Tuesday, December 10, 2019

ice fishing

Ice Fishing 

Aim/Purpose:
To see how salt can affect ice or react with ice


Materials 
  • Small paper cups, bowl or an ice cube tray
  • Glass of water
  • String (yarn or kite string works great)
  • Small stick
  • Salt
Steps/Method:
  1. Fill the cup or tray up with water and place it in the freezer.  You can also use ice cubes from your freezer and skip this step.
  2. When the water is frozen, remove the ice from the cup or tray.
  3. Put the ice in the glass or bowl of water. The cube will bob up and down in the water and then float on the top.
  4. Place one end of the string from the fishing pole on top of the ice cube and sprinkle salt on the ice where the string is touching. Watch as the water melts slightly and refreezes.
  5. After about 10 seconds, carefully lift the ice cube out of the water with the fishing pole. You caught a fish (ice)!
My results:
Salt - The string stuck really well to the ice and pulled the ice cubes up out of the water
Sugar - The string didn’t stick to the ice cubes and none of them were pulled up out of the water.  Some people started to see the ice cubes stick - but it then failed after that.
Flour - THe ice didn’t stick to the string at all 
Pepper - The ice didn’t stick to the string at all 
More salt than normal - The ice still got picked up by the string

Changing the variables
Don’t wet the string before hand 
Use only a little salt
Using lots of salt 
Try to catch the ice using sugar instead of salt 
Try to catch the ice using pepper instead of salt
Try to catch the ice using flour instead of salt
Change the time period that you wait before trying to pick up the string.
Resources:
  • Ice
  • Plate
  • Salt
  • String
  • water


Explanation - Why does it work?
When salt goes over ice it melts.  In the ice fishing experiment, the ice melts a little bit and then refreezes.  The string gets frozen to the pieces of ice to make it stick on because of the water around it.









Sunday, December 1, 2019

Water Filter Experiment

Water Filter Experiment 

Aim/ Purpose - 
To filter or clean water using a number of materials 
How to clean/filter water - making it clean

Materials -
Sand, 
gravel, 
activated charcoal, 
cotton wool, 
plastic bottles cut in half,
bucket of dirty water (can make the water dirty with soil or whatever from outside)

Predictions - What is going to work best?  What steps/process and in what order - why?
Cotton wool at the bottom - It will absorb the smaller dirt particles from the dirty water
2nd layer up - gravel - The gravel will grab onto the dirty parts and the clean water will drip off the gravel through the gaps.
Second Layer Up  - Charcoal - Second smallest material, can absorb the things not cleared by the bigger materials.
Third Layer Up - Sand - Turns hard when it’s wet - Take all the bigger dirt particles 
Top layer - Gravel - All the hugest dirt particles out first.  

Method/Steps:
First, you put cotton balls at the bottom.
Then you put a sprinkle of activated charcoal.
Next, you put sand.
And finally, you put in some fine gravel.

Explanation - How did it work?
The gravel takes all the large pieces out of the water.
Then the sand takes smaller pieces that have passed the gravel.
The charcoal absorbs tiny particles of dirt and other things
The cotton wool holds all the contents from falling through

Why is it important for cities/towns etc to purify and clean the water before it gets to peoples’ homes?
In New Zealand cities and towns, clean water is pumped straight into our homes. We have systems to monitor how safe our water is for drinking, and to manage where our water goes. It also helps to stop illnesses, algae and bacteria from getting in our body which will cause us to get sick.



Baking Soda and vinegar Inquiry Experiment

Inquiry experiment  


Aim/Purpose : 
To see what happens when baking soda and vinegar mix/combine 
To see the reaction that occurs when these two substances are mixed

Prediction - What do we think is going to happen:
We think it will explode/ It’s going to blow up
The ziplock bag will pop open and the liquid will spill out
It could fizz up 
The bag might fill up with air 
Fizz up like soda when shaken
The air pressure created inside the bag will cause the seal on the bag to pop open

Steps:     
  1.  Open up a paper towel on a flat surface
  2. Put 4 levelled teaspoons of baking soda in the centre of the paper towel
  3. Wrap up the baking soda in the paper towel like a package - Keep the baking soda concentrated in the middle of the paper towel
  4. Tape down your package of baking soda with a piece of masking tape so that everything stays in place
  5. Open the vinegar and pour it into a cup - until the cup is half full
  6. Then open a zip lock bag and pour the vinegar into it
  7. Hold the package inside the zip lock bag, making sure it doesn’t yet make contact with the vinegar - then zip up the bag - making sure that it is completely closed
  8. Let the package of baking soda drop into the vinegar and shake the bag up a little so that they start to mix
  9. Observe what happens

Materials/equipment:

  • Baking Soda  (4 x tablespoons) 
  • Vinegar (half a cup)
  • Ziplock sandwich bags 
  • Plastic spoon
  • Paper towel 
  • Masking tape

The Result - What did we see happen?
When we dropped the baking soda in it reacted with the vinegar. The air pressure raised. It fizzed up and exploded. All the vinegar and baking soda leaked out.

Variables - How could we change the variables?
Predict what might happen if we change the variables 
Lots of baking soda but not much vinegar.
Lots of vinegar but not much baking soda.

Experiment - Were our predictions accurate?
Put 5 or more teaspoons of baking soda into the package - Bigger explosion/more powerful 
If there is too much baking soda and not enough vinegar, it may not work

Put more vinegar  - Bigger explosion/not pop  

Way less baking soda and wrapped in more paper towels - nothing - it would take a longer time to see a reaction 

Baking soda - With no package surrounding it - The reaction would happen instantly and uncontrollably 

The Science - Why did it happen?  Here are some websites to look at…. You may be able to find other websites too!
The first reaction is the acid-base reaction. When vinegar and baking soda are first mixed together, hydrogen ions in the vinegar react with the sodium and bicarbonate ions in the baking soda. ... The carbonic acid formed as a result of the first reaction immediately begins to decompose into water and carbon dioxide gas.