H2O

The ducks pictures are coming. That camera is still being held hostage.

I wanted our Friday lesson to focus on water....so, we tried 3 different experiments. (Note, we had guests for this one who didn't mind being photographed, but their names won't be mentioned here since this is a public blog).

Project number 1: Soda bottle TORNADO!

You will need:

an empty 2 liter soda bottle with a tight fitting cap
water
glitter
funnel

Fill your bottle almost full with water.

I passed the bottle to each child and allowed them to each use the funnel to pour generous amounts of glitter into the bottle. It takes a while for the glitter to settle, but this project works much better while the glitter is still bunched on top of the water.

Tightly cap the bottle and, holding the bottle between both hands, shake the bottle in a rotating motion vigorously. When you put the bottle down, you will be able to see a "tornado" in the middle where the water spins and sucks the glitter to the middle.

Centrifugal and centripital force can be discussed here. Our resident doctor helped on that :) It was lovely to have other adults available to add information for the kids.







Project number 2: Emulsions!

You will need:

room temperature milk
cups
food coloring
liquid soap

The pictures for this project involve a bowl. We found that cups work far better, however, use what you have on hand. The fat content of the milk may have made the container a moot point. I'll address that further in a moment.

Allow the kids to put drops of food coloring onto the milk. They will remain suspended. Slowly drop liquid soap into the drops of food coloring. The soap will react with the coloring in an amazing way as the soap breaks the surface tension of the milk. I have seen this referred to as "tie dye" milk. All I know is it was super cool.

Things I learned later: It is best to use milk with a higher fat content (more fat molecules are available to bond with the soap molecules for a better effect) AND it is better to use as many colors as possible to create the greatest affect. This can be a segue for molecular bonding if you want...as you add more soap and more reactions occur you can address the fat molecules in the milk that had been previously left unpartnered.

Side note: Blue food coloring seemed to react the best. We couldn't figure that one out.









Project number 3: Emulsions revisited :)

You will need:

a clear glass
oil
water
food coloring
liquid soap

The kids got a huge kick out of this...the adults did as well. We let them watch the oil turn into droplets in the water and float to the surface. We discussed that oil and water don't mix. If you want to get into a polarity discussion, you can, but kids between 2 and 5 are probably not there yet.

We added drops of food coloring which sat on the surface of the oil briefly, then slowly penetrated the oil. As they began to drop out of the oil, we dropped in some soap to break the surface tension again and got more swirls and movement in the liquids.





This was a great opportunity to discuss ducks (funny we'd had a duck visit that week and one of the adults thought to bring this up) and the way the oils in their feathers repel water. We did not address the more significant (in regards to flotation) factors of bouyancy, uropygial glands or hollow bones (although the topics were touched on). I guess this is an excuse for more water projects another day!

Then the kids killed a bunch of apples and bowls full of Nutella and peanut butter.

Enjoy your projects! More next week!