A Breath of Fresh Air

While we were on a Look and See Adventure this week (for some reason these never seem to get old to any of us), we came across a big open field with trees lining the back of the field.  It was breathtaking and there was no traffic on the road so we pulled over to admire nature’s beauty for a few minutes.  Briana asked me why there are no trees on the field part and I told her that someone most likely chopped them down.  She wanted to know why someone would cut down a tree so I told her that we make paper and lots of things out of trees.  She followed up by asking why didn’t they cut down all the trees then and make more paper.  I told her that we didn’t want to cut down all of the trees because they give us air to breathe and they give all the little squirrels, that Abby was cooing are “so cute”, some place to live.  As we drove along, Briana kept asking about how and why we breathe trees and I explained to her that we breathe out carbon dioxide and the trees and other plants breathe that in and they breathe out oxygen that we breathe in.   We spent the rest of the drive pointing out things that we were breathing in their oxygen and picking specific plants to receive the carbon dioxide that we were breathing out.   We passed a little pond and Briana asked if mermaids breathe in water or oxygen.  I told her that they probably breathe in both and that they get their oxygen from seaweed and underwater plants.  When we got home, Briana asked if we were going to do “a ‘speriment” about air this week.  I hadn’t planned that for this week, but with toddlers the plans always change. 

So this week we’re going to learn more about the oxygen cycle.

Before I continue, I’m going to do something that I don’t think I’ve ever had to do before – issue a warning.  Here goes – oxygen is highly flammable so you need to be careful with this experiment, especially with toddlers.  I suggest trying it yourself with protective gear before you ever attempt it with the kids.  I tried it in my kitchen while the kids were napping, and the fire alarms were working, before I did it with the kids.

Ok, moving on…

When the kids got up from their naps, the first thing that we do is select safety glasses for everyone.

Once the glasses were on, I open my computer and show the kids a good cartoony image from http://www.copperwiki.org/index.php/Oxygen_Cycle to re-explain the oxygen cycle to them.

We have been talking about breathing in oxygen from plants for days so the kids get it quickly.   I show the picture on my computer and tell the girls (while pointing) that we breathe out carbon dioxide that the plants need to live and plants breathe out oxygen that we need to breathe.  I ask Briana to explain the picture back to me and she has it, except that she says “air” instead of carbon dioxide.  Close enough.  Then I ask Abby to read the picture to us.  Abby says, “Man eats the oxygen and then eats the tree.”  Pretty close.  I repeat the story to her in its entirety and then condense it down to “trees give us oxygen to breathe” for her to remember.

All you need for the experiment is 2 tea candles, a lighter, a plant, and 2 vases of roughly the same size, and a lighter.  If the vases are a little bit different in size, use the larger vase for the candle with leaves (more oxygen that way) like I did. 

We go outside and pick out our plants. 

We tear our plants up and put them under and around the tea light (so they wouldn’t catch fire).  We also have to "sniff in their oxygen".

I explain to the kids that, like us, the candle needs to breathe oxygen to keep its flame.   I then explain that I am going to light the candle and we are going to see which candle has the most oxygen trapped with it, the one with or without the plants.  Briana already “knows” (which I put in quotes to emphasize the know-it-all tone that my 3 year has adopted lately) that the one with the plant has the most oxygen but she is excited to see anyway.  I tell the kids to stand back while I light the two tea lights and trap the air.

I actually took this picture during my trial run because with flames and kids I was not going to be distracted taking pictures.  Plus, I was busy explaining what was going on.  Luckily, both girls had a healthy fear of the flame and didn’t go near it.

Sure enough, the candle without the plants snuffed out a few seconds before the one with the plant.  We repeat the experiment and talk more about it.  Then Bree decides that we need to go back out and try it with a different kind of plant.  We do and the experiment still worked.  Then she wants to see what happens if we put 1 plant in one jar and 3 plants in the other jar.  That time the candles lost their light almost simultaneously and Bree was so excited that they all got to breathe.  I was excited by her scientific curiosity and the fact that she wanted to try many variations on the experiment.  I was also excited that nothing we did caught the house on fire or blew anything up!

After the experiment and it’s clean-up was over, Bree requires that we bring a plant into the house so that we don’t run out of oxygen.  She then proceeds to pull a weed.  That’s fine. 

We then decide to enjoy the summer sunshine and go back out to the backyard for a nice breath of fresh air.

<3 Pedigreed Housewife