We had a very good Camp Fire USA meeting this afternoon. We finished the Fun with Science project of the Trail to the Future with this lesson entitled I Wonder Why. This lesson was a mis-match of several simple experiments that the kids really enjoyed.
We started out doing an activity using a small jar half filled with water and half filled with cooking oil. We talked about how the oil is lighter than the water, and since it doesn’t mix with the water, it floats on top. We then added a couple drops of food coloring, and that proved to be very interesting! The food coloring did not immediately sink to the bottom, but kind of hesitated between the layers of water and oil. We shook it up and then watched what happened. After allowing the mixture to settle for a few minutes, we saw that the food coloring actually separated out of the oil and was only in the water! A pretty cool experiment with a lot of “Wow factor.”
During our meeting, Dan had taken Brock to Webelos. As we were doing the oil/water experiment, we noticed that they had forgotten to take the snacks for Webelos, so we made a quick delivery! This ended up being quite an adventure because Dan realized the missing snacks about the same time that we did, and he headed home to get them the same time that we left to take them there! So, we crossed trails, but eventually everyone and everything ended up in the right place. 
We made homemade “Bubble Stuff” when we got home. I had tried some recipes for this a few years ago and had never found the right mixture. It just never seemed to work quite right. But, the recipe in the Camp Fire USA materials worked very well! So, it is a keeper! Here it is:
1 cup water
1/2 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. liquid detergent
We did a mini-lesson on seeds since our decoupage flower pots are finished. The kids dissected lima beans that had been soaked in water to see the different parts of the seed. This works really well because the seed coat and the embryonic plant are so easily visible in large lima beans. Then we planted flower seeds in our pretty new pots. I sure hope that they grow–the kids would really enjoy that!
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