Primary 4/5 classroom becomes a shipyard

This afternoon, Primary 4/5 were very busy designing  ‘unsinkable’ boats.  We were each given a 2l bottle (boat), 2 bottle ends (bulk heads) and enough weights to half submerge our boat in the water. We had to work together in our groups to find the best place for our watertight compartments and the best distribuation of weight.

 

Every group had to ensure that their boat was level in the water with the bottle top half submerged.  When our hull was breached (bottle lid removed), we used ipads to time how long it took our ship to sink.  Our results showed that ships sink faster with no bulkheads.  We also discovered that if the there were too many weights at one end of the boat, it caused our breaced hull to rise above the water level giving us false results.

One group discovered that placing the bulkheads at either end of the ship with the weight evenly distributed was the most effective in allowing our boat to stay afloat.

 

Rainbow Science with Primary 4/5

This afternoon we were conducting a very exciting science experiment.  We used milk, food colouring and washing up liquid.

Firstly, we poured some milk into a bowl. We then added 3 drops of red, yellow, blue and green food colouring. Next, we got a cotton bud, dipped it into washing up liquid, then gently touched the milk with the cotton bud. It created a ‘colourful tornado.’

Some of the adjectives we used to describe the effect were: ‘extraordinary’ (Thomas), ‘scientific’ (Cuan), ‘a burst of rainbow colours’ (Millie), tie-dye (Riley and Sophie).

Come and visit us on Monday night at 7 pm to see it for yourself!

Floating and sinking with Primary 4/5

Primary 4/5 became scientists for the afternoon.  We were experimenting with an orange and a grape to see if they would float or sink.

A lot of us thought the orange would sink because it was heavier than the grape.  Imagine our surprise when our experiment showed it was the other way round.

Mrs Haigh (Emma’s mum) spoke to us about density and why the orange floats even though it’s heavier.  Did you know that the orange peel contains little air pockets that make it less dense than water?  This is why it floats.

We tested this theory by peeling the orange…it sank!

 

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