For those of you doing the Story of God With No Hands - here is another follow-up/extension (could be first year, second year, or ANY year) ----
My son asked about the melting points of oils - we make soap with various oils and fats, so this was something he had experience with. Some are solid at room temp and need to be heated; some are liquid already, but go solid in the fridge; and others stay liquid even in the fridge but not in the freezer....
The components of his first oil solid/liquid experiment:
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| some of them... taken before we invested in the big bucket of coconut oil |
- olive oil
- coconut oil
- sunflower oil
- safflower oil
- soybean oil (typical generic "vegetable oil" found in grocery stores; my opinion is reserved)
- canola oil
- peanut oil
- lard
- tallow
- suet
- blubber
- duck fat
- (these last ones - it is amazing what you can get when you call up the butcher at the local grocery store and ask for buckets and fat!)
I won't reveal his results, but I will say that he created a graph for each one; then created a second graph with the solidifying temps in order from lowest to highest. While graphing doesn't seem "explicit" in the AMI elementary Montessori albums, it is there for the economic geography, and should come in naturally in all sorts of extensions and follow-ups! (if it doesn't, introduce a place where it CAN be added ;) ).
