A volcanic eruption

We would not like to go to Venus because it is so hot and smelly there.

This is because there are lots of volcanoes on venus.

(We are impressed that Volcanoes on Venus can be made with Vinegar!)

Here is what you need to make your own volcano:- 

You need: a bottle, vinegar and bread soda.

For the deluxe model you also need newspapers so that the volcano looks like a mountain, wash up liquid for the bubbles and red food colour to make the lava red.

Pour some bread soda, some food dye and some wash up liquid into your bottle and just add vinegar.

Have a look at what happens next.

Teacher told us that when vinegar and bread soda mix there is a chemical reaction that makes a gas.
This gas is Carbon Dioxide which is the same gas that we breathe out.
We thought we could use this gas to blow up a balloon.
We tried this (we were a little afraid that the balloon would burst but teacher explained that when the reaction is finished no more gas would be made and the balloon would stop getting bigger).  

We were so impressed with our volcano making and our balloon blowing that we are going to try this at home!

Making craters & how dinosaurs became extinct

When we were finding out about planets we discovered that there are lots of craters on Mercury, on the moon and on some of the other planets.

This is because asteroids and meteoroids sometimes hit the planets (especially the ones with no atmosphere like Mercury).

We tried making craters ourselves.  We were wondering do large asteroids make large craters and smaller asteroids make smaller craters?  We decided to test this.

We dropped different sized balls (asteroids) from the same heights and then looked at the craters they made.

We were right...smaller asteroids make smaller craters and bigger asteroids make bigger craters!

So, what has this got to do with dinosaurs?

Teacher told us the very sad story about how the dinosaurs all became extinct.

The dinosaurs were happily living on earth (as you can see), until the earth was hit by a large meteoroid or asteroid.  This fell to earth and landed, making a huge crater (and probably landing on some poor dinosaurs who died).  The rest of the dinosaurs were ok until the dust from the meteor rose into the air (killed some more dinosaurs) and blocked out the sun.  The earth became very cold and the poor dinosaurs died of the cold or of starvation because there was nothing to eat under all the ice!

This story actually is a true story!

Some wonderful space films

Have a look at some of the wonderful movies on space (and all other science and geography topics) that we have been watching in class.

Click on the picture to begin:

Our failed vinegar rockets

We had high hopes for our new vinegar rocket but look what happened!

Learning about gravity

What makes a feather fall to the ground if you drop it?

GRAVITY!

Gravity pulls everything to the ground.

We tried to answer a few questions:

Will gravity pull a feather or a piece of paper to the ground faster?

(It looks like it pulls the feather faster but maybe that is just that the paper gets caught on air currents)

Which will fall faster, a flat piece of paper or a feather?  Watch closely for the answer:

Which will fall faster, a piece of flat paper or a piece of crumpled paper?

(It depends on how you hold the flat paper, in our test they fell together, but sometimes the air currents catch the flat paper causing it to slow down).

Will a full bottle of water fall faster than an empty bottle of water?

(No, they will fall at exactly the same time because although the force of gravity is stronger on the heavier object, the heavier object is more inert and will take a greater force to get it moving.

  This is why both objects of unequal weight will fall at exactly the same time.)

Which will fall faster, a hammer or a feather?

(The hammer, because it doesn't float on the air)

If you tried this on the moon what would happen?

(Have a look at this ACTUAL experiment on the moon!)

Here's a version done in a vacuum chamber:

Using shapes to make air rockets

Shapes are amazing.

Teacher showed us how we can roll a rectangle to make a cylinder,

how we can fold and chop a rectangle to make a square or diamond and triangles,

how we can roll a circle to make a cone.

Armed with this knowledge we set about making air rockets.

Teacher had made the cylinders for us, because that is a slow job, but we stuck on the triangular fins, and made and stuck on the nose cones.  We also decorated our rockets.  We will fly them outside when the weather improves a little.

Making and flying foam rockets

We made our own foam rockets.

These are so much fun.

We used insulation for pipes for the rocket cylinder and we used squares of card to make the triangular fins.  Teacher helped us with the duct tape so our rockets are really strong.

These rockets fly when we stretch the elastic backwards and then let go.

We had a knock out league in the corridor and Jakub was the class champion.  His rocket flies really well (so does Adam's), and went the furthest each time.

Investigating materials: Pass the Parcel

Hallowe'en is a great time to play traditional games like "pass the parcel".

We played this game today, with a slight twist.

We brought a bit of science and maths into our game.

With each layer of the parcel the students had to describe the material covering the parcel....what is the covering? is it hard/soft? is it absorbent/waterproof? is it opaque/see through? is it dull/shiny?

When the music stopped we could unwrap a layer, keep the prize and describe the maths shape we see......how many sides? how many corners? its colour? the name of the shape?

We really like this game, but we ran out of time.  Teacher has said that we can play this game again after the break!