Third and Fourth Class enjoyed the varied science experiments carried out in class this week.  Take a look.

Salty Dragon painting

Experiment:   students drew a dragon using a pencil.  They brushed lots of watery paint over the dragon and sprinkled lots of salt crystals on the drawing.

Results:  salt crystals “sucked up” or absorbed water.  When they sprinkled salt on the watery paint, each crystal absorbed some of the paint from around it.  As you can see from the pictures, there was more paint around the salt crystals than on the rest of the paper.

Potato Power

Experiment:   we cut a potato in two halves.  We scooped out a hallow in the centre of each potato.  We poured some salt into the centre of each half.  We left both halves for a few hours.

Results:  the salt drew water out of the cells of the potato.  This experiment showed us how living cells dry up.

Sweet Tastes

Experiment:   students carried out three tests.

• Test 1:  students put a sweet in their mouth, and without chewing or moving their tongue, they recorded how long it took to dissolve. It took some students over 8 minutes.
• Test 2:  students put a sweet their their mouth, and this time moved their tongue but didn’t chew.   They recorded how long it took to dissolve. It took some students between three and four minutes.
• Test 3:  students put a sweet in their mouth, and this time they chewed the sweet.  They recorded how long it took to dissolve. It took less than a minute.

Results:  They noticed that when food is chewed, it decreases the time necessary for dissolving.  The sweets  dissolved in saliva in the mouth to form a sugar solution.

The Smarties Test

Experiment:   Smarties were placed in a bowl.  Each bowl had smarties of only one colour.  We placed a small amount of water to each bowl and stirred them with a lolly stick.  We added a piece of kitchen paper to each bowl, with one end submerged in water.

Results:   The pigments in the smarties absorbed and moved up the paper.  The colours separated into one or more pigments.

Making Sherbet

Experiment:

• What we did:

–        We  added ¼ teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda.

–        ½ teaspoon of citric acid.

–        3 teaspoons of icing sugar.

–        We stirred the ingredients with a lolly stick.

–        We tasted it.

Results:

–        When the bicarbonate of soda and the citric acid dissolved their mouths the following reaction occurred.

–        Citric acid + bicarbonate of soda + water = fizz and bubbles.  This is a chemical reaction.

Bubbling Wizards Brew

Experiment:

• What we did :

–We half filled a glass jar with clear vinegar.

–We added several drops of food dye and sprinkled glitter over the top.

–We added a good squeeze of washing up liquid to the jar.

–We stirred the mixture with a metal spoon and mixed everything together.

–We placed the jar on a tray and added a spoon of bicarbonate of soda.

Results:

–The foam that poured out of the jar was formed by a simple chemical reaction.

–When the vinegar and bicarbonate of soda mixed – they made lots of tiny bubbles of gas.  The bubbles churned up the washing up liquid, making lots of foam.