Chromatography

In Art Week, both the Junior and Senior Science Clubs conducted experiments to do with chromatography.  We wanted to investigate how complex colours are made up.  We used a wide variety of felt pens and strips of coffee filter paper dipped in water.  The water travelled up the paper through capillary action and split the complex colours into their core components as it went.  The results were quite amazing - it is interesting to find out that some quite ordinary looking colours are made up of 3 or 4 core colours.

Walk on the Wild Side - with a robot

One of the highlights of the Trumps Science Tournament was to command Mariot to walk with you around a pre-determined circuit.

The Trumps Science Tournament 2016

Cockle Bay selected two teams from interested Year 3 and 4 students to complete in the Trumps Science Tournament 2016.  Of the twenty teams that attended the tournament, Cockle Bay Year 4 team came a credible fourth while Cockle Bay Year 3 team competed strongly for the first time against other Year 3 and 4 teams.  The most important thing in the tournament was to share your scientific knowledge with others and enjoy 'doing' Science with like minded students.

Feeling somewhat trepidous at the start of the competition.

Feelie boxes

It was interesting to see if you could use your sense of touch, and not sight, to work out what was in the feelie box.  These boxes are popping up  in science tables all over the school with different objects inside.

When you take the lid off, you can see if your calculated guess was correct or not.

Here is a small selection of different objects you could try in a feelie box.

Cleaning up oil spills

As part of our Coastal Capers unit, we looked at how oil spills can be cleaned up.  We made classroom model of a coastline with salt water, feathers and shells. Then we poured in vegetable oil to model an oil spill at sea, such as the Rena disaster.  We tried cleaning the oil using detergent and various cleaning materials such as toothbrushes, wool fleece, steel wool, tinfoil, cotton buds and cotton.  It was slow,  painstaking work but we found that wool fleece with detergent was the most successful combination.

Investigating resistance

Still with the Olympics in mind, the Junior Science Club investigated how the lack of resistance made objects move faster or further with less effort.  This concept is particularly important to high performance athletes who wear special clothing to reduce drag to an absolute minimum to enhance their performance.

We used hair dryer to observe how balloons, with their smooth rounded shape, moved effortlessly through the air.

It was interesting to see if a cardboard tube could direct the flow of
air more efficiently and make the balloon go even higher 

Neuroscience experiment to test reaction times

In preparation of the Olympics, the Senior Science Club tested their individual reaction times.  We used an on-line baseball play-off game to measure our reaction time when batting.  Then we conducted a simple test to measure reaction time when catching - we measured  the delay in catching a ruler when dropped randomly without warning.  We measured the drop in centimetres and then converted it into seconds using a conversion chart so we could compare our individual scores.

Kea scientists

The Kea Assembly was hosted by three very knowledgeable scientists who were able to explain many interesting scientific facts about dinosaurs.

Roman catapults

Catapults, in various forms, were used by many ancient civilisations to break down enemy defences and break sieges which were costly.  The Senior Science Club made catapults with soft drink cans held together with thick elastic bands.  The angle of the catapult arm (a kitchen fork) could be adjusted by changing the amount of buffer (two pencils taped together).  It was interesting to see how our adjustments to the angle of flight changed the distance projectiles travelled.

Mini catapults

The Junior Science club made catapults using recycled tin cans, pop sticks and milk bottle tops.  When they were finished, we made projectiles from balls of tinfoil.  It was interesting to launch our catapults and measure how far the tinfoil balls travelled.

Convection Currents

We could plainly see that the coloured water first rose to the surface.

At first, the jar floated on top of the water, so we added some old coins.
Their combined weight made the jar successfully sink to the bottom
 of the water filled container.

To investigate convection currents, we filled a large container with clear cold water, and filled a small jar with hot water mixed with dye.  We carefully lowered the jar into a container and watched what happened.

Roman aqueduct

In our Ancient Civilisation theme, some students are learning about Ancient Rome so we decided to make a model of an aqueduct, similar to the ones used in Ancient Roman times.

This is the plan we followed to make our model.

Finding how electrical things work

We took to various electrical items with screwdrivers on our work bench to better understand how they worked.  We dismantled toasters, kettles, pumps, irons, mobile phones and a lap top. 

WE ALWAYS WELCOME ELECTRICAL ITEMS YOU NO LONGER NEED AT HOME - PLEASE DONATE THEM TO THE SCIENCE CLUB SO WE CAN DISMANTLE THEM.

Balloon rockets

The Junior Science Club used air pressure to power their balloon rockets across the classroom.

Fizz Bombs

The Junior Science Club wanted to celebrate the end of term with a bang, so they made fizz bombs.

There was quite a lot of Maths involved - we had to fill the film canisters up to one third with water and snap the Alka Selzer tablets into quarters.

It was fun waiting for the fizz bombs to work - they tended to explore at unexpected times which kept us all on our toes!

Science Roadshow

Recently selected students attended the Science Roadshow where they got to explore lots of different hands on science equipment. We learnt about the physical properties of materials and how sounds waves vary in length...