Snow Science Part 1: A Messy Experiment

Sometimes Science surprises us! We made 2 fake snow recipes yesterday and the results were… a bit messy to say the least. If you want to make this snow at home, the recipe for our successful fake snow was:

Mix together 1 tablespoon of white hair conditioner and 5-10 tablespoons of baking soda. Stir until well combined, adding more baking soda or conditioner until you get a texture that is not too sticky and can be molded into a ‘snowman’. Optionally, you might add a drop of colour to your snow.

Pictured above left: successful snow! Pictured above right: less successful snow!

We learned that baking soda works much better than cornstarch when making fake snow. We will try this experiment again on Friday to create our ‘perfect’ recipe. Stay tuned!

Terrariums: Tiny Local Ecospheres

Hello, Scientists! I hope that everyone is taking great care of their terrariums.

Look at the variety of local plants, mosses, and other natural objects we used for our terrariums!

Remember, because it is a self-contained ecosystem, the plants should be able to survive without being watered. You should notice condensation (mist/drips) on the inside of your glass jar. If your terrarium looks dry (or if an insect managed to sneak into your terrarium), feel free to quickly open the jar to make changes!

Water: Our Most Valuable Resource

This week, we began our discussion about water scarcity both in Canada and around the world. We learned that a very small percentage of the water on Earth is fresh, clean, and drinkable. Many people across the world do not have access to clean water, which effects their lives in many ways.

In The Water Princess, Gie Gie tells the story of her daily routine with her mother. They wake up before the sun rises, walk many miles to a water source, wait in line, gather the water, make the trek home, and then boil the water to try to remove some of the impurities as microorganisms. The cycle repeats the next day, and the day after.

We will continue to discuss water preservation, scarcity, and purification over the next few weeks.

STEM Challenge: Da Vinci & Parachutes

After our very successful catapult STEM challenge (pictures/video to come), our class will be exploring the genius of Leonardo Da Vinci and his amazing flying machines! We will first be examining his blueprint/design for a parachute, and using his journals as inspiration to design our own parachutes!

When we design our parachutes, students may bring up to 2 OPTIONAL MATERIALS from home (ex: paper towel roll, fabric). We have just begun blueprinting our designs, but stay tuned for our results!

Potions Class: Chemistry in Action

Potions Class

Happy Halloween to those who celebrate it! Today, we had a chance to explore chemistry via our “Potions Class”. Our class had to determine what each of the ingredients in our ‘potions’ were based on how they reacted when mixed together. Feel free to click the link above to see the result of mixing “Witch Tears” (water), “Colorful Potions” (food colouring), “Dissolved Eyeballs” (oil), and “Ground Up Bones” (Alka-Seltzer tablets) together to make a bubbling cauldron!

Happy a safe and enjoyable weekend!

Pumpkin ‘Chunkin’: Galileo’s Theory

After our unexpected results, we decided to try our experiment again! We learned that Galileo once tested his theory that gravity will pull all objects, regardless of their mass, to the ground at the same speed. We wanted to see if we would get the same result when using 2 different sizes/weights of pumpkins.

This time, we dropped them at the same time in order to clearly see which fell first, or if they fell at the same speed. Watch our results below by clicking the link below!

Pumpkin Chunkin Results

So interesting! We discovered our pumpkins fell as the same speed this time. I love when Science surprises us!

Pumpkin ‘Chunkin’: Exploring Gravity & Mass

We love when Science surprises us! Our class and Ms. Ramen’s class made predictions about which fruits/vegetables would fall the quickest when dropped from a height. Would the heavier fruits/vegetables fall faster?

We also predicted which fruits/vegetables would have the most dramatic change when they hit the ground! Would they splatter? Would they crack in half? Would nothing happen? Our results are below!

Our results were that the lighter objects fell faster, but we will be replicating this experiment to reduce variables (human error, etc.) to see if we get the same results as Galileo. Stay tuned!

Float or Sink: Science Challenge

In class today, we explored whether different fruits and vegetables would FLOAT or SINK when dropped into a tub of water. Together we tested: a pumpkin, a mini-watermelon, a honeydew melon, a coconut, and a tomato.

We learned about water displacement and buoyancy. Check out this video to see what another scientist’s results were!

Microbiology: Ms. Ward’s Recipe for Agar

Today, our class began collecting ‘samples’ from around the school in order to grow our own mystery microorganisms! We used a cotton swab to carefully collect a sample (from the bottom of our shoe, from our pencil, from the floor, from a doorknob, and other places). Then, we rubbed the cotton swab onto the agar gel in our mini petri-dishes. Ms. Ward made the agar from a few household ingredients. If you want to try this experiment at home, you can use this recipe:

Grow Bacteria On Homemade Agar Plates | Mad About Science

Agar Recipe (for collecting and growing microorganisms)

5 packets of unflavoured gelatin
10 teaspoons of white sugar
1 packet or 1 cube of chicken or beef bouillon
5 cups of boiling water

Carefully mix together the gelatin, sugar, and bouillon. Add the boiling water and mix well. Put in the fridge to cool for around 10 minutes, until just slightly warm. Then, carefully pour into your petri dishes and refrigerate until needed. Use within 2 days for the best results.

To use: carefully collect a sample using a damp cotton swab. Try to pick somewhere you think will likely have lots of microorganisms! Then, rub the q-tip onto the agar, seal the petri dish, and leave in a warm, dark place for a few days. For safety reasons, do NOT open the petri dish once the microorganisms begin to grow. Observe them, then throw the entire experiment in the garbage.

Note: We talked extensively about ensuring that we do not contaminate our agar. Ms. Ward even discovered that one of her spoons hadn’t been sterilized properly, and it contaminated a few of our petri dishes. If you want accurate results, make sure to sterilize all of your equipment beforehand, and wash your hands!

We will let our microorganisms incubate over the weekend, then check to see our results on Monday. Stay tuned for pictures and updates!

Sci-Fri: Mystery Fruit Investigation

There are thousands and thousands of species of fruit all over the world, from apples to durians and everything in between! For Sci-Fri this week, our class (along with Ms. Ramen’s class) examined some fruits that we may not have seen before! We made detailed observations, drew diagrams, and predicted what the fruit might look like inside!

The different fruits were: red-fleshed papaya, purple passionfruit, orange passionfruit, white pomelo, tangelo, aloe leaves, dragon fruit, baby bananas, starfruit, pomegranate, and durian!

Ms. Ward tried each of the fruits and described them. We learned that some fruits, such as the durian, are an acquired taste. While many people love it and have grown up eating it, durian can be very unusual the first time you taste it!

Ms. Ward described it as “custardy, smooth, a bit sweet and caramelized, with a strong oniony/green onion flavour”. The scent of the durian was so strong you could smell it throughout the whole school!

Have you ever tried a durian?