Science projects aren’t usually thought of as a summer activity, but think again. Summer is a terrific time to let your kids have a great time exploring the fascinating world of science. Here are four reasons to add some science fun to lazy summer days.1. Warm weather means you can do those messy projects outside! Whether you’re working with a bottle rocket or foaming baking soda, science projects can be messy. Summer gives you the perfect chance to take those drips, spills and splatters outside. Cleanup is easy with a garden hose – and any stubborn stains will fade in the sun.2. You have time to do the LONG projects. Often, there is a limited amount of time between the time a science project is assigned and the time of the science fair. In the summer, you have a lot of time. You can do time lapse photography on plants. Or you can study how soil erodes over a month of thunderstorms. If a project doesn’t work the first go round, summer also offers a chance for a do over.3. Kids have the chance to do in depth study. With all the other schoolwork and activities that happen during the school year, kids don’t have the opportunity to really explore the subject of their science project. Summer science can include doing variations of the same experiment, reading novels relating to the topic, or taking field trips that will help bring the project to life.4. Projects done in the summer can be saved for the school year. Avoid the last minute crunch for time by doing the science project during the summer. Keep good records, take pictures and video, and save file the science project so you won’t lose it. Then, when science project time rolls around, you’ll just have to add the report!

Before we get lost in our exciting homeschool science experiments, let me teach you some things that air pressure can do. The air around you has weight, and therefore it exerts a force on your skin and on everything around you. This force is called air pressure. When the air pressure on an object is the same from all sides, the object is stationary, but as soon as the air pressure changes a little, the object will move- making it seem like magic.The cool breeze you enjoy at the beach is due to a difference in air pressure. When this difference in air pressure gets greater, it can cause cyclones and tornadoes. In the following homeschool science experiments I will show you that air pressure can do some things that are rather magical and contrary to what you expect.Upside Down Water Glass Trick: Fill a drinking glass with water till it is one-third full. Now place an index card or a cardboard on its mouth. Next, turn the glass upside down while holding the cardboard in place with your left hand. If you now release your hold on the piece of cardboard, what will happen? The obvious answer that comes to our minds is that the cardboard will fall and the water will get spilled all over the place.
 
Now release your left hand, while still holding the glass upside down with your right hand. What happens? Magic! The cardboard refuses to fall, holding the water in the upside down glass- exactly opposite of what you thought! How did this happen?
 
Let me reveal the secret! Remember that the weight of air or air pressure at sea level is almost 15 pounds per square inch (psi). This force of 15 psi is actually pushing the cardboard upwards. Now the weight of the water and air in the glass is pushing the cardboard downwards, but is too weak for the atmospheric pressure of 15 psi. The cardboard piece cannot move upwards, and therefore sticks to the rim of the glass.
 
Now we move on to yet another exciting and mind-boggling homeschool science experiment, shall we?
 
The Ping Pong Ball that Won’t Float: And you thought only you could be stubborn; wait till you see the  ping pong ball in this experiment. Take a funnel with its broad mouth pointing upwards and place a ping pong ball in it. Your goal is to get under the funnel and blow upwards in order to make the ball float. Begin! What happened?
 
Try again! Disappointed aren’t you? The ping pong ball won’t float- exactly the opposite of what you thought. How come?
 
Here’s the answer: When you blow air, it moves at a high speed. Air moving at a high speed just wants to rush by and does not bother to push objects in its path. Therefore there is low air pressure under the ping pong ball. The air pressure above the ball is- you’ve guessed it right- 15 pounds per square inch. This air pressure pushes the ball back into the funnel.

I have been pondering some questions lately that have really got me to thinking about some scientific theories that are really dogmatic and most like are counter intuitive. I say counter intuitive because there are certain questions that science attempts to answer from a very limited perspective. It is limited because science for so long has had a regimental thought process that if an experiment can not be objectively duplicated then it is not viable or valid. No theory that can not be examined with our 5 senses is even entertained. Because of this dogmatic doctrine science ask questions that are counter to common sense. Parts of scientific thought are slowly changing. In part because there are so many theories that it tries to answer that brings up questions that do not fit into its box. One of theories is the big bang and the expansion of the universe. This theory started me to thinking about a number of concepts from a non scientific view point and asking common sense questions.Questioning scienceLet’s examine the big bang theory. Science says that the universe came into existence from what they term a singularity. My understanding is that a singularity is a point in space the size of a pea. The singularity exploded and our universe was born. Because of the explosion our universe has been expanding ever since. Science says it can only account for 10 percent of the matter in the universe. The other 90 percent they have given the name Dark Matter. There are a bazillion questions I could ask about the singularity, the Big Bang and Dark Mater. However, I want to focus on a couple of common sense questions that come to my mind and I am sure the mind of many. The first question would be, what made the singularity explode? Seems to me it was minding it own business and then something came along to change the equation and it exploded! The second question is, where or what is the other 90 percent of the universe or the dark matter? One last question, can the universe really be expanding? The last may not be a common sense question, but we can tackle it. So let’s use a little deductive reasoning to examine these questions. I will have to jump to the spiritual side of things to include forces that science will not.What made the Big Bang bang?What was it that made the singularity explode? Making the assumption that there was ever a singularity I would have to form my hypothesis around the laws of the universe. One of the first teachers of universal law was and Egyptian by the name of Hermes Trismigistus. He stated that the universe originated from the mind of The ALL. In other words the universe came into existence from the mind of what many have called God. Modern science has many proponents of a universal mind one of the is Max Planck. Max Planck, the father of modern physics, in 1944 identified this field as the matrix,” he says that all matter the stuff our world is made of originates and exist by virtue of a force, we must assume behind this force is the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter.” Science says that anything at rest will remain at rest until a force acts on it. The singularity, if it ever existed, was at rest until the consciousness acted on it. I say consciousness because it is a non-physical force that can create. It is eternal. Consciousness is ALL THAT IS/God. Consciousness is forever creating. It created our universe.What is the unaccounted for matter in the universe?The second question is, according to science there is 90 percent of the universe unaccounted for, where is it? Science calls it dark matter. They know it is there but they can not account for it. This is a quandary for science. They can’t account for it because the other 90 percent of the universe is not physical. The dark matter is consciousness. The physical universe exists inside this dark matter or consciousness. Consciousness created the universe. Conventional science wants to say that the universe came into existence and then we conscious beings emerged. Another way to look at it is that matter existed and out of matter came consciousness. How can that be when matter is not even the base component of existence. What made matter form? Opps, that’s another question. The thought that dark matter is consciousness will flow right into the prime law again. Thought is cause. “Cogito ergo sum, I think therefore I am.” “As a man thinks so is he.” Science is hampered by the dogma of physical reality.Another issue that arises is how reality is defined. At this point conventional science says reality is what can be experienced with its five senses. However, to have the ability to explore our universe we will have to go into places that we will never be able to go physically. These places are valid because we know they exist. They are simply not physical. Our consciousness can go to places that our brain and body will never be able to go. For example our dream world is a non-physical reality. They are part of our universe. Our consciousness can inhabit this reality. Studies have been done on remote viewing (the ability to see a place you are not physically at). The existence of remote viewing has been documented. There have been ancient drawing of the structure of atoms well before microscopes existed. How did the ancients get the picture? Did they take there consciousness to explore one of the tiniest worlds? It was real, it just was not physical. Neither is consciousness physical. Our physical reality is inside our consciousness. Out of our consciousness comes physical reality.What is a universe?The third question, is the universe expanding? Can the universe have a boundary? This is going to take a little common sense deduction to answer this question. The universe is defined as everything that exists anywhere. If that is the definition then the universe can not be expanding. Here’s what common sense begs to ask? If the universe is expanding then what is it expanding into? Hmmm. If the universe is everything that is everywhere then it just is. It can not have a boundary. It can not have a beginning or and end. What did the singularity exist in? Hmmm. If God created the universe then who or what created God so it could create the universe? Who or what created the God that created the God that created the universe? Damn! Give me a minute to clean off my computer screen. My brain just exploded. I hate it when that happens! Could it be as the ancients have said, that ALL THAT IS has always existed? Could it be that there is no beginning to the universe as we know it? Could it be that time and space is an illusion of physical reality?You will have to explore for yourselfThese are questions that scientific instruments may never be able to answer. These are questions that the ancient teachers have said we will have to find the meaning for ourselves. Our reality is more than physical. Expand your consciousness and you expand your entire being. You will have to explore yourself and find the meaning for you. You will have to be brave enough to trust your findings. One thing I know for sure is that your consciousness knows the answers. It has learned through eternity. Tap into it.