Fizz Inflator Science Experiment

This was such a GREAT experiment! We did this one a few days after we launched our canister rockets. Once my kids got started with the experiment and the balloon started to inflate-I had kids thinking the balloon was going to explode.

Again, there are many variations of this all over the Internet. I chose to stick with Science Bob's directions.

What You Will Need:

One small empty plastic soda or water bottle

1/2 cup of vinegar

Small balloon

Baking soda

Funnel or piece of paper 

What You Will Do:
1. Carefully pour the vinegar into the bottle.

2. This is the tricky part: Loosen up the balloon by stretching it a few times and then use the funnel to fill it a bit more than half way with baking soda. If you don't have a funnel you can make one using the paper and some tape.

3. Now carefully put the neck of the balloon all the way over the neck of the bottle without letting any baking soda into the bottle.

4. Ready? Lift the balloon up so that the baking soda falls from the balloon into the bottle

The Science:
The baking soda and the vinegar create an acid base reaction and the two chemicals work together to create a gas, (carbon dioxide). Gasses need a lot of room to spread out and the carbon dioxide starts to fill the bottle, and then moves into the balloon to inflate it.

Questions To Make it an Experiment:
 1. Does water temperature affect how fast the balloon fills up?
2. Does the size of the bottle affect how much the balloon fills?
3. Can the amount the balloon fills-up be controlled by the amount of vinegar or baking soda?

A video (they used 1/4 cup vinegar and if you don't have a funnel they show you how to make one with paper).

            

 
 

Film Canister Rocket Experiment

We did this experiment during our chemical reaction unit. My kids loved it! I saw this experiment in one form or another all over the Internet. The difficult part was trying to find film canisters in our digital age. This is how I came across Science Bob's website. He has a lot of great ideas and sells film canisters!

What You Will Need:

• film canister (35mm, the white canisters work better than the black canisters with the grey lids)
• effervescent tablet (Alka-Seltzer)
• water
• plastic teaspoon
• safety goggles

What You Will Do:

You will want to do this outside. The canister lids can launch pretty high and fast!

1. Break an antacid tablet in half
2. Remove the lid from the film canister and put one teaspoon of water in the canister
3. Drop half the tablet inside the canister and quickly snap the lid back on
4. Quickly place the canister on the ground cap side down and step back...far back
5. About 10 seconds later you will hear a pop and see the canister fly into the air

If the canister does not launch in the air, wait an additional 30 seconds before examining the canister. The lid may have not been put on tightly and gas may have leaked out thus resulting in a longer wait time until the canister is launched into the air.

I had my students work in groups and they took their science notebooks outside. They were to record their observations. After they all did the initial experiment with the half tablet of Alka-Seltzer and one teaspoon of water, I asked my the following questions (I got them from the Science Bob website):

1. How much water will give the quickest launch?
2. How much water in the canister will give the highest launch?
3. Does the size of the Alka-Seltzer tablet affect how long it takes for the canister to launch?
4. Does water temperature affect how fast the rocket launches?

 

In their groups they came up with a hypothesis and went to work. It was great seeing them try out different things and making connections to what we were learning in class. As I roamed around the discussions I heard were awesome!

 

The Science:
As the antacid tablet fizzes, carbon dioxide is released inside the canister. Pressure from the gas builds and eventually pops the lid off. The thrust, or push, of your rocket is related to how much pressure built up inside the canister before the top popped off.

Check out this GREAT video where Science Bob and Jimmey Kimmel launch over 1,000 film canisters!

         

   

 

Elephant Toothpaste Experiment: Chemical Reactions

 

One of my favorite units to teach during the year is our chemical reaction unit. There are so many nifty experiments the students can participate in. It really gets them excited and engaged in the concept. They LOVED the elephant toothpaste experiment. It's an exciting science experiment that allows for great discussions on chemical reactions. You can do this as a demonstration or turn it into a science experiment. I decided that with this experiment, I would do it and my students would observe and discuss in their groups what was happening. I didn't want them handling the hydrogen peroxide (the experiment uses a strong peroxide). Once the foam began to come out of the bottle I  allowed a few students to touch the bottle to feel the warmth created by the chemical reaction that took place in the bottle.

 

What you will need:

• clean 16 ounce plastic bottle
• 1/2 cup 20 volume hydrogen peroxide liquid (20 volume is a 6% solution, you will need to purchase it from a beauty supply store)  Do not use anything higher than a 6% solution either.{It is important to use 6%, the 3% peroxide from the grocery store will NOT work as well}
• 1 tablespoon (one packet) of dry yeast
• 3 tablespoons of warm water
• liquid dish soap
• food coloring
• tray (for easy clean up)
• funnel
• small bowl/cup
• safety goggles

What you will do:

1. Add 5-6 drops of food coloring into the bottle.
2. Add about 1 tablespoon of liquid dish soap into the bottle and wish the bottle around to mix it.
3. In a separate small cup/bowl, combine the warm water and the yeast (the yeast will speed up the reaction) together and mix for about 30 seconds.
4. Now pour the yeast water mixture into the bottle (use a funnel) and watch the foaming action begin!
5. Make sure you stand away from the bottle (not directly above it) the foam forms quickly and can shoot quite high out of the bottle.

What's happening?
Hydrogen peroxide naturally breaks down into water and oxygen. Each foam bubble is filled with oxygen. The yeast speeds up the reaction. The yeast acted as catalyst to remove the oxygen from the hydrogen peroxide. Since it did this very fast, it created lots and lots of bubbles.Dish soap catches the oxygen and makes bigger bubbles and the food coloring makes it look cool.  The bottle gets warm because it created a reaction called an exothermic reaction. That means it not only created foam, but it created heat too. The foam produced is just water, soap, and oxygen so you can clean it up with a sponge and pour any liquid left in the bottle down the drain.

Questions for our experiment

In their science journals, my students discussed and answered the following questions:

1. Does the amount of yeast change the amount of foam produced?
2. Does the experiment work as well if you add the dry yeast without mixing it with water?
3. Does the size of the bottle affect the amount of foam produced?

In their groups the students discussed what they thought would happen. Wrote their thoughts in their journals and observed me as we made the changes. It was a lot of fun!

The questions came from  Science Bob. I love his website, lots of fun experiments and he has some great videos on his site. Another great site filled with experiments is Steve Spangler Science.

Check out the video below for an awesome video of the elephant toothpaste in action! Now his elephant toothpaste was done at an extreme level (not to be done at home or in the classroom).

Our foam came out slowly for some reason the first time. Once it slowed way down, I had a couple students feel the bottle to feel the warmth that was created.

Space Exposed Cinnamon Basil Seeds vs. Earth Based Cinnamon Basil Seeds

Last summer I was chosen to attend the Mickelson ExxonMobil Teacher Academy and learned SO much! While there I met NASA astronaut Barbara Morgan and at our closing dinner we were given packs of cinnamon basil seeds that had flown in space and a control pack (Earth based seeds). Unfortunately, the seeds are no longer available. Sad face. NASA partnered up with Park Seed Company to give teachers the seeds.

Three million seeds from an experiment, Materials International Space Station Experiment (MISSE-3 and -4), were flown on the International Space Station for a year. MISSE was a series of suitcase sized test beds containing many different materials include seeds that were placed outside the station to test how they withstood the harsh environment of space.

The MISSE seeds I had were flown to space onboard the Discovery Space Shuttle and attached to the exterior of the International Space Station on July 4, 2006. The seeds returned to Earth onboard the Endeavor Space Shuttle on August 21, 2007.

My students worked on a science investigation in which they compared the cinnamon basil plants and the earth based cinnamon basil plants.

Using the Scientific Method:

Our Purpose:

Student Driven Hypothesis Statement:

Student Questions for our Investigation:

The First Sprout:

Earth-Based!!!

I have some seeds left and will definitely have my students partake in this investigation next year. I may even have them build and test designs for lunar plant growth chambers! 

Let's Make a Stomach! The Digestive System!

I heart science! We've just started our unit on the human body systems. This past week we focused on the digestive system. I found this activity on this website. It also had an activity for making the small intestine. I didn't have time to try it out this year, maybe next year. I noticed that Teaching in Room 6 (she is amazing by the way...tons of awesome 5th grade activities) did the same experiment, but added the component of water (to mimic saliva). Which totally makes sense!

 

What you'll need:
1 zip-lock plastic bag
a couple crackers
1 tablespoon water
orange juice

What they'll do: (They used their science notebooks to think about each part of the activity and write their response)
-The bag is going to be the stomach
-Break the crackers into pieces and drop them into the bag
 **What are your hands acting as? (The mouth that breaks the food into little pieces)
-Next put 1 or 2 teaspoons of water into the bag. Have the students mush it around.
**What is the water acting as? (saliva)
-Now pour a little orange juice into the bag. Again, have the students mush it around.
**What is the orange juice acting as? (digestive juices/acids)
-Observe what is happening to the crackers.
**Write your observation in your journal
-Now squeeze the bag for one minute
**What are your hands acting as? (your hands are acting like the stomach walls that squeeze the food you eat)
**What happens to the crackers? Are they liquid now? (That means the stomach's job has finished and the food is ready to be sent to the intestines where the water and nutrients will be absorbed.)

Science Bob is a fabulous website with tons of information, videos, experiments, and a store (I bought my film canisters for our rockets there). It has a great info page about the digestive system (it's printable too).

Study Jams is another great site with video clips or slide shows (math and science).

Brain Pop has a lot of animated video clips with good information for all academic areas. My students enjoyed the digestive system video. You do need to sign up for a membership with this one though.

We Made Lava Lamps!

This week I only have 9 out of my 29 students in class. The rest of my kids are at camp (only 80 students are able to go, so the first 80 kids who brought back their paperwork were chosen).  I have one super sweet boy who went last year and said this year he stayed behind so someone who may not have gone last year can go this year. Melts my heart!

So this week has been a great week to review concepts, work on our writing, and of course some fun stuff...dot art and lava lamps!

My students had a blast making their lava lamps! Of course, I had to turn it into a science exploration. So  I told my students what the ingredients were for the lava lamp and they came up with a hypothesis to test. Earlier this year we talked about mixtures, solutions, and chemical reactions. This helped them form their hypothesis.

Here is what you'll need:

• plastic water bottle
• 1/4 cup water
• 3-4 drops food color
• vegetable oil
• effervescent tablets (Alka-Seltzer)
• funnel
• flashlight (or cell phone light... as in my case)

Directions:

First pour 1/4 cup water into the water bottle and then add 3-4 drops of food coloring. 

Next, fill the rest of the water bottle with vegetable oil. Before they poured the vegetable oil in the water bottle, I asked them to make a prediction on what would happen. After they poured the vegetable oil in the water bottle, I had them record their observations in their science journals. I then asked them to think about why the water and food coloring mixed together, but not the oil. We also discussed density and how water was more dense than the oil.

Wait until the water and oil have separated. The last step is to drop the effervescent tablet into the water bottle (you can have the students leave the lids off or have them put the lids back on after they drop the effervescent tablet in the water bottle). Before they did this I had them make a prediction on what would happen once they dropped the effervescent tablet into the water bottle. They've participated in a few other activities this year with effervescent tablets and chemical reactions.  It was awesome to see them think back to those lessons and activities when making their predictions.

I had my students observe the difference between adding one fourth of a tablet versus two fourths and then half a tablet. 

Eventually, the bubbles slow down and stop. However, they can take their lava lamps home and start the process all over again by just adding some Alka-Seltzer.

Leave it to me to forget a flashlight! Thank goodness for cell phones with lights on them! Whoo hoo! Of course I had to take photos (yup left my regular camera at home too) with my phone. But lucky for me one of my kiddos had his phone stashed away in his backpack. Not the best photo, but it sure was cool.

Fun with Photosynthesis

This will be a short and sweet post :)

My students really enjoyed making their photosynthesis diagrams. I think they turned out great! It didn't take long and added a bit of fun and creativity to our unit.

3 Dimensional Atom Projects

                                            

Three dimensional atoms!! They turned out fabulous! One of my students even created a moveable atom. Their creativity never ceases to amaze me! 

My students chose an element they were interested in researching and created Element Wanted posters (I posted about this project yesterday). They used the same element and research to create their 3-D model. I love how all my kids tried and worked with the resources they had available to them. They turned these in last Friday and this coming week they will be presenting their atoms to the class. 

America's Most Wanted: Element Posters

We've wrapped up our atom/element unit with Wanted Posters. They turned out great! This is the second year in a row I've had my kids work on this activity and they absolutely love it. I also think it is a great way to make what can be a difficult concept/topic a little more meaningful and easier to grasp.

I had each student choose an element that they were interested in researching. I told them to choose carefully because they would also be constructing a 3-D model of an atom using the same element (you can check out their projects here). Which actually makes life easier for them, since they don't have to research two different elements. They become an expert on their chosen element.

I did have a few little "Word document study groups" during recess and lunch to help most of my students with the format. They've used Word to type their essays...but text boxes, inserting photos, adding color, etc. was a whole new ball game!

I love how each student entered the required information, but then made it their own. I love the Radium poster with the little box on the bottom that says "If you have any information contact:xxxxx." Most added rewards, love their creativity.

The icing on the cake, was the next day when they saw the impromptu bulletin board I made on the outside wall in our hallway. They were beyond excited...pointing out to each other which poster was theirs! Don't you just love that?! ?!

Once I figure out how to get Google Docs going, I will link a copy of the directions and rough draft student copy for the project. In the meantime, if you are interested and want a copy, give me your email address and I will send it to ya!