Science Experiments

Science, the way the world works around us, investigating, exploring, lots of hands on fun discovering and hypothesising, why things happen the way they do, what makes things work? why did something do what it did? Science is one of those incredibly open ended areas, where there is no one explicit answer, the end result can vary incredibly and the journey to that discovery is always celebrated.

Hands on is my motto, letting each student participate in the activity themselves, and allowing freedom to alter the experiment to see where their young inquisitive minds take them.

I've really enjoyed observing and discussing with the students what they are thinking, what made them decide to do what they did, and what did they think or what they found.

These are some of the science experiments that I have been doing of late while covering a long service leave replacement. The most exciting part for me, was there was no program left, what we explored and the direction we took, were completely up to me!

I have thoroughly enjoyed planning a range of interesting experiments, and you can too (of course) with such a wide range of websites available through googling :)

Shape & Strength - Physical Science

What you need:
* Straws
* Bluetack
* Scissors

What you do:
* Create a tower using only 15 straws and blue tack.
* Your tower must be able to stand by itself for 30 seconds.
* You may cut and fold straws, and put one straw inside another.


This was a really fascinating activity to do with the students, no one tower was the same, the designs varied, some were very architecturally magnificent, but lacked height, others used tripod stances and a single extension to push the boundary of "height", others started off with cubed oriented frames, then pieces were snipped off the base and added to give height. The discussion being generated amongst students was a joy to listen to, and the end result was magnificent towers created simply by straws, scissors and blue tack.

Science Analysis
Shapes such as squares, triangles and rectangles are used for their strength. The success of this experiment lies in good planning, communication and students being able to modify their designs.

Bridges - Physical Science

What you need:
* Straws
* Pins

What you do:
* Construct a bridge out of straws and pins.
* Use no more than 50 straws and use only pins to fasten straws.
* The bridge is to span a gap of no less than 40cm.
* Make your bridge with maximum strength.
* Draw your bridge.
* Test your bridge for strength.
* How many straws were used?
* How many pins were used?
* How many triangles in your bridge?
* What mass did it support before collapsing?
* Other comments?

We started off this experiment by researching bridge designs across the world, we brought up multitudes of bridges on the interactive whiteboard and students accessed bridges from their own notebooks too. Thoughts were discussed on not only aesthetics, but how bridges structurally came together to span great widths across different means (water, canyons, cliff edges etc.)

Again it was really interesting to watch students design, construct, test, and modify their designs :) Its' a really enjoyable activity to do and allows for great imagination and thought to be shown.

Balloon on a Skewer




You can find this science experiment and others at

http://sciencesquad.questacon.edu.au/

http://sciencesquad.questacon.edu.au/activities/

http://sciencesquad.questacon.edu.au/activities/balloon_skewer.html

http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/135

http://www.science-wizards.com/index_files/Page3410.htm

What you need:
* Balloon
* Wooden Skewer (soaked in vegetable oil)

What you do:

1. Inflate a balloon so that it is no longer than you skewer.

2. Carefully poke the pointy end of the skewer into the centre of the dark spot on top of the balloon. Do this carefully - you need to overcome your fear of the balloon popping.

3. Once you've got the skewer in the balloon, you need to carefully slide it so the point end comes out right next to the knot. Hold your balloon up to a light so you can see where the skewer is inside.

4. Voila - a balloon on a stick!

* How many skewers can you get into one balloon?

Science Analysis

Did you ever notice how a big plate of spaghetti clumps and sticks together? But if you add sauce, or olive oil, the spaghetti loosens up so you don't end up with your entire meal on your fork? Well, plastics are just like spaghetti -- they just don't taste as good.

Plastics are made up of different kinds of polymers, which are long chains of molecules.

Polymers act like the spaghetti -- they wiggle around and stick together.

Latex is a polymer that exists in nature. The latex polymers in a balloon squirm around to allow a skewer to pass through them. The molecules are stretched out further when you inflate the balloon fully and are more likely to snap, which would make the balloon pop.

Try the next activity to see if artificial polymers act the same way.

Skewered Sandwich Bag

What you need:

* ziplock sandwich bag

* water

* wooden skewers (soaked in vegetable oil)

* sink or large basin (or do it outside)



What you do:



1. Fill a sandwich bag 3/4 full with water and seal it.



2. See if you can stick the skewer through the bag without getting wet.



* How many skewers can you stick through until the bag starts to leak?



* Compare what happens to the bag with what happened to the balloon.



* Discuss the similar properties of the balloon and the bag.







The polymers in the bag are synthetic, which means they are artifically created.

They share the same properties as the latex polymers and thus,

your'e able to jab at them without spilling (hopefully)

Stay tuned for the Straw Flyer, and this week we will be doing New Goo - Chemical Science.