we did this to keep it from dry rotting. This is what initiated her original question,  "What would happen if you put fruit like a banana in an air tight container?" Based off of her initial research she decided that her Hypothesis would be that the banana would not rot as quickly when it was vacuum sealed. After discussing the experiment a little further we decided that we should also use oxygen absorbers.

Experiment: We discussed how using a control will help us to establish the standard of comparison in scientific experimentation. We decided to use one banana that had nothing done to it. The experiment was set up to use the following bananas in the conditions below.
a) Control Banana- nothing has been done to it
b) Saran wrapped stem
c) Sealed in a bag
d) Vacuum-sealed in a bag
e) Vacuum sealed in a bag with oxygen absorbers
f) Sealed in a bag with oxygen absorbers

Analysis: Recording our data. We recorded this part on paper with a chart marking the brownness & firmness of all the Bananas. Over the course of all 6 days we found that the sealed bananas showed less browning, but they also became squishier over the days. There was gasses produced & trapped in all for of the sealed banana bags.

Conclusion: Although from this pic it is hard to tell the actual results of our experiment. Here's what we learned: Sealing and Vacuum Sealing the bananas did help to keep the banana skins from going brown the longest, but that did not keep the bananas fresh. Infact the sealed bagged bananas seemed to rot from the inside out, they were quite squishy and produced a lot of smelly gasses. So even though they initially looked better, they weren't.

The only 2 bananas that I would consider still edible were the (a) control &  (b) the saran wrapped stem banana. In this pic you can see the difference that the Saran wrap had on the banana's stem.

So, to answer our original questions:
If you put fruit like a banana in an air tight container. Would it still rot? Yes, bananas will still produce gasses & even though the outside would not turn brown as quick. They definitely still rotted. They actually rotted faster only from the inside out.
What is the best way to store a banana? Our experiment showed that the best way to store a banana is either leaving it alone or by saran wrapping the stem.

Note: we could expand this experiment to compare Saran Wrapped vs. Control, but I think we will save that project for another day. :)