A potato is a tuber.     A tuber is a plant structure which saves energy for the parent plant; tubers can also be used for vegetative reproduction by most plant species which form tubers. This differentiates tubers from roots; roots are capable of taking up energy, but they cannot store it, and they also cannot be used for propagation. Many cultures eat tubers, because of their stored energy and dense, fleshy texture. The best-known example of an edible tuber may be the potato, a South American plant which has been cultivated for food for thousands of years.

There are two forms of tubers: stem tubers, and root tubers. Stem tubers form from underground stems known as rhizomes; potatoes and begonias are both stem tubers. Stem tubers are closely related to corms like cassava, which form when the stems of their parent plants swell. Root tubers are formed when sections of the root swell and bud; cassavas and dahlias are two familiar examples.

A sweet potato vine is easy to grow.  Take it home and  set the potato where it will get lots of sun and wait for it to grow. Normally within just days you’ll begin to notice shoots starting to grow from the potato.

Within a week or so there should be roots growing down into the water and you should have more shoots growing up out of the potato. It’s a good idea to change the water about once per week, stale water might start attracting gnats or other insects.

You can actually just keep the vine growing in water, but if you want you can transplant it into soil after about three weeks. Just carefully remove the potato, remove the toothpicks and plant it in a pot that is large enough to completely bury the potato.

You’ll be really surprised at what a beautiful house plant a sweet potato can become. With it’s purple colored stems and leaves mixed with green it’s a really pretty vine

A balloon is an inflatable flexible bag filled with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen, or air. Modern balloons can be made from materials such as rubber, latex, polychloroprene, or a nylon fabric, while some early balloons were made of dried animal bladders, such as the pig bladder.[1] Some balloons are used for decorative purposes, while others are used for practical purposes such as meteorology, medical treatment, military defense, or transportation. A balloon's properties, including its low density and low cost, have led to a wide range of applications. The inventor of the rubber balloon, (the most common balloon) was Michael Faraday in 1824, via experiments with various gases.


The concept behind the Balloon Powered Car is pretty simple, but that doesn't make it any less impressive! When you blow up the balloon, set your racer down, and let it go, escaping air from the balloon rushes out of the straw causing propulsion. The principle at work is Newton's Third Law of Motion, which states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. In the case of the Balloon Powered Car, the action is the air rushing from the straw. The reaction is the movement of the car!   The moving Balloon Powered Car has kinetic energy, but even an object that isn't moving has energy. This energy is called potential energy. The potential energy of the car is in the elastic material of the balloon. As the balloon fills with air, it builds more potential energy. As the air flows from the balloon, it changes to kinetic energy. This is the conservation of energy. The baloon helicopter works in the same way but doesn't have to contend with friction of the table.

Ladybugs are beetles  They love to eat apids.  The release should be made in the evening, just before dark. Ladybugs will not fly in the dark, or at least most of them won't. On warm to hot nights I have found it best to cool the bugs off with about 30 minutes in the refrigerator. This really slows them down and makes controlling them a lot easier, but only for a few minutes. With a minimum amount of a food supply, the ladybugs will stick around and lay eggs for the remainder of the season. Ladybugs must have a supply of Aphids and access to plant pollen for them to lay eggs that are fertile, a lot of Aphids will result in a lot of eggs. I have found that some ladybugs will settle right into their new enviroment and will stay the whole season while others will be there one day and the next they are gone. I have found that there are some types of enviroments they prefer over others but one thing they seem to thrive on is access to a sunny location that doesn't get too hot that they can gather on and sun themselves. While you are waiting for the sun to go down, lightly water the release area, this will cool everything down and give the bugs water to drink. So, you wait until it is almost dark, get the bugs out of the refrigerator and open the container. . Next morning, they may be hard to find but most of them should be there. When they are spread out it doesn't look like there are many bugs, but keep looking and you will eventually get your eyes tuned into seeing them. Now, leave them alone for a few days. Check on them in a few days and see how they are doing, they should have eliminated a lot of aphids or whatever the pest of the week is. Looking around, you should see two or three ladybugs every one to two square feet, maybe a few clusters of the pests with ladybugs eyeballing them for their next meal and an occassional solitary pest here and there. If you don't see any pests, there were too many ladybugs, if you don't see any pests or ladybugs, there were way too many ladybugs, if you see a lot of pests but no ladybugs there were not enough ladybugs or maybe too many pests.    if you would like to keep a couple in your container for a week or so, feed them raisens that have been soaked in water and chopped.

We'll have fun ahead building a toy that didn't begin as a toy. In ancient times, giant catapults were used as weapons to hurl stones and other dangerous objects across great distances toward an enemy. For your enjoyment we are creating a fun-filled and peaceful toy for you and friends.
Your project, a toy catapult, is based on a small Chinese skill toy that originally launched a hard wooden ball between two cups. Measuring two feet long, this catapult project is much larger than the original toy and uses safe, soft, puff balls as its projectile. Background Information: Catapults use projectile motion to move objects across distances.
A couple of factors can affect the distance an object can be launched, such as the mass of the object, and the amount of force used to move the object.
Force - a push or pull. A force can make something start moving, stop moving, or make change direction.
Work – work is done when we use a force (a push or pull) to move something over a distance.
Energy - the ability to do work. If I have no energy, I can’t use force to make something move!
• There are two different kinds of energy
 Kinetic Energy – the energy of motion.
Potential Energy – is stored energy – it has “potential” to do something.