It has been our busiest week in the Learning Hub yet, with every available minute booked up with the children exploring new scientific concepts, making predictions, testing theories & performing some really cool science experiments! This week our focus in the Learning Hub was on changes of state & matter - here is an insight into my week with the Te whanau o nga Rimu syndicate & a snapshot of some of our scientific experiments;
Bouncing Raisins
For this exercise we wanted to find out what those little bubbles in fizzy drink were made of, and we wanted to see what happened when we dropped some raisins into a glass of Sprite - what would happen to them? We made a list of predictions. We discovered that those little bubbles were not air bubbles as we first thought but are in fact a gas called CARBON DIOXIDE - CO2! We learnt that there are special machines at the soft drink factories that force carbon dioxide into the soft drink bottles & this is how our soft drinks get their fizz. We also found out that the process used to get CO2 into soft drink bottles at the factory is just like the soda stream system that some of us use at home!
So what happened when we put our raisins into the Sprite? The carbon dioxide bubbles in the Sprite attached themselves to the raisins & pulled them to the top of the glass essentially giving them a free ride to the top! When the bubbles popped the raisins sank to the bottom of the glass until more carbon dioxide bubbles attached themselves back onto the raisin & it floated back up to the surface again, hence the experiments name - bouncing raisins.
Making Crystals
It's as simple as Epsom Salts, food colouring, warm water & a good stir! Firstly, we placed a paper clip attached to a piece of string (wrapped around an ice block stick) into our see through cups - the paper clip helped weigh the string down, allowing the crystals to eventually grow up the string. Then, we made our crystal solution by dissolving 5 teaspoons of Epsom Salts & some food colouring in 6 teaspoons of hot water. We had to stir for a long time to saturate the solution! Then we poured our solution into our cups and waited, and waited, and waited some more ... then, the following day when we came to school we saw some crystals forming already! Do pop into Penny's class to have a look at the children's coloured crystals, they really are quite spectacular! We counted 3 changes of state & matter in the process : ) I will post some more photo soon.
Yeast Volcanoes
Wow, this was a lot of fun albeit a bit smelly - in a yeasty kind of way! The children knew quite a bit about yeast already - they told me that yeast is used to make bread, it is used in ginger beer, & it makes things rise, so we were off to a good start! We discovered that yeast is a living thing, but wondered why it wasn't moving ... hmmm. We thought that it may need a certain something to bring it back to life - but what? We decided to try sugar + warm water & boy were we amazed at the results. Our mixture of warm water, sugar & yeast looked like muddy water to start with, but then we saw the ingredients mix together, grow & make gas bubbles. It grew so much in a short space of time we had & it erupted right over the side of the glass to much excitement! We learnt that the external appearance of a living ingredient can be quite deceiving : )
Hokey Pokey
This was our tastiest experiment by far! We took a close look at our sugar, golden syrup & baking soda which were the three ingredients needed to make Hokey Pokey. We read our each step of the recipe and talked out what we thought would happen. We had several predictions! We then set to work & measured out our sugar + golden syrup & heated it slowly until the sugar dissolved, then we boiled the mixture for two minutes. Then we added in one teaspoon of baking soda & the magic began! We discovered that when the baking soda (sodium hydrogen carbonate) is heated up it breaks down to release carbon dioxide & it is this gas that makes the boiled mixture of sugar and golden syrup froth up - COOL!
Next week we will be making floating continents, baking bread, checking up on how our crystals are getting along, plus much much more! Pop on back to the Learning Hub blog soon to see what we are up to!
Karin : )
Bouncing Raisins
For this exercise we wanted to find out what those little bubbles in fizzy drink were made of, and we wanted to see what happened when we dropped some raisins into a glass of Sprite - what would happen to them? We made a list of predictions. We discovered that those little bubbles were not air bubbles as we first thought but are in fact a gas called CARBON DIOXIDE - CO2! We learnt that there are special machines at the soft drink factories that force carbon dioxide into the soft drink bottles & this is how our soft drinks get their fizz. We also found out that the process used to get CO2 into soft drink bottles at the factory is just like the soda stream system that some of us use at home!
So what happened when we put our raisins into the Sprite? The carbon dioxide bubbles in the Sprite attached themselves to the raisins & pulled them to the top of the glass essentially giving them a free ride to the top! When the bubbles popped the raisins sank to the bottom of the glass until more carbon dioxide bubbles attached themselves back onto the raisin & it floated back up to the surface again, hence the experiments name - bouncing raisins.
Making Crystals
It's as simple as Epsom Salts, food colouring, warm water & a good stir! Firstly, we placed a paper clip attached to a piece of string (wrapped around an ice block stick) into our see through cups - the paper clip helped weigh the string down, allowing the crystals to eventually grow up the string. Then, we made our crystal solution by dissolving 5 teaspoons of Epsom Salts & some food colouring in 6 teaspoons of hot water. We had to stir for a long time to saturate the solution! Then we poured our solution into our cups and waited, and waited, and waited some more ... then, the following day when we came to school we saw some crystals forming already! Do pop into Penny's class to have a look at the children's coloured crystals, they really are quite spectacular! We counted 3 changes of state & matter in the process : ) I will post some more photo soon.
Yeast Volcanoes
Wow, this was a lot of fun albeit a bit smelly - in a yeasty kind of way! The children knew quite a bit about yeast already - they told me that yeast is used to make bread, it is used in ginger beer, & it makes things rise, so we were off to a good start! We discovered that yeast is a living thing, but wondered why it wasn't moving ... hmmm. We thought that it may need a certain something to bring it back to life - but what? We decided to try sugar + warm water & boy were we amazed at the results. Our mixture of warm water, sugar & yeast looked like muddy water to start with, but then we saw the ingredients mix together, grow & make gas bubbles. It grew so much in a short space of time we had & it erupted right over the side of the glass to much excitement! We learnt that the external appearance of a living ingredient can be quite deceiving : )
Hokey Pokey
This was our tastiest experiment by far! We took a close look at our sugar, golden syrup & baking soda which were the three ingredients needed to make Hokey Pokey. We read our each step of the recipe and talked out what we thought would happen. We had several predictions! We then set to work & measured out our sugar + golden syrup & heated it slowly until the sugar dissolved, then we boiled the mixture for two minutes. Then we added in one teaspoon of baking soda & the magic began! We discovered that when the baking soda (sodium hydrogen carbonate) is heated up it breaks down to release carbon dioxide & it is this gas that makes the boiled mixture of sugar and golden syrup froth up - COOL!
Next week we will be making floating continents, baking bread, checking up on how our crystals are getting along, plus much much more! Pop on back to the Learning Hub blog soon to see what we are up to!
Karin : )