My Homeschool Science Experiment: Testing a leaf for starch ( 2nd and 3rd attempt )

This is the second attempt:

We did the steps like the 1st attempt, only, we get different results.

This time we use a smaller and weaker leaf, and it looks like the chlorophyll from the leaves are released quite fast! The ethanol is quickly green in a few minutes, not like the tanjung leaf.
The result:

I think we have boiled the leaf too long, not only ridding off the membrane, but also boiling out the startch. The betadine shows that none of thoe two leaves have startch, Or maybe the leaves doesn't have any startch at all. The leaf at the left is as a fresh leaf as a control.

The third attempt:

At the left, it is the vegetable from the refrigerator for a few days. While the leaf at the right is freshly picked from a plant.

These leaves are boiled in a shorter time than the 2nd attempt.
I put those leaves into the test tube with ethanol, and the chlorophyll drained out quicker. It's so green in just a few minutes.

See the green? It is the greenest among all three trials. That means we broke the membrane really well.
 





 The freshly picked leaf contains startch, as the betadine turns black, while the leaf from the fridge contains very little startch.

My Homeschool Science Experiment: Testing a Leaf for Starch (1st attempt)

Yesterday I had an experiment about starch in the leaves. The resource was from my Science Checkpoint textbook.

Materials:
                                                                         
- Bunsen Burner                      
- Beaker                                    
- Forcep                                    
- Leaves (Tanjung leaves)
- Test Tube
- Ethanol
- Plate
- Pincers

Variable:
- Controlled variable: the time used for boiling the leaf
- Independent variable: the bread and the pineapple
- Dependent variable: the starch in the leaf

Steps:

1. Boil a beaker of water on a Bunsen burner.

2.  Put the leaves into the boiling water into the beaker.  This is to break the membrane that protect the startch.
3. After a few minutes, take out the leaves and put them on a plate. Turn off the bunsen burner.

4. Fill the test tube with ethanol.

5. Put the boiled leaves into the test tube. Put the test tube into the hot water in the beaker. Then wait until the green colour from the chlorophyll goes out into the water. The ethanol will boil in the hot water

6. Once you think most of the chlorophyll goes out, take the test tube from the hot water of the beaker, then pour out the water. We have to drain out the chlorophyll to make us easier in checking the colour changing.

7. Take the leaves out, then dip the leaves back into the water in the beaker. This is to soften it.

8. After that drip some iodine over it to see if there's startch in it. If it turns blue black, then it means that part has startch in it. This can be tricky, because not all plants keep their startch in the leaf. And also, for some leaves, if you put it into the water again, the startch might be washed awaye.

These are the materials. The pineapple and bread are the parameter colour (bread for starch and pineapple for non starch)

Dripping betadine into the pineapple and bread. We don't have iodine, so we use betadine, as betadine has more than enough iodine.

See? The bread shows black colour, means that was consisted of starch, but the pineapple still shows the betadine colour, because pineapple doesn't have any startch.


The first trial:

First I fill the beaker with water, then turn on the Bunsen burner, puting the beaker on top on it.

Putting the leaves into the boiled water in the bunsen burner, then taking it out after a few minutes, after that I put the leaves onto the plate.

1. Filling the test tube with ethanol
2. Putting the leaves into the test tube.
3. Putting the test tube into the beaker of hot water, then taking it out again.


This is the closer look of how it looked like. The water is starting to become green.

Pour the water filled with chlorophyll out into a container, then I take out the leaves from the test tube and put it back into the boiling water in the beaker.



Putting back the leaves into the beaker.

After I dripped the betadine onto the leaf,it didn't show any colour change, because the membrane is still too strong and blocks the startch from showing itself. We need to boil it much longer.

Conclusion: We fail for the first attempt because the leaf's membrane from this leaf is too strong, and we don't boil it long enough. The boiling process in ethanol also failed in draining  the chlorophyl out  (we can see the leaf was so green instead of yellow or pale green).
We have to redo the experiment.

The Pathenon Part 1: Why Is The Land Called Athens, and the Story of the Pictures On the Parthenon Roof.

I learned about ancient history from various of MOOC, which are Khan Academy, Coursera, and edX. From Khan Academy, I learned about the Pathenon. And I'd like to share some of my knowledge about the Parthenon in this blog.

These pictures are from the internet, because I've never been to Greece.The Parthenon was built in Athens, Greece, and the picture above is how it should look like. It's the replica. But the real one is like this:

http://www.shunya.net/Text/Herodotus/images/Parthenon.jpg

I'll write The Parthenon in some parts, and this is the introduction. The Parthenon is a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena, who is the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civillization, law and justice, mathematics, strength, war strategy, and arts and crafts. And they dedicated this temple to her, and named the land Athens. This is how the myth goes, Poseidon and Athena wanted that land, which was previously named Attica, and the people didn't know which to choose. Poseidon is the god of the seas. So each god decided to give the citizens a gift, and the citizens were to choose which gift they liked, and then the god or goddess who mad that gift will be picked. Poseidon gave them a well which was filled with saltwater and would make them win any battle on sea. But Athena gave them an olive tree, and they could eat its fruit, they could use its wood for firewood, and they could use the oil for the light. So the citizens chose her, and they made this temple for her.

Inside the temple, there's a giant gold Athena statue, but now it's gone because of wars, earthquake, and other things. At the top of the roof, there are pictures of Athena and Poseidon fighting. 

https://slowpainting.wordpress.com/2009/06/28/parthenon-and-color/

Athena is at the left side, and Poseidon is at the right side. The roof is a replica too. And below is the replica of the gold statue of Athena:

http://www.nashville.gov/Parks-and-Recreation/Parthenon/Athena.aspx

And that's the end of Part 1. Thank you for reading.


To be continued.

Graduation!

I graduated from Blossom International Primary School on June 27th, 2015. These pictures were taken before the graduation procession. Well, half an hour before the graduation procession.

Me in my graduation gown

On stage with my mom.

                                                                     

        My homeroom teacher and I. Although we had our graduation, we still had our year end performance. Primary 6's dance theme was K-pop. He helped us in choosing the dance choreography.

After the occasion finished, we were asked to dance K-pop again because Daai TV wanted to record us. After that we took photos with our teachers that played important roles in our school life. This is the picture with our principal, Ms. Shelly, who's the coolest principal ever!

My Turtle's Shell

One of my turtle, Novie, shed her shell last month, and I found the debris of the shell in the pond. At first, before I noticed that Novie is actually shedding her shell, I saw that her shell looks like it's nearly chipped and that she had her sunbath more often than usual, as she loved to stay in the water. Sam's shell did looked like it's nearly chipped too, and she had her sunbath more often than before, but until now, her shell isn't off yet, I just found some small pieces in the water that could have been hers. And the small pieces looked like they came from the side shell of Sam, but I haven't investigate it yet. In Novie's shell, the two shells of the front part of the shell were seperated from the others, for the shell is fragile, it can easily broke. My dad joked that I can sell the shell, for he said it looks like the face of  Transformers' autobot, and we could earn money from that. Well, it's very funny! And here's the picture of Novie's shell:

And here's the picture of me holding the mask to my face, pretending to wear it (like my father says)

 

Did I look like autobot?

The Arrival Of Two New Turtles In My House

My mother's friend met a person in Ancol who didn't want to keep their turtles anymore, and they wanted to release their turtles in a swamp in Ancol. Of course their turtles cannot survive in the swamp because they are used to being fed and it means that they cannot find their own food. Those two turtles are bigger than my three turtles. My mother's friend asked my mother if I wanted to adopt them and I said yes, because my mother's friend doesn't like the look of their head; they look like snakes. Of course they looked like snakes because they're reptiles, the same like the turtles. I named the biggest one Novie, because she came on November, and the smaller one Emma.

 

From those turtles, I can learn that they have different personalities.

Sam / Samantha: kind, cheerful, friendly, and doesn't like to attack other turtles.

Sol / Solann : likes to attack, has difficulties in making friends, and fierce.                                    

                                                                                                                                                      means sunshine but rarely used.    

At first I thought that those two turtles are male, so I named both of them male names (except Sol, because she's naughty, and I just gave her a not really good name that popped the first into my mind ).

Rainy: likes to play, and can spot things easily.

    

She arrived at my house when it was raining. I adopt it from school, because my school only gave her a small aquarium to live in and with a small space like that she cannot grow well.

Novie: always stays cool and calm, and has no difficulties in making friends.                                                    

Emma: always feels shy with new turtles. While the other turtles play (of course without Sol ), she'll stay alone in the corner. If she's with Novie,she's fine, but with Sam, Sol, and Rainy, she's still shy, although it's less now.

Even if they're the same species, my mom and I noticed that Sam, Emma, and Rainy have slanted eyes, while Novie and Sol have round eyes.

My Writing That Was Chosen By Meddybemps

I want to tell you that when I was 6 years old my story was chosen by Meddybemps. I got a T-shirt, a statement that my story was chosen, and my story back. I wrote the story when I was 5 years old. The story was about a rabbit named Edgar who went to outer space with his friend in a spaceship. My mom sent it to Meddybemps and a few months later I was told that my story was chosen. Here is the picture:

My school principal said that I should stick the t-shirt on the wall, and put my story and statement in one frame, and hang it on the wall. You can read my story here.