All posts by Ailie Rankin

I am a Peripatetic Nursery Teacher in Inverclyde, based in Kelly Street Children's Centre and also working in Bluebird Family Centre. I am passionate about early years education in particular play, attachment and learning out loud. I'm just new at this blogging but always up for a blether - pop in and say hi!

physics, weather

Rockets and rain

February 5, 2016 Ailie Rankin 1 Comment

Well the weather didn’t listen to our plea. However, a bit of rain never stops science! It certainly didn’t dampen our spirits any.

Due to the weather we neglected our recording in our log book so this post will just be photos of the experiments themselves. Why not ask your child to share their hypothesis and conclusions with you as you share the blog?

“We need to do it outside!” said Nathan on Wednesday and that is exactly what we did. However this added a new force into the experiment – the wind! And one of the rockets had a difference too.

One of the rockets had gotten damaged and the fins had come off. How would it affect the flight?

“It’s not going to fly as good.” – Kobe

We took turns and helped one another when preparing for take off!

Most of the rockets flew really high outside. The one without fins flew less well so Kobe was right!

“My rocket is going to hit a seagull!” -Eve

The massive forces applied by the children made the rockets fly very high!

That wee dot is actually our rocket – the forces we applied had a great effect.

But the force applied by the wind was strong too and we lost one of our rockets altogether (it seemed to disappear. We couldn’t see where it went due to the rain!) And 3 rockets were blown onto the roof!

“We need a ladder!” – Heidi

“It’s not safe for a ladder. You might fall off and have to go to hospital!” – Evie

The wind exerted a force on the rocket and blew it onto the roof!

We decided to leave them for now.

Daniel took a run and jump to apply a big force and make the rocket fly high.

Believe it or not this is the best picture I could get of Zackary

So the rockets flew higher outside when there was no roof to bounce off. But the wind’s force affected the flight and the landing.

The learning wasn’t restricted to the science though. We were reinforcing sequence and order of number as we counted down to blast off. We developed our negotiation skills and used mathematical language of sequence and order when discussing who’s turn it would be,

“Can I go first?” – Evie

“Can I be second then?” – Bramble

“I’ll be third!” -Elise

“I’ll be next, I’ll be after Elise.” -Jude

We had to listen for information when we discussed the safety procedure (ensuring we were “clear for take off”). We followed instructions to go to the allocated area of the playground and stay safe inside the playground even when the rockets kept getting blown out on to the street despite the temptation to go and fetch them back. That’s not to mention the abundance of comparative size language – “higher, lower, more force, less force,” even “greater force”and as Jude said….

“I think that was a lesser force Ailie”

Ooooft it was a lot of work and not just physically!

But our next steps?

“Let’s make our own rockets to fly! We could make a new force!”

-Gracie

Hmmm a wee visit to Pinterest over the weekend may be in order.

Have a great midterm break. Our science will start again on Friday (hopefully all dried out by then 😝).

Thank you for your lovely comments. We love hearing about how you and your children are sharing learning at home. If you have any suggestions for experiments and / or improvements to the blog please get in touch.

physics

Fighting gravity

February 3, 2016 Ailie Rankin 3 Comments

Since we have explored gravity and how it effects dropped objects (the same regardless of mass) perhaps we should think about what is needed to escape gravity.

In order to do this we need to consider forces.

So we exerted forces on one another with the hula hoops, staying safe of course!

The biggest force was the one that determined the direction.

We really put our backs into exerting our forces!

Lara even used the radiator guard to help her exert more force!

But Gracie gave as good as she got and used a big force too!

But something unexpected happened! As Lara recorded on the logbook.

Lara recorded that the large force placed on the hula hoop broke it!

“We were learning about force and I had quite a lot of force (it was about 20 million) and the hula hoop burst right open!

Lara told her friends about what happened using the word "force"! — Lara told her friends about what happened using the word “force”!

Isla applied most force so she pulled Ryan toward her.

Then we thought about what kind of forces could be made to oppose gravity. Would it need to be a little force or a big force? What difference would the size of the force make? We explored this with our very own rockets!

We were in agreement with our predictions:

Elise: “We’ll need a big force”

Of course we needed to stay safe as always!

“We have to watch – it will fall!”: Caoimhe

“We need to stay on gravity.” Ross M.

“We could go somewhere else.”: Harmony

“We could wear an umbrella on our head”: Isla M.

We went with Ryan D and Gracie’s ideas though.

There was a conversation about the best way to exert the force to make the stomper rocket blast off:

Lara: “You push it like this.”[ Demonstrating with her hands].

Ross M: “No you do it with a foot.”

Caoimhe: “You need to put 2 feet on it – look” [shows the others the picture on the box].

There was some debate over the length of time the rocket would take to fly…

Harmony: “Oh ages – 100 days”

Ryan D.: “25 years”

Elyse: “22”

Ross M.: “100 minutes”

Isla M.: 1 minute

Caoimhe: “50 minutes”

It was a little faster. (In fact it was so fast that the camera couldn’t catch more than a blur!)

We used some of our numeracy skills to help us prepare for blast off. (Counting down helps children understand the sequence of numbers and is the first steps towards subtraction!)

Charlie realised that if you jumped on to the pump you could apply more force. Natalie took a run and jump to get even greater force. Then Euan worked out that he could jump from the step to use gravity to add force!

So the greater the force, the further the rocket would fly.

“Wow – that was a really big force!”: Eve

“If you went slowly it would go a wee bit low.”: Patrick

“Our force made it go up”: Ross M.

We put our hands over the end of the tube tosee what the force felt like.

“So the air pushes it up and up” : Patrick

Sophie applied such force that the rocket jammed and got stuck in the light! We had to get Roseann to bash it out with a big long pole!

So were our predictions right? YES! yes

(With one exception…. “It was faster.”: Harmony)

The rocket bashed off the ceiling most times so we don’t know how high it could go if nothing stopped it. To test that we’ll have to go outside!

(I hope it’s dry on Friday!)

Want to extend the learning at home? Here are some very simple ideas to reinforce you child’s understanding of gravity and forces.

Happy experimenting!

physics

What is gravity and why is it not in space?

February 1, 2016 Ailie Rankin 13 Comments

You may have heard and seen onTwitter that the children in the main building have been learning about space recently. Some of this has been by watching clips of Commander Chris Hadfield in the International Space Station

During these clips we have looked at the effect of being away from most of Earth’s gravity, and how this effects daily routines such as washing etc. So we know that little gravity means things float but what does gravity mean on Earth, where it is stronger, and why is it stronger on Earth?

We set out to explore gravity. We started by experimenting to see if all objects are effected the same way – does everything fall? Do some things fall faster/ slower?

We chose our objects and made predictions:

Caoimhe chose to compare the ball and the tiny pom pom. Her prediction was that the ball would hit the ground first.

Caiomhe predicted the ball would land first because "It is bumpy" — Caiomhe predicted the ball would land first because “It is bumpy”

Patrick discovered that it had to be a fair test and that the objects needed to start from the same height and at the same time. His experiment had to be redone twice over to ensure a fair test!

Caoimhe recorded that the height would need to stay the same.

He predicted the swing would land first as "It's heavier". — He predicted the swing would land first as “It’s heavier”.

We tested our hypothesis.

Frazer chose two different sized pine cones. He predicted they would "go together". — Frazer chose two different sized pine cones. He predicted they would “go together”.

"The 2 balls hit the ground first!" — “The 2 balls hit the ground first!”

"They fell together" — “They fell together”

But why don’t you have a look at the predictions and experiments themselves! Look at Holly’s prediction and Ryan’s prediction.

Have a look at Lauren’s experiment, Holly’s experiment, Gaby’s experiment , Amy D’s experiment and the experiments of Finn , Brandon , and An, who goes at 2!

So what happened?

Maybe we should ask for Ryan’s conclusions, Lyall’s gravity explanation or Isla’s conclusion.

“they all fall at the same time ’cause of gravity!” Eve

We reviewed our predictions:

"I'll just do a cross because I was wrong" — “I’ll just do a cross because I was wrong”

Then we looked at hankies – two hankies the same should land at the same time – just as everything else right? Wrong! If one was scrunched up and the other flat, the air resistance made a difference, slowing the flat one.

So everything fell at the same speed unless the air drag slowed it down. The air drag acts as an opposing force.

Hmmmm…………. what else could make an opposing force to gravity?

Want to find out more about gravity? Have a look here or here.

Why not try your own experiments and let us know how you get on!

Campus, chemistry

Christmas Science

January 30, 2016 Ailie Rankin Leave a comment

At christmas time the learning continued (you may have noticed the onset of the season in some of the previous posts’ pictures).

It was only right that the science that we explored be linked to not only the previous sessions but also the festivities – helping us all to apply the learning in a meaningful context.

Building on our observations of the changing state of the foam from the Elephant’s toothpaste, we looked at changing states again but of sugar, in the form of candy canes.

We considered what happens to candy when you leave it in your mouth for a wee while. Then considered the results of different solutions – hot water, cold water, carbonated water, vinegar or oil.

The previous experiences influenced our predictions.

Put it in vinegar - it'll make bubbles. — Put it in vinegar – it’ll make bubbles.

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

"It's going to be bright like a sun!" — “It’s going to be bright like a sun!”

"They will go red"[the liquids] "Carbonated water first, vinegar last" — “They will go red”[the liquids] “Carbonated water first, vinegar last”

So Matthew guessed the differences in the liquids would affect the candy canes the same way but over different times, most children predicted the candy canes would react the same way in all the solutions. But Mathew was closest.

We think and talk about our predictions.

We popped one candy cane each into testubes of different solutions.

We ran out of candy canes for the afternoon so had to check the pieces we used were about the same size.

We wanted to have ownership of the different test tubes in the afternoon so we could almost make it a competition!

We took notes and recorded our findings.

The solutions in some of the test tubes began to change

We lifted the canes up and out every now and again to check on them.

We agitated the mixture by shaking it to see if it changed the process.

Some of the candy canes had gotten a lot thinner! They had disolved!

“It’s snapped! The hot water one broke!”

We laid the left over canes out side by side so that we could compare them more easily.

The canes had changed a lot, they were quite different.

We talked about what we thought had happened.

The hot water seemed to have had the most effect.

The candy cane that had been in the hot water had almost disolved completely. The oil one hadn’t changed at all.

“The oil one will never change” Ramsay

We were quite intrigued about the differences and the disolving and so we came up with ideas of other things we could try the candy canes in.

Emily chose milk and predicted. “It’ll turn the milk pink”

It did but the cane hardly disolved in the time it took hot water to work.

Eilidh chose bubble bath and predicted a pink cloud.

We used lots of descriptive and comparative language when we looked at more than one test tube.

Erin tried orange juice and predicted a change in colour.

“A cloud! A cloud! It’s making a wee pink cloud!”

Only Emily’s disolved in any noticable way, although they were all very very sticky which suggest the process started with them all in some way.

So now we know: sugar disolves in water but not oil, and the temperature of the water can speed up or slow down the process.

We also know science doesn’t need to stop at Christmas! You can always investigate H2Ho Ho Ho!

(Too far?)

For more easy science why not check out Pinterest.

Or Happy Hooligans has some fun ideas also.

Don’t forget to leave a comment or share your experiment and learning with us!

Happy experimenting

Campus, chemistry

Elephant’s Toothpaste

January 29, 2016 Ailie Rankin Leave a comment

While working on the potions it became clear that erupting and exploding reactions were the ones that the children sought the most. After a quick browse on Pinterest we came across Elephant’s Toothpaste. How could we resist?

We used hydrogen peroxide as part of this experiment which is obviously nasty on the skin so some time was spent discussing ways of ensuring we were safe. This is always part of our process but was especially focussed on for this experiment.

We were careful to keep our hands away from the bottles –

“It’s dangerous! Don’t touch! But we can watch.”

The hydrogen peroxide was mixed with a little washing up liquid and food colouring, grown ups needed to do that bit. The experiment used yeast as well which we could touch and so help with that.

We watched closely as Ailie carefully poured the chemicals together.

Then we poured the mixtures together….

We had a range of different predictions. Alfie thought the yeast would turn green. Millie predicted it would go bubbly. Jack thought it would turn into water. Everyone else just thought the colour would change. However no-one predicted quite what happened.

“It Exploded!!” – Alfie

It foamed up and over the top and kept growing.

The peroxide and yeast have an exothermic reaction (it releases heat) which burns all the peroxide away leaving hydrogen and oxygen which with the washing up liquid means it turns into harmless foam. The reaction continues until all the yeast or the peroxide is gone so the foam keeps growing.

Or as Ramsay put it…

There was a bottle and it went over the bottle and made a volcano!

Here are our volcanic eruptions:

Some seemed to go on for longer and make more foam.

We carefully touched the foam – it was warm!

When they slowed right down the, Ailie took the dangerous bottles away.

So then we were left with coloured foam. Hmmmm what could we do with that? Well we had to play and explore the texture and colours of course!

We were fascinated with the mixing colours.

The afternoon children were more tentative.

After a while it all turned pink and slimy.

We found we could draw patterns and marks in it.

It was great for early writing patterns.

Eventually the mixture got a little too runny. But it was fun to make a huge circle pattern by running around and around the tough spot. There was only one way to make it better….

The instructions for elephants toothpaste can be found on Pinterest. The hydrogen peroxide can be bought at Sally’s and the yeast can be bought at any supermarket in the baking section.

Please remember that anti bacterial washing up liquid is NOT to be used in the experiment. Cheap bubble bath can be substituted instead.

Why not have a go yourself? Don’t forget to share how you get on in our comments.

Happy experimenting!

Campus, chemistry

Mad Mixing!

January 29, 2016 Ailie Rankin Leave a comment

Inspired by Isla and Amelia’s interest we looked at potion making, chemistry and solutions.

We started of by thinking about what happens when things mix. Most children predicted it would just change colour.

The bottle holds vinegar, the balloon hold bicarbonate of soda.

The chemicals reacted and released a gas! It expanded and made the balloon inflate!

It didn’t just change colour! It created a gas that inflated the balloon. And boy did the balloons inflate!

Millie predicted the balloon would grow to touch the ceiling!

Mason thought the inflating would be multiplied by tipping the vinegar into the balloon. (It didn’t.)

Noemi checked the tension of the balloon by tapping gently with the magnifying glass.

The balloons made different shapes depending on the amounts of soda and vinegar that was mixed.

Some of the mixtures spilled out of the balloons due to the pressure.

The solution that had spilled out felt fizzy on our fingers.

We decided to investigate what made the fizz and the gas. Could we recreate the reaction with other materials?

The mad mixing potions began!

We used a range of household chemicals and substances : conditioner, bubble bath, baby oil, vinegar, bicarbonate of soda, effervescent vitamin tablets, warm water, cold water, carbonated water. And we got a range of results!

The effervescent tablets made our potions expand and overflow.

We used beakers and test tubes and droppers and pipettes.

Some potions fizzed up and over quickly.

Some potions were foamy and smelled nice.

Isaac was really curious about the mixtures and spent all session exploring different reactions.

The tablets fizzed in our wet hands – they tickled!

Alfie was the first to realise exactly what caused the fizzing over – the bubble bath, carbonated water and tablet.

Olivia’s potion made lovely big bubbles that would pop.

Eilidh used pipettes to measure out ingredients and also to mix them.

Why not have a look at our log books to see what we said about our potions.

It was so interesting we decided to try it again another day!

Again some potions didn’t mix – this time we noted it was the ones with oil in.

Our potions came out more bubbly this time.

We helped each other pour out our ingredients. We had to use strong finger muscles and coordination to do this. (This will help us get ready to write!)

We remembered the things we learned about the mixtures from the last time and we used that to make things happen as we wanted.

We were able to apply our learning from the previous time to this new experiment and were able to predict the results much more successfully.

Why not try some mad mixing at home? Any kitchen ingredients can make some crazy potions (and smells)!

If you want to find out more about home science why not have a wee look at Nina and the Neurons or The Royal Institution’s website for some ideas.

Don’t forget we have a Pinterest board with science ideas too!

Let us know how you got on – you could even send us photos of the mad mixtures through our comments.

Happy mixing!

Campus, weather

How does it rain?

January 27, 2016 Ailie Rankin Leave a comment

Well after our success with making a cloud we just had to think about why some clouds rained and why others didn’t?

So we conducted an experiment to investigate this.

We hypothesised it was about the quantity of water the cloud had soaked up, and recorded these in our science logbook.

Daniel recorded that he predicted clouds needed more water to make rain.

Alex predicted that the cloud with less water would make rain.

So we set up our experiment….

We started with a tub of plain water to represent the air.

We squirted shaving foam on top to be the cloud.

The foam floated on top of the water, like a cloud hanging in the sky.

We used dropper s to pick up and drop blue food colouring onto the foam.

We used blue colouring to pretend it was water in the clouds. The dye meant we could see what happened to it. We added a tiny bit to one and a lot more to another.

We looked closely through the magnifying glasses.

We talked about what we thought was happening. One cloud had made rain!

We looked again. Daniel and Alex added more dye to see what would happen.

The clouds with lots of dye ‘water’ rained for a while.

We recorded our findings in our logbook.

Natalie recorded that the large cloud stayed the same when the little cloud let rain through

Rebekah recorded the rain falling from the cloud.

So clouds with lots of water are the ones that make rain. If a cloud only has a little water, it doesn’t. Lots of water is heavier than a little water so the water falls down when there is enough in the cloud to be heavy, but big clouds need more water to become too heavy and rain.

But we didn’t stop there. Chloe and Amelia wanted to see if they could speed things up by mixing the cloud (foam) and (water) air.

Investigating best stirring implement – glue spreader or paint brush?

“I’m going to make mine sparkly like Elsa”.

That got us thinking about potions and mixing – what could we add to what? Would different things happen? Hmmmm.

Campus, weather

The afternoon Campus children were interested too……

January 25, 2016 Ailie Rankin Leave a comment

But the weather had changed! It had rained, so that led us to think about where the rain comes from?

Chloe: “The clouds – it falls out the clouds.”

The rain made puddles, and came from the clouds but how did it get into the clouds?

So a cloud is made of water that has evaporated (turned into a gas)from a source of water like a puddle or river or sea.Then it has gotten cold again and condensed (turned back into tiny wee water droplets) sticking onto miniscule bits of dirty air.

You can make a cloud too!

All you need is: