Science TNT

Self-care is the most effective cure for mononucleosis. This medical problem is also called ‘mono’. It is a viral infection that usually goes away on its own. However, you can help it on its way by getting lots of bed rest and looking after yourself properly. It is caused by the Epstein Barr Virus (EBV) and is most common in teenagers and young adults.

It can occur in children but, because the symptoms are less severe, it often goes undetected. It is not likely to affect older adults because their immune systems have developed immunity over time. Mono has also been termed the ‘kissing’ disease as it can be contracted by kissing. It is also spread through throat and nose mucus, tears, and saliva.

If you think you have mononucleosis, don’t kiss anyone and don’t share toothbrushes, glasses, plates, or food utensils. When you recover, the symptoms will never return but the virus will still live in your system. This means that other people can still be infected. The typical symptoms associated with this condition are fatigue, swollen glands, weakness, sore tonsils, sore throat, and high fever. These usually begin 1 to 2 months after contact with the virus.

Mononucleosis may cause the spleen to swell and even burst. An indication of a ruptured spleen is a severe pain in the left side of the upper abdomen. If this type of pain is experienced, contact a medical doctor immediately.

As mentioned, self-care is the only real cure for mono. The patient should get plenty of bed rest – this means staying away from school or work until fully recovered. Gargling with salt and warm water, or sucking lozenges, can soothe a sore throat. Some medications containing aspirin, acetaminophen, and ibuprofen can reduce fever and relieve headaches. If the spleen, tonsils, or throat swell, corticosteroids may help.

An antibiotic cannot work because mononucleosis is a viral infection. Only if a secondary bacterial infection develops, will a doctor prescribe an antibiotic. Examples are a respiratory infection, an ear infection, or strep throat. Avoid playing sport and lifting heavy objects. Strain, impact, and over-exertion can easily cause a swollen spleen to rupture. In addition, exhaustion will occur and hinder the immune system’s ability to fight the virus.

Drink plenty of fresh juice and water to help your body get rid of toxins. Increase your daily intake of magnesium, potassium, and calcium by taking a supplement. These minerals boost the system’s defences against infection. To strengthen the immune system, use a supplement that has a high content of Vitamins A, B-complex, C, and E. Avoid red meat, processed foods, and saturated fats.

To prevent your immune system from weakening, do not eat from junk foods. Echinacea and astragalus are helpful herbs that can be obtained in the form of capsules, teas, or tinctures. Dandelion, thistle herbs, and milk can prevent mono from affecting the liver. These self-care recommendations should not be considered as a cure for mononucleosis. They can, however, relieve the symptoms and hasten recovery.

Frog Habit, bug habitat, worm farm, butterfly house, salamander and craw fish observatory, you name it your child will discover it all with the Childbrite Science Center. Teach your child about metamorphosis by showing him in real time the development of a caterpillar or a tadpole. Turn your Science Center into a little green house and teach your child about how plants grow. They can even watch as the roots grow from underneath the clear plastic base.

Frog habitats are fun. And most children, at some point, will catch a frog or tadpole and try to keep it, with or without your permission. They will probably find a bucket, hide it in their little fort in the woods, try to feed it and care for it until the next adventure presents itself. You can imagine the frog dismay when he realizes he has been forgotten about. The Childbrite Science Center offers a safe supervised environment for the frog, where your child can learn about what a frog or tadpole actually eats. Perhaps your child might even come to understand that even though they might have found their frog in the water, he does actually need some solid ground to rest on.

Worm Farms are a great use of the Childbrite Science Center. First of all worms are really easy to take care of. You can feed them pretty much anything, old fruit, vegetables, dead leaves even egg shells, paper, banana peals, the list goes on. I dont, however, recommend meat it tends to stink. Kids love to watch the icky worms slithering through the dirt. They might ask questions like, how do worms move without any legs? Or, how do they see without any eyes? Do your homework before you choose your creature to observe or science project. Your kids already think you are supper smart and this is your chance to show off. Another great thing about worms is the fact that they live under ground. This leaves room for another science adventure on the surface. Watch your worms crawl through the roots of your bean plant experiment or just bring life to the bottom half of the aquarium in your beetle observatory.

The most classic use of the Childbrite Science Center is the Butterfly Habitat Experience. This project can bring a lot of fun creatures together. You have dirt with worms in it, plants with vegetables growing form them, and a caterpillar eating the leaves. Your child will be captivated by the caterpillar chomping on so many leaves, mesmerized when it covers itself with a cocoon, and imagine your childs excitement when they see the butterfly for the first time after your were right along side of them explaining how metamorphosis works. The best part of this whole process is trying to get them to say metamorphosis.

Take your kids for a hike and explore the world and the creatures in it. Children have the gift of wonder and awe and when they are still small, we are lucky as parents to be able to share their experiences with them. Finding the creature to be observed is half the fun. The Childbrite Science Center is only meant to enhance this experience you had with your kids and to take it one step farther. When they wake up in the morning and the first thing they do is check their worms, you know that the experience they had with you will stay with them. This is the joy of the Childbrite Science Center.

Many varieties of gender prediction tests have used throughout history in an attempt to determine the which sex a baby will be when it is born. The lion’s share of these tests have no scientific basis and can be categorized as mythical, other tests are based on science and involve modern medical techniques to predict the gender of an unborn baby.

A medical test called amniocentesis is the most reliable of all gender prediction tests, but since it is an invasive test it is rarely used to solely determine the sex of a baby. During this test a small amount of amniotic fluid is withdrawn from the uterus by a long thin needle inserted through the woman’s abdomen under ultrasound guidance. An amniocentesis is primarily used to detect certain birth defects for women in high-risk categories. Determining the gender of a baby with this test is extremely accurate.

The most widely used medical test used to help discover a baby’s gender is the ultrasound which uses sound waves to produce a black and white image of the fetus. For gender prediction, the ultrasound can be used between 18 and 20 weeks, however, it is not 100 percent accurate because results depend on the position of the fetus and the quality of the image.

Other baby gender prediction tests have been developed to use at home that are based on a chemical reaction of the pregnant’s woman’s first urine of the day and can be performed as early as 10 weeks into the pregnancy with an accuracy rate between 80 and 90 percent. Other home test are blood-based and are not as accurate, and many of these blood tests have been found to have no scientic basis.

Old wive’s tales of gender prediction may have some anecdotal success, but are more approriate for baby showers than actually basing the color of a baby’s room. Here are a few:

If the hair on the woman’s legs grows faster during pregnancy, it’s a boy.
Girls are carried high, and boys are carried low.
Colder feet during pregnancy indicates a male child.
Refusing to eat the heel of a loaf of bread means you are having a girl.
If the father-to-be gains weight along with the mother, she will have a boy.
If the maternal grandmother has gray hair, the baby will be male..
Morning sickness early in pregnancy indicates a girl.
If the sum of the mother’s age at conception and the number of the month of conception is an odd number, the baby will be a girl.
If there is a craving for sweets the baby’s gender will be female.

Then there is the centuries-old Chinese Baby Gender Chart that uses mother’s Chinese age at conception along with the Chinese lunar month of conception to predict the gender of the baby. The claims of the accuracy of this range from 50 percent to 99 percent, but few actual studies have been completed.

It seems that to get the most reliable prediction of a baby’s gender is to wait until the he or she comes out of the birth canal. Only then can you fully separate the science from the myth.

Are your children naturally curious? Do they wonder how things work? Do they marvel at the stars and moon? Are they the hands-on type that are always taking things apart and putting them back together?

To some parents, such habits may seem annoying, but kids who show a keen interest in acquiring scientific knowledge early in life eventually become intelligent, inquisitive teens and adults who don’t take a simple “yes” or “no” for an answer. Their curious minds will take them far!

Science for kids can be wonderfully fascinating! What child doesn’t love performing experiments or building models during science class or for the school science fair? Parents should remember, however, that science doesn’t have to be limited to the school classroom, and that at-home science activities can go a long way in keeping a child interested in the world around him. Truth is, kids can enjoy science just about anywhere, as long as parents are eager to guide.

Science at Home

The National Science Foundation says that parents are their kid’s first science teachers. They also point out that you don’t need to be an expert in the subject because science for kids is everywhere, including inside your home and out in your backyard. You need only point out the wonders of everyday science to your kids to keep them interested.

Remember, science is all about observing, exploring, and testing, and even the youngest children can be involved in these three tasks. Here are a few examples of everyday science-related activities you can enjoy with your child.

– Go for a walk and take along a magnifying glass. Stop to pick up some interesting natural objects along the way such as flowers, a few blades of grass, rocks or stones, and even insects. Look at them with the magnifying glass and allow your child to tell you what they see. This teaches them to be good observers. If you find an object or creature that really intrigues your child, look it up on the internet or in a book when you return home and gather more information. Or better yet, look at the object under a microscope.

– Let your child help you cook. All sorts of wonderful scientific processes happen at the stove! Talk about boiling water, melting butter, caramelization, or how mixtures change when they are baked. These things may be commonplace to you, but to a child, they’re fascinating!

– Track the phases of the moon. Look for the constellations that appear during various seasons. Viewing the sky is an easy way to introduce the study of astronomy. A simple, inexpensive telescope further enhances this type of science for kids.

– Does your child have a favorite sport or activity? If it’s baseball, talk about pitching and speed. If it’s cycling, skateboarding, or roller blading, explore how the wheels on their vehicle turn. If it’s football, find out why the ball is shaped that way. How about dancing? Dancers can learn about why stretching is important before dancing and about keeping their body conditioned. The possibilities are endless!

– Build something! Science for kids should involve creativity. Consider making silly putty or play dough, build a periscope, construct a model of the solar system.

You don’t need to wait until the annual school science fair to have fun with science. Just a few spare minutes can keep your child interested for a lifetime.

Science fair projects about alternative energy include: making a solar oven, Hydroelectric power and the depth of water, energy found in peanuts, and energy from biomass

It’s science fair time again and you want to have something unique. If you want to have an impact, you can try focusing on current issues like how to conserve energy, that is through the use of an alternative energy. Here are some science projects that are under that category.

Making a solar oven

Make a solar oven to explain the mechanism of solar energy. You can use a recycled pizza box then cover its bottom part with a black construction paper. Remove 3 sides of the top part to make a flap then cover it with a tin foil, securing it with a tape. Seal a plastic wrap to the remaining hole to prevent air from entering, the prop up to flop to reflect sunlight into the box. After an hour, place somefood items on the solar oven and observe the results after half an hour.

Hydroelectric power and the depth of water

This project does not actually command you to explain hydroelecric energy using a miniature water wheel, but to demonstrate the other, but relevant aspects on it. You can give insights why the water wheels are placed far beneath the surface of the water, perform an experiment which one has more power, the shallow one or the deeper one. Obtain a plastic container, then punch two holes, one on the bottom and the other on the top. Tape it then fill with water. Remove one tape, then measure the distance to which the water is expelled, then do the same to the other one. Compare the results afterwards.

Energy found in peanuts

You can actually produce energy by burning peanuts, in connectiion with the fact that peanuts provide energy for the body once it is digested in the stomach. To perform this experiment, hang a tin can in the air then add some water. Place a burning peanut below it, afterwards mdeermine the increase on temperature of the water brought about by the burning peanut. To make you experiment more interesting, you can try to compare which kind of peanut provides the most energy like contrasting an ordinary raw peanut to a roasted one or some other kind of nut.

Energy from biomass

Biomass is a renewable energy made from decaying organic matter. When this organic material decomposes, it produces a gas called biogas which can be used for energy. You can produce your own biogas using decaying organic matter placed on a bottle. Fill it with distilled water then seal a balloon over the top. The gas is produced once the balloon starts to expand. You can compare different organic materials used to see which one is able to produce the most gas.

Since global warming is now a threat to the enviroment. It is best to find alternative sources of energy. You can earn points for tackling on social and environmental issues by using these project ideas.