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...

Lighting up a Town

The Senior Science Club watched a video to see how shanty town houses in Manila can get light, not from electricity (expensive) or candles (too dangerous), but from soft drink bottles!  We spent the first session making a cardboard house . . . next week we will work on the light

 We used corrugated cardboard for the roof and painted it to look like a rusty iron roof. We filled a 2 litre soft drink bottle with water and bleach and secured it to the circular hole in the middle of the roof.  Then we transported the shanty house to the Library so the whole school could see what we had been doing, and maybe take a look.

Daniel couldn't wait to try it out - he was so keen, he didn't even take time to remove his his art shirt! You can see how much light filters down through the water, to light our cardboard hut.

The Work Bench

People who come to Science Clubs, whether Junior or Senior, have the chance of working on the Work Bench.  This is where we can disassemble electrical items and see what goes on inside.  So far, we have dismantled a toaster, mobile phone, lap top, computer and two kettles.  It was interesting to see how many tiny components there are in a key board.

PLEASE SEND ANY OLD ELECTRICAL ITEMS YOU NO LONGER CAN USE TO COCKLE BAY SCHOOL SO WE CAN DISMANTLE THEM AND SEE HOW THEY WORK.

Bubble Art

In Art Week, the Junior Science Club did bubble art.  There were plenty of bubbles of all different colours.

Salt Art

In Art Week, the Senior Science Club made salt art.  First we sketched out a pattern using PVA glue in a squeezy bottle.  Next we covered the PVA outline in salt so that it was completely covered.  After we tapped away the excess salt to use for the next picture, we coloured the salty outlines with food colouring.  It was exciting watching the colour move along the white lines and merge with other colours at curves and intersections.  We liked how the salt crystals made the picture glisten in the bright light.

M&Ms experiment

In the first Art Week, the Junior Science Club made watery patterns with m&ms.  We carefully dropped different coloured m&ms in water and watched the sugar coating dissolve.  The dye made very distinct patterns on the surface of the water.  Best of all, we could eat the m&ms at the end of the experiment.  We found that wet chocolate is just as delicious as dry!

Visitors

We have all sorts of visitors at school.  A rabbit kindly made our aquaintance and a Monarch butterfly stayed temporarily in the Butterfly Hospital as he tried to pump open his wings properly after hatching from his chyrsalis.

Bursting Balloons

The Junior Science Club investigated how long it took for a balloon to burst when it was held over a flame.  Some of our predictions were longer than what actually happened - the red balloon burst iafter only five seconds!

Then we used a small funnel to pour water into the balloons and we repeated the experiment.  This time we found that the balloon did not burst, even when Mrs Bear held it over the flame for over two minutes.  We found out that the water in the balloon absorbs heat so that the actual skin of the balloon does not get too hot and weak.

Filtering water

The Senior Science Club investigated ways to filter dirty water to make it clean.  First we cut a coke bottle in the middle and upturned the top pouring part to make a housing.  Then we placed a paper coffee filter, stones, course sand and lastly softer iron sand in layers.  When we poured muddy water through, we found the water was much cleaner as the dirt was filtered out of the water.  By the time we made filtered the water three times, it looked clear, but we still didn't drink it!

Worm Hunt

The Junior Science club went on a worm hunt . . . but we were not scared!

Unfortunately we didn't find any as none came to the surface, even though we drenched the grass with water.  Worm tend to come up to the surface when the ground becomes water logged, but not this time!  We will have to be patient and look again after some really heavy winter rain.

Soil Week

It was New Zealand Science Week in week 3 and the focus this year was soil.  The Senior Science Club collected soil samples from around the school grounds which we spooned into glass jars.  Next we added water and shook the sample up, and then waited for it to settle into layers so we could study the composition of the soil.  We found that there was a high proportion of loam in the soil at Cockle Bay school.

Floating and Sinking

In Week 2, the Science Club experimented with floating and sinking.  We investigated with all sorts of things you can find in the classroom to see if they would float or sink.  We worked in pairs so that one person could record our data, so that we could then compare it to our predictions.  The most surprising thing was that some things floated for a short while, but then sank when they became water logged, like cotton wool balls.

Science Club

If you want to know what is going on in the Science Club, you can read the Science blog or go to the office and look at the Science wall.  There are photos with speech bubbles and Science Snippets to keep you up to date.  If it looks like YOU, join us in Room 19 on Tuesdays if you are the senior student (Years 4 - 6) or on Thursdays if you are a junior student (Years 1 -3).

Mothers' Day Science

For Mothers' Day, the Junior Science Club cut out paper flowers and coloured them.  Then we folded in their paper petals and floated them in water.  After a while, the paper soaked up some of the water and that made the paper swell up and the petals started to open by themselves.  

The Senior Science Club diluted different coloured dyes and poured them carefully into test tubes using plastic funnels.  Then we placed white flowers in the dye.  The flower sucked up.  The flower sucked the liquid up the stem, so that after a day of two, the white petals changed colour . . . just in time to present to our Mums for Mothers' Day.