Category Archives: 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!

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.

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: