How does your garden grow?

May 16, 2016 Ailie Rankin 2 Comments

As spring has well and truly sprung, our visits to the allotment have resumed.

This presents an abundance of science opportunities for the children to experience.

20160509_102759[1] — Skippy helps us learn about plants and animals in the allotment.

Guiding us in our gardening is our friend Skippy (yes he is Australian). He looks after our allotment and helps us tend to the various plants and animals we find there.

"Skippy pointing to flowers and busy bees". — “Skippy pointing to flowers and busy bees”. By Owen

We were blessed with glorious sunshine on our visit on Monday, however our session started inside thinking about what seeds need to grow and how they change.

“They need soil” – Nathan

“They need the sun” – Patrick

“Water!” – Harmony

Skippy showed us the beans and peas that were planted by the last group.

the bean had started to grow a little! We could see the bean shell still on the top!

We could see a real difference between a bean without soil, water, heat and light and one that had.

They had grown into little plants.

Skippy told us about how the plants were buried in the soil to grow.

We had a think about what the plants needed to grow and how this could happen inside the hut (which has no windows).

“You could use the lights!” – Patrick

Skippy showed us the propagator and let Nathan and Lara feel the heat mat that keeps the seedlings warm and gives them light because the sun can’t do either inside.

The seedlings were kept warm on the heat mat and given light from the lamps.

Nathan applied his previous learning to what Skippy had shown and told us…

“Maybe the beanstalk will grow and have a castle at the top!” – Nathan

Skippy assured us that he hadn’t used magic beans so a castle was very unlikely. Then we went outside to see what was in the allotment, and what was growing.

Skippy showed us the leeks, chives, garlic and spring onions, and shallots that are all part of the onion family!

Skippy showed us where he had just cut up old flowers and scattered the cuttings. Seedlings were starting to grow.

Skippy showed us some of the vegetables he had started to grow in the greenhouse.

Skippy has started to grow tomatoes in the greenhouse too.

We saw an interesting green box at the end of a path…

We looked at the box and guessed what it might hold.

It was the allotment’s beehive!

Skippy told us how bees are essential for plants to grow.

“Without bees, nothing could live!” – Patrick

The bees get the stuff that they use to make honey, out of flowers.

We looked at some flowers to find the middle bit that the bees visit to collect nectar and get stuck with pollen. When the pollen from different flowers gets mixed up it allows new seeds to be formed – this is called pollination.

"The bees collect pollen from the flowers. — “The bees collect pollen from the flowers.

We looked for the middle bit of the flower to see where the pollen is for the bees to spread.

Skippy explained about why bees are important.

We pretended to be busy bees visiting the flowers getting covered in and spreading the pollen.

We tickled flowers pretending to be bees collecting nectar and spreading pollen

Busy bee Harmony gathering nectar to make honey and spreading pollen to make new plants!

Some of the middle yellow bits were extra special…

We tried to think what would be different about these flowers.

Skippy asked us to look closely at the middle bit of the flower.

The yellow middle will grow into strawberries!

The strawberries aren’t the only fruits growing in the allotment.

We looked closely at the plant to see tiny buds that will grow into raspberries.

We had a lot of thinking about seeds and how they grow, finding pollen and seedlings that have started to grow. However we hadn’t thought about how weeds and wild plants spread. The gardeners didn’t plant the chives in the path or the dandelions. We had a think about what moved them.

“The wind did it!” – Harmony

Skippy showed us where the seeds were formed in some plants and we helped spread some.

Skippy showed us where seeds can be found.

Skippy opened up some flowers to reveal the seeds.

Skippy demonstrated how wind helps to garden by spreading seeds.

Ellie acts like the wind to spread dandelion seeds.

Nathan helps spread dandelion seeds while practicing his counting with a dandelion clock.

Blowing dandelion clocks are a fun way to help your child count, think about more or less and learn about time language! The Mary Queen of Scots dandelion head popping rhyme is a good fine motor exercise, helping your child strengthen their finger muscles in preparation to write! The latter is more popular with gardeners 😉

All to soon it was time to return to the nursery, smarter little biologists.

Our visits to the allotment will continue throughout the growing season. We endeavour to get as many children to experience this as possible so your child should get a turn at some point.

colour, physics, weather

Over the rainbow

March 18, 2016 Ailie Rankin Leave a comment

Well we finally got to try and make a rainbow!

We returned to our scientific method of predicting, experimenting and reporting in our logbooks.

The question I posed was what would happen to the light from a torch if we shone it through a glass of water? I didn’t want to mention colour as I didn’t want to lead the children in their predictions. As a result the predictions showed that the children drew on their previous knowledge and experiences. (Applying knowledge is a higher order thought process – showing deep learning!)

“I don’t know………maybe a gas?” – Gabriel

(click on each picture to see whose is whose).

“It’ll just besplode this size” (gestures about 20 cm)

“It’ll make dark in the water because torches make shaddows.”

Charlie’s was the most poetic prediction however:

It will "get a bit gleamy" — It will “get a bit gleamy”

Fisrt we checked what the torchlight looked like normally:

There was some debate as to the colour of the light – silver, white, bluey or grey!

Then we took turns to shine the light through the glass of water…..

These photos don’t really capture what we noticed. So take it

from Caoimhe:

or Zach:

"It looked like a rocket!" — “It looked like a rocket!”

and others (again click on the pictures to see who said what)

“The light changed into blue and yellow on the paper”

“It turned into a moon shape and it was brown-y blue colour”

Again Charlie described it well:

“It’s like 10 different shapes and colours!”

Or have a look for yourself – how would you describe it?

So why? Where did the colours come from?

“the water changed the light”! – Gabi

“It bends, it was pushing it away” – Innes

The water bends the beam of light which has a affect on each different colour that makes up white light, all bending at a different angle. In other words the water seperates the colours that make white light. This is called refraction. It is what happens to sunlight reflected on raindrops which creates a rainbow in the sky.

The experiment didn’t impress everyone. Every session ends with a question:

“What could we do better?”

Normally I just get shrugs and “don’t know”s but today I got a couple of good replies:

“I prefer the spray experiment” – Charlie

“Maybe changing the colours a different way” – Gabi

So now we have evaluating to add to our skills that we practice with our science!

Smart cookies!

colour, Main building

Colour bore?

March 16, 2016 Ailie Rankin 2 Comments

Am I becoming a colour bore? I feel we have been looking at colour for a long time now. However the children continue to be really engaged and invested in their learning.

As planned, I offered the same experience, well the same resources again today. Of course it isn’t the same experience as now the children have their previous learning to draw on and develop. And me being me I had to add a twist. I added a mystery mixture in test tubes and a squirty bottle.

There was some debate over what the mystery mixture was.

“Is it vinegar?” – Patrick

“It’s water!” – Gabriel

“It’s nothing colour” – Heidi

It had a strange effect – it chased the colour away intead of mixing it.

“I’m chasing all the colours away!” – Heidi

“You’re chasing them all the way to America!” – Charlie

And it had a weird effect on the paper – it turned it see through too!

“It’s invisible colour!” – Charlie

Sophie noticed that you could draw with it using a pipette.

And the oddest thing was what it did to the colours when you put them in the test tubes to mix……

Tommy's blue floated around in little balls within the mystery liquid before settling on the bottom. — Tommy’s blue floated around in little balls within the mystery liquid before settling on the bottom.

“Gravity is what makes the colours go down!” – Caoimhe

Can you guess the mystery liquid? It was very slimy…

“Maybe it’s jellyfish” – Patrick.

“No they might sting us!!” – Alex

No fear it wasn’t jellyfish but just baby oil.

Oil and water won’t mix so our colours wouldn’t mix with the oil.

Well now we have begun to think about colours separating I think the time has come to chase rainbows….

Thank you for sharing our learning!Please remember to leave a comment. Ant suggestions for areas of science to explore would be very welcome! And don’t forget totell us about any science learning going on at home!

colour

Colour lab

March 14, 2016 Ailie Rankin 2 Comments

I thought we could continue to explore colour as the children were so entranced with the colours mixing rather than dancing during the magic milk experiment.

I had intended on using the squirty bottles to make a mist for us to attempt to reflect light on and make rainbows but our inquisitive and curious scientists were so taken with the squirty bottles it seemed wrong not to let them freely explore colours using the sprays as they wished. So I added red, yellow and blue water to the bottles as well as the test tubes.

Daniel had to coordinate his movements and use his hand muscles to fill the test tube using the squirty bottle. He mixed yellow and blue and made green!

It was hard to make out the colours that were being mixed in the test tubes however,

“I made black!” – Natalie

So I fetched a big bit of paper for us to spray the colours on to.

“It’s not black it’s a bluey green!” – Natalie

“I made it orange by doing 2 colours at the same time!” – Gabi

“Look it’s changing red – it’s mixing orange!” – Belle

Natalie, Daniel and Tommy each sprayed a different colour at the paper to see what colours they could make.

But the paper got soggy and absorbed the spilled water in the tray making the colours tricky to make out. So we added a shelf from the drying rack and it worked a treat!

Persevering with the tricky wee vaporizers – having to use strong finger muscles.

We talked to one another about what the colours that we made.

The paper got really soggy and tore easily after we soaked it with the colours.

Sometimes we had to mix the colours a little with our fingers.

We had to be coordinated to shoot the colour where we wanted.

It lookedlike a big palette of colours that we had made!

We sprayed lots of red and yellow to make bright warm colours. The paper felt very wet and thin.

Finlay tried 2 colours at once! He had to use coordination and both sides of his brain to spray both at the same place!

Finn made orange by adding yellow to the red.

Isla helped Lauren fill the tube with yellow – great team work!!

Caoimhe had to be quick and coordinated to catch the water dripping off the paper.

We had to use our hand muscles and coordination to spray the colour out of the bottles and on to the paper or the tray. We made a range of colours and talked about what we had created. We remembered which colours we had added and attempted to remake purples, oranges and greens although often ended up with browns.

Patrick and An were sure they had created more than just colours…

” I made dynamic soda! It powers rockets!! – Patrick

“It’s a samurai colour!” “It’s sacorizing! (It’s like a decorated surprize!)” – An

We had to take turns for the bottles and work together, developing our social skills.

“Yes! You CAN help me!” – An to Lauren

We also had to solve problems when things didn’t work as we’d hoped like the wee vapourizers being stiff, the bottles stopping working or when we set ourselves the challenge of filling the test tubes using the bottles. We compared amounts to see who had the most and the least, using lots of comparative language.

“I’ve got many!” – Adam

Amy realised that she could fill the test tube using the big squirty bottle.

We used those pincer grip movements to work the pipettes to mix colours in the test tubes.

Jayden watched the others and worked hard to be abole to use the wee blue vapourizer.

Adam focused on filling test tubes with the squirty bottles. He liked getting them full to the brim before tipping them out and starting again.

Zara exercised those important pincer movements and finger muscles to fill the test tubes with the pipettes.

James had to concentrate so as not to spill any colour.

Working together to solve tricky problems.

Some of the colours didn’t mix straight away so we had to solve the problem of how to get them to mix.

Broghan added red to her yellow and it didn’t mix- it looked like a cocktail! She had to give it a shake to make orange.

Zara’s blue and yellow didn’t mix completely!

Finlay added red to his yellow and made orange but it didn’t mix properly!

So we shook them (with the top covered of course!)

“Shake shake shake tomato!” sang Evie

Evie enjoyed mixing colours by shaking. She created a little song and wiggle dance to help mixing!

The shaking (and singing!) did the trick and the colours mixed well.

"Look at my green!" — “Look at my green!”

I don’t think we have exhausted the exploration of colour mixing. I think on Wed we shall revisit the learning and experience again but this time with coffee filters to see what happens to the colours with them.

And who knows maybe we’ll get on to rainbows, but then maybe we’ll explore another area altogether.

"Oh I made brown - do you think this would make a penny shiny?" — “Oh I made brown – do you think this would make a penny shiny?”

After all Patrick did mention the cleaning properties of Coke! Hmmmmm……

chemistry, colour

Best laid plans…..

March 7, 2016 Ailie Rankin 2 Comments

After the enthusiasm about the bright colours of foam mixing and the shouts of rainbows being made, I thought it would be a good time to try the dancing colours milk experiment.

It’s been something I have fancied since I saw it on Pinterest.

It looked really impressive on YouTube too!

I have had a couple of Pinterest fails with this previously and discussed my failure with a few folk at recent courses and the big National Science Network (with proper science teachers!) So this time I was confident it would work and we would have lovely dancing colours to observe.

So we poured our milk (full fat as it is the fats reaction to the washing up liquid that makes the colours move).

We took turns to pour out the milk onto our plates.

Using gross motor and coordination skills to pour milk from a big carton.

The heavy lifting and coordination in having to pour our own milk helps us to develop muscles needed to eventually write! Any heavy play actually helps us with our sensory processing and core muscles which help us to be able to sit and concentrate on a shared focus – perfect preparation for classroom learning.

Then we added food colouring. In the morning we used a straw to add the drops of colour…

However after much spilling of food colouring and dyeing of the table (and hands!) I decided to offer the food colouring through the pipettes and test tubes for the afternoon (which not only controlled the amount of dye used but added the dimension of fine motor pincer grip to draw and squirt the dye and washing up liquid – again great for writing preparation).

Our predictions for the experiment showed that the children were applying previous knowledge.

“I think it’s going to explode all over you again!” – Olivia

“I think it might make bubbles because of the washing up liquid.” – Ross

We squirted in a little washing up liquid by ourselves – more hand muscle exercise! However the addition of the washing up liquid had a different affect.

“The colour is running away!” – Innes

And we made some mixed patterns with our fingers through the dye.

So some of the experiments worked. But some didn’t.

It seemed to depend on how much dye was used, how well they were mixed and which kind of dye we used. The shop bought food colouring seemed to dissipate quickly in the milk as though the fats were reacting with the dye itself, however the dye bought in bulk for the nursery seemed to hold it’s shape until the washing up liquid was introduced, making the effect much more dramatic.

We never did see dancing colours or swirls moving like in the videos, we had to swirl ourselves.

That’s not to say there was no learning! Lots of discussion followed about the colours produced and Ross, Olivia, Lara, Jude and Gracie all extended the learning further by investigating mixing and creating their own colours with the palette paints. And we were able to explore the mixing of the colours in the milk – making greens and purples.

Mistakes and failures are all a part of learning I suppose , I just don’t like having another Pinterest Fail.

I just need to remember that…

chemistry

Thinking again

February 29, 2016 Ailie Rankin 1 Comment

So for Holly and indeed for anyone else, we revisited the toothpaste.

Revisiting learning and repeating activities and experiences helps us to process the information and deepen our learning.

This time around I focused more on letting the children take the lead and do as much as possible based on their last experience. As this was a repeat and more child led I didn’t bother with the logbooks.

Luckily we had a few re-visitors who could recall and share their experiences from Friday.

Again I tried to make this as hands on an experience as possible. Luckily the safety rules were firm in the children’s minds.

“Don’t touch the bottles! It’s dangerous!” – Gabriel

Ryan and Gabriel could both remember what we needed to do and what the reaction would be.

“We need the white stuff but it’s burny, and the smelly stuff to make it go up and over. ” – Ryan

So we measured out the yeast and took turns to mix…

We measured out the yeast powder in preparation for mixing it.

And we used those important hand muscles to add the washing up liquid.

And those pincer grips to squeeeeeeeeeeeeeze the yeast quickly into the hydrogen peroxide (the greater the force with which the yeast enters the mixture, the quicker the reaction).

And we weren’t disappointed in the reactions. In fact we did the experiment again and again and again using different colours.

The children grew in confidence with the foam and were able to notice it was hot.

“It’s like lava!” – Finlay F.

“But it looks like snow” – Adam

We noticed some of the mixtures went slower than others and so with a gloved hand I gave them a shake which really sped them up!

“Woah! Look at mine it’s going fast now!” – Nathan

“It got bigger!” – Elise

We repeated it so often we were left with lots of foam and it was lovely to play with (in fact we only stopped because we ran out of washing up liquid!)

“It’s all gooey looey!” – Finlay F.

And the colours all mixed again.

“This looks like a rainbow” – Ayvah

But Ryan used his knowledge of what we’d made to add to his observation..

“It’s like the elephant has already used all the toothpaste!” – Ryan D.

But the foam was perfect for mark making and writing secret spy messages! Great early writing practice.

The foam was perfect for writing and drawing.

The added opportunity to explore the process allowed Gabi to really add to her learning. She was able to explain what had happened to her friends…

“The yeast burned away the peroxide!” – Gabi

So a revisited experience but more learning all the same!

Sometimes it is worth thinking again.

chemistry

Elephant’s toothpaste in the main building

February 27, 2016 Ailie Rankin 1 Comment

After the excitement about the erruptions, explosions and gaseous experiences, I thought it only appropriate to revisit elephant’s toothpaste but this time with the main building children.

We used the same ingredients as last time.

Hydrogen peroxide, yeast, fairy liquid, washing up liquid, dye.

The same safety rules applied..

“No touching the bottles!” – Gabi

However, this time we added a little more of a hands on approach with the children using the droppers to add the yeast. This allows the children a level of responsibility (managing their own, all be it small, risk) which adds a level of engagement and greater involvement in the learning.

We used droppers, a beaker for the yeast mixture and a spoon for measuring and stirring.

There were a number of predictions in which the children applied knowledge gained from previous experiences….

"I predict that its going to right up to the roof and down!" — “I predict that its going to right up to the roof and down!”

“It’s going to besplode!!” – Heidi

"Its gonna overflow!" — “Its gonna overflow!”

Lara even used the correct vocabulary when making her prediction!!

“I predict it’ll go right up to the roof and back down” – Lara

But first we had to mix the yeast. This offered opportunity for the children to engage with real measure (of a spoonful) and counting the spoonfuls to add. They also had to take turns to mix the yeast as I deliberately only offered one spoon and one beaker.

Eilidh and Lily carefully measured out teaspoons of yeast powder into the beaker in preparation for mixing it to activate it.

We took turns to mix the yeast mixture. Ross and Isla revisited the experiment in the afternoon.

Lara, Olivia and Gabriel took turns to mix the yeast and water together to activate the yeast.

“Eeeuurgh it smells like a swamp or a dirty shoe!” – Ryan D.

Then we had to use those important hand muscles to squeeze the washing up liquid to the hydrogen peroxide that I had already poured into bottles.

We had to use our hand and finger muscles to squeeze the washing up liquid into our mixture.

We used washing up liquid to allow the gas to create bubbles and foam.

And so we were ready to add the yeast…

We used the droppers to add the yeast mixture safely.

Bramble focused and concentrated to squeeze all the yeast into the hydrogen peroxide quickly.

Caoimhe carefully added the yeast with the dropper.

And the results were quite good.

“Ross’s stayed the same but mine BESPLODED!!” – Heidi

"It was really really really foamy!" — “It was really really really foamy!”

We observed the experiment to monitor what happened.

The foam kept growing and growing. “It looks like a big ice cream!” – Patrick

Jude took a step back – unsure if it would explode!

Eilidh and and Lily explored the the texture of the foam with their hands as Ross and Eve mixed the yeast for the next batch.

We watched as the mixture grew and grew!

The mixture grew fast in some cases. “Look at mine – its overflowing!” – Isla

So why did it explode? We analysed the experiment..

“It was because we put too much yeast in” – Heidi

"It exploded because it made gas." — “It exploded because it made gas.”

Ross reported and shared what had happened. His remembering and discussing the bubble shows that he was thinking about it.

"First there was the bottle, then it all overflowed!" — “First there was the bottle, then it all overflowed!” – Ryan

The foam that it created was warm and harmless as the yeast had mixed with the hydrogen peroxide, burning all the peroxide away and releasing heat and oxygen which mixed with the washing up liquid to create the foam. Some of the mixtures needed a little help to get going so I gave them a little shake to mix them up and that worked a treat.

And of course the harmless foam was lovely for making patterns and marks (early writing) and exploring the colour mixing (yet more science)!

An said “We have a new colour now! Rainbow colour!”

James spent a long time investigating how the foam would drop from his hand on to his arm. He wanted to see how much he could pile up.

So what next?

Well Ryan gave us an excellent question to explore..

“What does disolve mean?” – Ryan

But the mixing of the coloured foam revealed another area to explore as the children created new colours.

“Look what colours I can make!” – James

And then I discovered Brandon’s interest in Angry Birds and thought about how we could explore forces further with catapults and towers…….hmmm

But Holly made it clear what we should do on Monday..

“Aww Ailie, I never saw the science today. Can we do it again on Monday?” – Holly

Well how could I resist? And I just so happen to have bought a stronger concentration of peroxide – I wonder what difference that will make?

Why not help me decide what direction to take after Monday? I will of course ask the children but please add your ideas too! Is there an experiment or science area you would like us to explore? Let me know!

In the meantime why not try to recreate some of these chemical reactions at home? You can buy hydrogen peroxide at Sally’s in the town and the yeast is available in the baking section of Tesco. Antibacterial washing up liquid doesn’t work so well so just go for the original kind, bubble bath works also.

Good luck and happy experimenting!

chemistry

Learning from Einstein

February 19, 2016 Ailie Rankin Leave a comment

Einstein quote

I saw this as I was eating my breakfast this morning and thought how this totally sums up learning through play. And explains why today we revisited gas.

This morning we looked at gas with the more scientific frame of mind, attempting to create a gas by mixing a liquid and a powder. We caught and measured the gas in the balloons again.

As usual we made and recorded predictions, observations and our thinking about why it happened (training the mind to think!).

Only one person predicted their solution wouldn’t make a gas:

Natalie – “I predict no gas.”

Everyone else predicted lots of gas would be made.

Innes chose a tablet and vinegar and predicted "a big gas" — Innes chose a tablet and vinegar and predicted “a big gas”

Lucy chose to mix a tablet and bubble bath and predicted "a big bit of gas". — Lucy chose to mix a tablet and bubble bath and predicted “a big bit of gas”.

Pearce chose to mix a tablet and vinegar and predicted "lot's of gas". — Pearce chose to mix a tablet and vinegar and predicted “lot’s of gas”.

In fact Sophia and Olivia selected their ingredients based on their past experience with the science. When asked why they had selected bicarbonate of soda and vinegar,

Olivia replied: “Because it’s going to get bigger and explode!”

and Sophia said, “Because I want mine to get ginormous!”

So there were a variety of results depending on the combination chosen.

We had to wotk together to crush the tablets.

We squeezed the balloons to feel the gas.

Olivia pours her bicarbonate of soda from her balloon into the vinegar.

Gabriel was disappointed when his mixture of fizzy water and icing sugar made very little gas.

Patrick was able to set up his expeiment with very little help.

Ryan liked watching the bubbles fizz and make the gas.

Sophia’s mixture made a lot more gas than Isla’s

carbonated water and effervescent vitamin tablet.

“Oh my gosh Sophia! That is soooo big!” – Millie

The most interesting however was the bubble bath + effervescent tablet………

You could see the crushed tablet sink into the bubble bath.

The crushed tablet took a while to mix with the bubble bath so nothing happened for a while.

After a while it mixed and produced a little gas!

Gracie and Bramble were able to apply their previous science learning to their understanding of what had happened…

"We made a potion. It forced up lots and lots of gas and made the balloon bigger and bigger!" - Gracie — “We made a potion. It forced up lots and lots of gas and made the balloon bigger and bigger!” – Gracie

"The balloon goed bigger and bigger 'cause of the experiment gas!"- Bramble — “The balloon goed bigger and bigger ’cause of the experiment gas!”- Bramble

Smart cookies eh?!

For the afternoon session I took to heart another Einstein quote……

So we just freely “researched” compounds and mixtures.

We talked about what was happening and what we wished to add to our mixtures.

We had to use our hand and finger muscles to squeeze the ingredients out of the bottle – this helps us prepare to write!

And the phrases “Oh my gosh!” and “Look at mine!” were heard aplenty when the vinegar, bicarbonate of soda, effervescent tablets and carbonated water began to mix.

We used a huge amount of maths language as we were experimenting – “more” ,”less”, “after”, “next”,” first” ,”higher”, “heavier” ,”lighter” as well as hearning myself model more science vocabulary.

Did you know that the greater a child’s vocabulary before school, the more success they have in school? You can read research suggesting that here and here.

Also did you know that the average person produces gas 14 times a day? (Thought Patrick might like that wee fact!) Why not amuse your family with more fart facts?

I’m sure Einstein would have been very proud!

Don’t forget to share the learning that your child shares at home and leave comments to let me know what you think of the experiments and the blog – especially any ideas or suggestions – Thank you!

chemistry

balloons and gas

February 17, 2016 Ailie Rankin 4 Comments

Today we looked and at and thought about balloons and gas. This was a follow up to Isla’s fab question last time:

“What is gas?”

So we started with our balloon holding bicarbonate of soda on a bottle containing vinegar. We discussed what happened when we mixed these ingredients on Monday.

“The bottle fell over and it just fizzed a bit” – Alf

So the consensus of prediction was that the bottle would fall over.

The balloon inflated however, much to the children’s delight!

“Arrgh! It’s getting bigger! It’s going to explode!!” – Patrick

We squeezed and shook the balloon and bottle and thought about the bubbles (which were made by the gas) and we decided to investigate – could we make a gas?

“Yes!” – Daniel “It’ll be like a bomb and explode!” – Patrick

We had bicarbonate of soda, vinegar, effervescent tablets, carbonated water, bubble bath, conditioners, shaving foam, caster and icing sugars.

We discussed safety as usual:

“Wash hands after.” – Innes “Don’t pop the balloons!” – Alex

“Move if you think it’ll explode!” – Daniel

Again there was disagreement about how long it would take….

“25 hundred” – Daniel “Just a minute or 2” – Patrick

"It'll take THIS long" — “It’ll take THIS long”

We mixed various ingredients and had a variety of results:

“It grew bigger and bigger and exploded like a bomb! It was going EVERYWHERE!” “It was because of the gas” – Patrick

“Look at mine! It’s like lava but it’s not hot!”

In the afternoon I structured it so that we were much more scientifically looking at the gas first. The children could choose what to mix and predict if it would make a gas to inflate the balloon or not.

"It might melt our eyes!" — “It might melt our eyes!”

It fizzed and bubbled out from under the lid.

It was not good, not enough gas” – Finn

"I'm scared it'll blow up" — “I’m scared it’ll blow up”

“It was small”- Belle

“It looks like a rocket” – Isla C.

"It just made a little gas." — “It just made a little gas.”

Sophia gave us the quote of the day………

“I am OBSESSED with all this gas! It’s like a hundred billion! It’s amazing!” “How much gas are you making????”

Our star scientist award has to go to Fraser though. He was one of the first to join the experiment and nearly the last to leave at the end of the morning. He quickly realised which ingredients gave the best fizzy results and experimented with differing amounts in various containers. He really focused on developing his learning about chemical reaction and gas! Well done Fraser!

Why not have a go at some mad mixing at home to create gases and explosions? Any household and kitchen ingredients could combine to make an interesting and possibly smelly concoction! Our fizzy favourites have to be the vinegar+ bicarbonate of soda or the carbonated water + effervescent tablets + bubble bath. Let us know how you get on, share any cool pictures or results.

And remember you can find lots of science ideas on our pinterest page.

Happy experimenting!

chemistry, physics

Rocket fuel and gas

February 15, 2016 Ailie Rankin Leave a comment

Following our success with our air pressure rocket, and Gracie’s suggestion, we decided to make an attempt to create our own rocket fuel to blast a bottle rocket into the air.

The ingredients for the explosion were the usual bicarbonate of soda and vinegar.

There were a range of predictions as to what would happen when we mixed the two (The main building children have not yet explored this mixture and so had no prior nursery experience to base these predictions on).

“Yass”[mimes blasting off into the air] “Blast Off!” – Iona

“It might come down,” -Eilidh

“Blast up” – Natalie

“It’s going to blast into space!” – Lauren

The air's going to make it go up! — The air’s going to make it go up!

It's going to fly in the air! — It’s going to fly in the air!

Brandon even wrote his prediction clearly that it would go..

However some of the children showed a great level of awareness and applied it to their prediction (or maybe they could just smell the vinegar soaked into my clothes!

"I think it's going to make mess everywhere!" — “I think it’s going to make mess everywhere!”

“It’ll mess everywhere” -Amy M.

We discussed ways of staying safe (staying well back, only Ailie was to touch the rocket when the bicarbonate of soda was added).

There was a debate about how long it would take to blast off.

“Fast” – Urban “3 minutes”- Lauren

“50 minutes” – James S. “4 minutes”- Amy M.

Well there were a range of results. Most of the attempts in the morning resulted in gentle fizzing and the plug gently popping out. Not exactly the blast we had hoped for.

WE carefully squeezed the vinegar into the rocket bottle.

This one fizzed a lot but still didn’t blast off.

It just fizzed and slowly pushed the plug out.

“When we put the first one down it didn’t blast off, it just went EVERYWHERE!” – Gabi

“It fell over and poured out.” – Urban

However we had a couple of explosions!

“It exploded!” – Eilidh

It went all up Ailie's sleeve, and her hair and her glasses!" — It went all up Ailie’s sleeve, and her hair and her glasses!”

“It exploded like a bomb!” – James

Unfortunately the successful rockets were so fast that we couldn’t get a photograph!

So we reviewed the experiment and came up with some ideas on how to improve….

“We need to fix it!” – Urban

“Make some things that would keep it on.” – Alf

In the end the most successful attempts were made using the plug that the vinegar bottle came with.

So why did it blast off (eventually)?

Well the vinegar and bicarbonate of soda reacted and created a gas. The pressure of the gas expanding in the bottle pushed the plug and gas out of the bottle with great force, pushing the bottle into the air!

Isla – “What is a gas?”

Hmmmmmm

Now there’s a question!

Well we could capture gas in a balloon to let us think about it.

We had to have a wee look at the static electricity generated by the balloon and the effect it has on our hair.

I think we need to have a wee look at balloons and gas next!

Please remember to leave a wee to comment share the learning!

And why not see if you have better luck than I with the rocket? There are various youtube video tutorials telling you how. Let us know how you get on!

Science blog from the children and staff of Kelly St. Children's Centre.