4Kids.org - Week of March 28, 2010

Week of March 28, 2010

Visit the Featured Web sites to find the answers.

What kind of cream do you need to make ice cream?

Whipping
Half and half
Heavy

What is plasmid?

The fourth state of matter
A piece of bacterial DNA
A dangerous chemical

Who painted “Royal”?

Rebecca Westcott
Jim Torok
Rose Frantzen

Test It Out

The Manitoba Museum's KidScience, www.manitobamuseum.ca/
sg_kidscience.html, encourages you to get your hands dirty with cool science experiments that will have you testing out fascinating theories. Break out a blow dryer, see if you can make a ball and Float on Air. If you wish you could control the weather, then rummage through your kitchen and find two soda bottles. Then make your very own tornado. If all this work has made your belly rumble, whip up some homemade ice cream for a tasty treat that is ready in about 15 minutes.

Nominate a cool Web site at:
4Kids.org/nominations

Get Your Game On

The power of science is waiting for your discovery at GMGame, www.food.gov.uk/
multimedia/flash/gmgame.swf. Learn how scientists take a desirable trait from one item, such as its color, and fuse it with another item to change its physical make up and alter its appearance. While this may sound easy, extracting DNA can be a tough process that requires some serious skill. Play the GM game and piece together a puzzle that will help you understand the complicated workings of DNA genetic modification.

Face to Face

The National Portrait Gallery’s Portraiture Now: Communities, http://npg.si.edu/exhibit/
communities, encourages storytelling through portrait art. These paintings of friends, neighbors and family members are meant to open our eyes to the importance of community. Click on a painting to discover individuals who were captured in time by one of three artists. Maybe this site will inspire you to document in a new way the people who are close to you, and to tell your own story about the people you see.

What is your favorite piece of technology? Why?

Speak Out Here!

Dear Amy: What can energy do? — Branda, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Dear Branda: The word “energy” has been in the news a lot lately, since people are becoming more concerned about how much energy we use and about finding more energy-efficient methods of transportation and powering businesses and homes. One of the ways we can save energy is to use less electricity at home by turning off lights when we leave a room and unplugging appliances when they are not in use. This is an example of conserving electrical energy, which is just one of many types of energy.

All the different forms of energy can be categorized as potential or kinetic energy. Potential energy is stored energy and energy of position, whereas kinetic energy is the energy of motion. Energy can convert between different forms, too. For example, gasoline has chemical energy, a type of potential energy. When gasoline burns, the chemical energy is converted into thermal energy, or heat, a type of kinetic energy. To learn more about energy and its many forms, visit http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/kids/energy.cfm?page=
about_forms_of_energy-forms. Remember to use energy wisely!

—Amy

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