Electric Play Dough

When you think of conducting materials, does play dough come to mind? Grade 3 students experimented with some conducting dough. You can get the recipe here: http://courseweb.stthomas.edu/apthomas/SquishyCircuits/

We were able to try different paths for the electricity. We found out that sometimes adding bulbs dimmed all the bulbs and sometimes it didn't depending on how you built the circuit. 

This group added a fan to their circuit. 

Some students used the dough to make a model of a series circuit. 

Viscosity of Lava

It's ok to put a test tube of cold lava upside down over your friend's head. 

This week in IPC Lab we tested the viscosity of "lava" of different temperatures. It was actually syrup but lava sounded so much more exciting. 

Racing lava down a tray. 

Neutralization

Grade 7 students used Sodium Hydroxide to neutralize Hydrochloric acid. They had a universal indicator so they could see when they reached a neutral pH. This was a good activity to practice using different equipment and measuring carefully. 

Becoming Watson and Crick

Grade 10 students got to play Watson and Crick by making some models of DNA. Our models didn't win a Nobel Prize but they were tasty. James Watson was 25 years old when he published his paper about the structure of DNA. No pressure, kids. 

The correct model for DNA replication semi-conservative. The new DNA is made from one old strand and one new strand. 

Another proposed model was the conservative model where the new DNA is old and the new DNA is all new. Experiments in the 1950's proved this wrong.  Sorry guys.

Natures pH indicator

Last week grade 7 used some indicator made from red cabbage to explore acids, alkalis and pH. I had boiled some red cabbage the night before. The juice changes a variety of colors based on the pH of the solution you add to it. Students experimented with different quantities of Hydrochloric acid and Sodium hydroxide.The results were stunning. 

Static Electricity Fun

The 3rd grades have been investigating static electricity. They tried charging different objects with their hair or clothing. They used charged balloons and rods to move cans and pick up papers. They investgated a number of different things and of course made their hair stand up!

Picking up a muffin cup. 

How did you do that?

Bending water. 

These girls were trying to find out how big a piece of paper they could pick up. We cut out a little man for them to lift. 

Investigating how close the balloon has to be before it lifts the paper. 

Passing a muffin cup between balloons. 

Newton's Scooters

Grade 10 students made "Newton's Scooters" to illustrate Newton's Laws. Most groups made scooters that used a balloon to provide a force to make the car go in the opposite direction. One group used a mouse trap to provide this force. The students answered questions about the design of their cars and Newton's laws. For the photos I added some passengers. After the scooters we did a project about car safety and about how knowledge of Newton's Laws helps us design safer cars. These poor passengers don't have any seat belts so they would be victims of Newton's First Law (Inertia) if these cars were to crash. 

The winning design was light so it didn't need much force to accelerate. The wheels had a small amount of friction allowing smoother travel. 

Some other designs. One goal was to use recycled materials. 

A car powered by a mouse trap. The mouse trap brand was mjölner after Thor's hammer.  Fortunately no fingers were sacrificed for this construction. 

Marshmallow Packages

This week grade 3 made packages for marshmallows. We had compared packaging and discussed what was important about packages. The students were challenged to make a package that would "protect" their marshmallow from the smell and taste of "The Evil Mr. Garlic". The materials they could use were paper, foil, plastic and tape. Each material had a different cost. Students designed the package and calculated the cost. Later this week we will have a taste test to see how our packages worked. 

Some happy package makers. 

This garlic smells icky!

A bag showing the packages, some pieces of garlic and some control marshmallows. 

This relates to the learning goal: 

2.34 Understand that different materials are suited for different purposes 

What is this?

This week grade 4 students started investigating solids and liquids. We talked about some properties of the two. Students thought that solids were hard and liquids "flowy". We talked about how solids keep their shape while liquids take the shape of a container. We then made a non-Newtonian fluid by mixing corn starch and water. These fluids sometimes feel hard like solids and sometimes flow like liquids. We simply mixed cornstarch and water. Some quotes I heard were, "This is awesome!" and "This is so cool!" This is actually a very fun experiment to try at home. Corn starch is cheap and easy to clean. The Swedish word for it is majsstärkelse and it is usually in a yellow box in the baking section of the supermarket. A baking tray with cornstarch and water can keep small children entertained for long stretches of time. Put some trucks, dinosaurs or army men into the mix and the fun increases. I have never tried to put this mix on a speaker but it produces some cool results: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UVjOoJaWGo

Here is a fun Myth Busters clip involving A LOT of cornstarch. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wiYtoG9kZE 

The learning goal this relates to in the Active Planet unit is:

2.32 Be able to distinguish between solids, liquids and gases.