Today we had
Science Friday!!!
We had two weeks at home to start a scientific
investigation. We thought of a question, made a hypothesis saying what we thought
might happen, then did the experiment and recorded the data. From the
information we could draw a conclusion and answer the question we had.
Cameron wondered which material
will work best for a parachute canopy? He decided it must come down slowly and
move side-to-side.
He made a
satin parachute.
He made a
cotton parachute.
He made a
plastic bag parachute.
He made a
paper napkin parachute.
He made a
photocopy paper parachute.
The conclusion was that the photocopier paper parachute was
the best as it moved slower to the ground and went to the side a bit.
Eva wondered why do they paint
white lines on the road and not black?
She painted
2 roads, one with white lines and the other with black lines. She put these
roads into a
box to create a night theme. She made a peep hole and a torch hole. The conclusion was when you look through the
hole you could clearly see the white line.
Riley showed how energy can transform. She rubbed a balloon
on her hair to make static electricity and the energy in the balloon could then
pick up little pieces of paper on the table.
Rachel told us the black sand at Piha beach had iron in
it. She used a magnet to demonstrate the
iron being attracted to the magnet. We wondered if the golden sand at other
beaches have iron in?
Stirling knew that the earth has gravity, a pull force, but
he wondered which will fall to the ground first, a pen or a sheet of paper? His
hypothesis was that the pen will fall quicker because it is heavier. He kept
the pen and the paper at the same level and let it go. He was right, the pen fell fast while the
paper floated slowly to the ground moving from side to side. Then he scrunched
the paper into a tight ball…..this time the paper and pen reached the ground at
the same time. His conclusion was that the shape of objects had an influence
the speed that they fell at, not the weight.
Isla had milk in a container and she carefully added 3
different colours of food colouring. The colours did not mix with the milk but
rather sat on top of it. When she put a drop of detergent in, it was almost
like a mini explosion…..the colour disappeared for a moment and the milk shot
up.
Joseph S had a bottle of Coke and Mentos lollies. When he
put the Mentos lollies into the bottle it reacted and started to explode like a
volcano. The Coke started pushing out the bottle. When he tried pouring the Coke into a larger
juice bottle and then add the Mentos the reaction wasn’t so great and the coke
did not spill out. His conclusion was that the shape of the bottle made a
difference to the reaction of Coke and Mentos.
Maisy got her brother to help her with her experiment. Flynn
showed that it was possible to poke a skewer through a balloon.
Gemma showed us how to grow crystals using borax and water.
First she shaped a pipe cleaner like a snowflake. Then she mixed water and
borax together. She hung the snowflake into the borax mixture and left it
overnight. The next day the crystals formed and we had a crystal snowflake to
hang in class.
Harris wondered if the egg will float in fresh water or in
salt water? He filled one glass with fresh water and one glass with salt water.
He put a raw egg in the glasses……the conclusion was that it sank to the bottom of the glass in
the fresh water but floated in the salt water because the salt made the water
more dense.
Talan wanted to share his explosion with Mentos and Sprite.
He used a big bottle of fizzy drink and used a spout on top before he
dropped in the Mentos to make a reaction.
Ben showed us what happens if you mix baking soda and
vinegar……it makes a reaction and the baking soda foams up.
Juliette tested food colouring in milk and food colouring in
water. She had two plates, one with milk and one with water. She dropped food
colouring in. Then she used an ear bud dipped in detergent and put it in the
plate with milk…..a mini explosion! The colours moved to the side and the milk was
seen clearly. She did the same in the
water but no reaction was seen when she put in the ear bud.
