The homework for Lesson 1 was concerned with absorption rates as well as the changes that take place in a solid when it absorbs liquid. This part continues with the latter theme.

Ask your child what kind of changes they have noticed when a solid body absorbs some liquid. For example, have they noticed that some objects become easier to tear or lose their strength, that some become harder to break (e.g., dry sticks are easier to snap), some become larger, some change color etc.

Native Americans used absorption and changes due to absorption in different ways -- e.g., making hides softer, make reeds bend more easily to make baskets, absorb plant dyes to color leather, and use charcoal to absorb poison (http://www.the-aps.org/education/k12curric/activities/pdfs/knudson.pdf).

Ask your child to enumerate some of the ways we use absorption (cotton swab/bandaid, washcloth/towel).

Here are 3 simple "activities" which are described in many "science activities for kids" type of books and on the internet. My personal preference among the three is the last one. It is simple and Has worked well each time I tried it. Perhaps the second one may evoke more of a reaction, but I couldn't tell since I never got it to work well. The first is perhaps the least striking but like the third one, it is simple. All three activities are based on the same idea -- expansion after absorption.

1. Take a straw with a paper wrapper (the kind you find at fast-food places) and tear off one end of the paper. Push the paper wrapper down to make it tightly crinckled. Now add a drop of water on the wrapper. The fibers, that are folded in, straighten out when they expand.
2. The same idea is behind the "star" formation with toothpicks that you might have seen in science books for kids or on the internet. If you try it, hopefully you will obtain better results than I did. For a description, please see this page which also has a video clip (now I at least know how it is supposed to look when it works).
3. Draw a flower with a large circular center and petals on regular paper. A wider base for the petals is better. Don't make the petals too long as the next step calls for it to be folded in. (See picture). Color the flower on one side. Next fold the petals towards the center, the colored side should fold in. Place the flower on a bowl of water and see it bloom.

In addition to building on the classroom lesson on absorption, the first homework was designed to emphasize the different aspects of scientific process. You might want to build upon it and discuss with your child that much of science is about "testing hypothesis". That is,

• a scientist has some idea of how something works (theory),
• to confirm whether the theory is valid, the scientist or other scientists think about what will happen if their theory is correct (predictions of the theory),
• scientists design and conduct experiments to see if these predictions are correct,
• if the observations are different from the predicted results, then the scientists have to change their theory to accommodate the new findings.

At this point, you can ask your child what type of paper should be taken and why. You can bring up a "theory": a kind of paper which absorbs one type of liquid well will also absorb other liquids well. Given this theory, you can ask your child which of the 3 types of paper absorbs water best. This gives us a prediction of which will absorb the chemical well.

If we believed in the ALAS (All Liquids are Absorbed the Same) theory, we now know which kind of paper to use. But what if we are not so sure? While we might not know which chemical had been spilled, this theory has the same prediction for that chemical or for oil which is available right there. So now an experiment can be conducted using oil. If the result with oil is in line with the predictions (based on water), you can have more faith in the type of paper that should be sent to soak up the chemical.

Want to continue further? You can bring up an important aspect of scientific process into the discussion. Even if the result with oil is consistent with the predictions of our theory, this does not constitute a proof that the theory is valid. Results consistent with predictions merely give us more faith in the theory. It does not advance the science. Experiments are usually designed with intent of trying to refute a theory. In this sense, "negative" results are very important in scientific inquiry. They give us something to think about (since the theory has been shown to be wrong) unlike the case where we get a positive result (which only confirms what we already believed).