Science Investigations in the Senior Class

Science Investigations in the Senior Class

Yesterday we had Mrs Schieving visit our class to take a lesson on ‘cause and effect'  in science.  We discussed why a glow stick glows when snapped to a crack.

Some of the explanations our students came up with were:

• The glow stick glows because when you break it, it breaks a glass barrier letting two chemicals mix causing a chemical reaction making it glow. By Tim and Brendan.
• I wonder if the glow stick glows because when they are bended the chemicals wake up and have a fight to make static electricity. By Cameron.
• I think its because if you bend it in the right place it will have an effect and glow. By Antonio.

We learnt if you were unsure of the answer we can write ‘I wonder if it is because……’

We also learnt when writing explanations we should use words like:

• ‘Because’
• ‘If’
• ‘Unless
• ‘So that’
• ‘Even if’
• ‘Even though’

In our sentences.

Our next activity was to see who could make the biggest bubble by blowing it with a straw.

Here several students are experimenting making bubbles and bubbles within bubbles.

We also learnt how to write our experiments up properly using:

• Titles
• Aims
• Methods
• Results
• Conclusion

Recipe for bubble mixture:

1. Put four cups of water into a bowl
2. Add half a cup of detergent
3. Add a teaspoon of glycerine
4. Practice blowing bubbles with your straw until you are  good at it.

We made predictions about whether we could blow bubbles on a dry surface or on a wet surface and why.

Here is Macleod, he made the biggest bubble so far in Otago schools, it measured 49 centimetres in diameter, wow!!

So, Why do bubbles pop?

Bubbles pop because the water in the bubble evaporates or the bubble makes contact with a dry surface.