Reptiles Leopard Geckos

Science Project Ideas are sometimes hard to come by. When your child comes home from school usually in January or February and says, hey Mom and Dad my teacher sent home this note that we have a science project due in three weeks. Here are the details of what we need to do and here is a project board.

You suddenly feel overwhelmed. You were just getting back on track from the Holidays and are dealing with beginning of the year issues like tax preparation and finalizing out end of year work issues. Now you have to help your child find a science project that is interesting enough, creative and unusual, but yet unique enough so that it will not be like the other students science projects at school.

Also children have a tendency to rely on their parents to help prepare much of the project. No matter how much we try we have to help in some capacity.

Here is a science project idea that is simple and easy and that you child can do himself or herself. Depending on the age of your child you will need to supervise them because it uses matches which will need to be lit and batteries.

This science project will also be a great demonstration at a science fair where students need to present their idea and information about why it works.

For this science project idea you will need only three things.

A glass

Matches

2 AA Batteries

You are going to tell everyone that water will burn.

Fill the glass with water.

Drop the batteries in the water and leave them in the water for 30-40 minutes.

Remove the batteries.

Now light a match and hold over the water. The water should ignite and burn inside the glass.

Why does the water light and burn? Did the batteries leak or what energy is been put into the water?

Make sure your child researches those questions above to find the answers. I know you probably want the answers but we provide science project ideas. The kids still need to research why something works the way it does. That is why we make them do a science project so they can research and learn.

Get more science project ideas and science projects for your next assignment.

Lesa Bolt is a contributor to http://scienceprojects.fetching.us

Leopard Geckos (Eublepharis macularius) are found in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. They inhabit arid areas. They grow to be around 45-110 grams. Lifespan can be from 10 years to rare documented cases of 20+ years. Males are identified by growing larger and having a more slender body than females. Males can also be sexed by checking the area behind their hind limbs. A noticeable row of preanal pores and a hemipenile bulge.
Housing:Leopard Geckos are nocturnal and will hide most of the day. Being a terrestrial lizard they do not climb glass or walls. A simple set up for housing would be a ten gallon tank with an under the tank heater. Make sure one side of the cage is 90 degrees and the other half is room temp. around 70ish. Provide a few hide spots for the guys. One on the warm and one on the cold side. A hide box (gladeware) with peat moss that is sprayed with water daily also helps with shedding and females laying eggs.

Feeding and water:
Food:Make sure the invertebrates are gut loaded for 24 hours before feeding. Their diet consists of mealworms and crickets. Waxworms, superworms, and newborn mice can also be feed when needed. Make sure to supplement your gecko's diet with vitamin/mineral powder. A jar lid of calcium and vitamin D3 placed in their cage allows them to consume the proper amount. Provide food to babies and juvenile leopard geckos everyday. If you feed crickets remove any crickets that they do not eat. Adults can be feed every other day. If they are breeding make sure females have food available every day.
Water: Provide fresh water to juvenile and babies everyday. Twice a week to adult geckos. To learn more go to my website.

Andrew Watersonwww.leopardgeckopunk.com

What weighs 6.2 tons and is worth more then 3.1 billion dollars? Are your guessing a new high tech battleship or maybe a new stealth fighter? Well it's a big ball of glow in the dark fluorite.

Yemengzhus, also known as Legendary Luminous Pearls in China, are balls of a rare glow in the dark fluorite.

It is very rare in the mineral kingdom for a specimen of Fluorite to glow in the dark without the aid of an Ultra Violet light. So rare in fact the western geology textbooks still do not recognize this species of fluorite.

This new deposit was first reported in the Chinese press in November 1982. Workers at the Guangdong Provincial Geological Metallurgical and Geological Exploration Company found a deposit of Yemengzhu Fluorite in a Tungsten mine in Guangdong China. The company ground the deposit into a round sphere ( Pearl) and had the Chinese government put an appraisal value on it. In 1983 the Chinese government made public an appraisal valuing this Yemengzhu at 900 million dollars.

What I found interesting about this appraisal report is that the government clearly states their reasons and methods for arriving at the $900,000.000 price tag. They compared the pearl to the very best grade of diamonds. This appraisal can be found on the internet.

Since the first Yemengzhu came to the public eye in 1982 there have been several more pearls made, each one larger then the last and with an even bigger price tag. Here are two well documented cases.

January 15, 2002, the world's largest Yemengzhu was put on display in Shenzhen its weight was 14.35 kilograms and had a diameter of 21 cm. This pearl was valued at 1.2 billion U.S. dollars.

Oct. 2007: A new world record holder is put on display in Shanghai. Certified by The World Guinness headquarters. The weight of the Yemengzhu is 6.1 tons and is valued at 3.1 billion U.S. dollars For a rock???

I have found documentation on other smaller pearls coming on the market since 1982. They range from the size of an egg to basketball size. The prices are all over the scale from $64,000 up to $108,000,000.

What makes a six ton rock worth more then a small country? There is actually a lot of debate about that in China right now. National pride and traditions are driving the markets. Every kid in China knows the story of The Legendary Luminous Pearl. It is believed that touching a pearl will bring you great prosperity and good luck The belief has spawned a whole multi million dollar industry making and selling man made Yemengzhus for the home.

There's documentation on the web telling of all the millions that have been made and lost from Yemengzhus. My favorite is one about a Chinese's Supermarket owner who borrowed 70 million dollars from his stock holders to buy a Yemengzhu to display in his chain of stores. When the company went bankrupt they sold the pearl for only 5 million dollars because the market is now cooling off. The owner is no where to be found by the press.

I hope you find this story as fascinating as I do, I am still looking for more documentation on the internet and hope to write a book about why a stone ball is worth $3.2 billion dollars.

You can check out pictures of the Yemengzhus in this story on my website http://www.catnews.org

Please visit my website http://www.catnews.org

It's a large resource page about cat health and dealing with urine and litter box problems.