Explore with FractalMom: Water Drops, Oceans, Planets and Galaxies
Explore the scales of the Universe, from inside a water droplet to whole galaxies.
Karen Fisher Favret the FractalMom
Average rating:
4.7
Number of reviews:(178)
What's included
1 live meeting
45 mins in-class hours per weekClass Experience
US Grade Kindergarten - 3
Designed to encourage learners to explore their own world, outside and inside, this class will combine simple experiments, local observation, and optional Citizen Science opportunities helping classify galaxies on Galaxy Zoo, or observing local biodiversity on iNaturalist. We will see how many water droplets will fit on a penny, calculate how many tiny plant plankton would fit in each drop of water, figure out how deep the oceans are compared to our street, across town, or maybe beyond, and then head out to do a 1000 meter (or yard) planet walk (Sun is a Basketball, Earth is a Peppercorn, Jupiter is a Marshmallow) on our own after practicing during class with a 10 meter version (Earth as a slice of a grain of rice). We will use resources from NASA to answer learner's questions about the solar system, and then head out to the edge of the galaxy. We will talk about different types of Galaxies, and figure out how big and far away they are, compared to our planet walk!
Other Details
Parental Guidance
I will encourage learners to think critically, and get involved in Citizen Science to increase our understanding of how our world works!
Supply List
Handouts will be provided to allow students to follow the experiments, demonstrations, or data analysis that we do in class. For learners to do the basic physics experiments at home, they will need (depending on the week) two empty spaghetti-sauce sized jars, tap water (warm and cold), ice cubes, salt, and liquid food coloring (usually found in four packs in the baking aisle at supermarkets) some pennies or dimes, and a small eyedropper/pipette for making water droplets. For scaling the solar system, we will need: 1 basketball sized ball (Sun), 3 pinhead-sized planets (Mercury, Venus, Pluto, I usually use the little round multi-colored sprinkle candies from the baking aisle), 2 whole peppercorns (Earth and Mars), and three regular-sized marshmallows (1 for Jupiter, 1 squished small for Saturn, and one broken in halves for Uranus and Neptune).
External Resources
In addition to the Outschool classroom, this class uses:
Joined February, 2019
4.7
178reviews
Teacher expertise and credentials
Doctoral Degree in Science from Cornell University
I am an Oceangrapher-Mom who switched to soundscape ecology when my kids were young and we moved to Montreal. My kids and I started recording with a hydrophone in the lake and a recorder on a floating dock at the University of Montreal's Biological research station, and kept on listening in our backyard and the roof of their school. I have worked with marine biologists, fishermen, fisheries managers, ship captains, environmentalists, and all sorts of oceanographers (physical, chemical, biological, geological). As a team, we have looked at how plankton dynamics are affected by ocean currents, how fisheries respond to climactic changes in circulation, and how whales and dolphins respond to our research efforts in their homes. I am teaching these classes because the world needs citizen scientists who can think critically about how our world is changing, and find new ways to communicate, innovate, and compensate.Reviews
Live Group Class
$12
weekly1x per week
45 min
Completed by 590 learners
Live video meetings
Ages: 5-9
3-9 learners per class
