Happy Leap Year Day!! This year, February has 29 days, making it a leap year. But why??

Normally, the month of February has 28 days. Every four years, however, we add an extra day to the calendar, which is today. To better understand this answer, we need some background information about our calendar.

The calendar we use is actually pretty ancient. It was designed to document the Earth's annual trip around the sun through the changing seasons. Over the course of approximately 365 days, the Earth makes one full trip around the sun. The calendar we use today reflects that and is based on observations made by scientists going back to the 11th century in Persia.

Ancient astronomers quickly realized that the Earth doesn't take exactly 365 days to make a full trip around the sun. If one wanted to be more precise, there's an extra six hours to make it official. But what do you do with six hours over a long period of time? Scientists applied math to this problem and came up with the leap year. This is why, every four years, when twenty-fours hours have accumulated, we add an extra day in the month of February.

Simple ingredients plus a head of hair and you have science!

You'll need an empty soda can, a filled balloon, and your hair. Place the can on its side on a table or other flat surface. Rub the balloon back and forth on your hair really fast. This allows you to build up electrons on the balloon. This is called static electricity. Hold the balloon close to the can without actually touching it. The can will start to roll towards the balloon! The electrons on the balloon have the power to pull very light objects (with a positive charge) toward them (like the soda can). Explore what you can make your can do using static electricity and then try the challenges below:

Does the size of the balloon change the power of the pull? Try it again with a very full balloon and one that is mostly empty and compare your results.

Does the length of the persons hair effect the power of the static electricity? Get friends and family members involved in figuring this one out!

How much water can you put in the can until the balloon can’t pull it anymore? Test the strength of static electricity!

It's #ScienceStoryWednesday! Join Ms. Carmen each week for a science-related story. This week we read I Want To Be An Astronaut, by Byron Barton (one of our favorite authors).

Stories from previous weeks can be found here. We hope you enjoy and tune in next week!

As we near the start of our growing season here at the Lab, we've begun to explore creative ways that we can start seeds without purchasing new plastic containers.

For our first experiment, we repurposed old bedding packaging and turned them into mini greenhouses. The packaging had the perfect ingredients- an enclosed plastic container with a convenient zipper on top. Before getting started, we made sure the packaging didn't leak. We added soil, compost from our backyard, and seeds. We filled each mini greenhouse with about 2 inches of soil mix, which is plenty for staring seeds. In  one we planted basil, on the other lettuce. We watered liberally, but not enough to leave puddles (after all, seeds don't swim!). The mini greenhouses were zipped up and placed on a sunny window.


This is when we realized that the container isn't strong enough to stand upright on its own. We incorporated a little engineering to troubleshoot our situation. Using two kebab sticks, we placed them in a crisscross shape in each greenhouse. This provided the needed stability to keep the greenhouses upright. The results below are two weeks later on the lettuce.

What else can you repurpose as a mini greenhouse for starting seeds? How about clear plastic egg containers? There's lots of possibilities! Happy growing!

That clear water bottle you have lying around in your recycling bin can come in handy for some refraction science! Refraction occurs because light bends when it passes through substances, such as water and plastic. With this knowledge, we can conduct a fun and simple exploration which shows us what happens when the light bends as is passes through.

What you'll need:
Clear water bottle (with all paper removed), sticky note, marker, water

What you do:
On the sticky note, draw two arrows, pointing in opposite directions. Make sure you use a dark color marker and that your arrows are big and clear. Stick this onto a wall. Fill the clear water bottle with water, all the way to the top, and screw the cap back on. Gradually move the water-filled bottle in front of the sticky note. As the bottle moves in front of the sticky note, something amazing happens with the arrows! They appear to change direction!