Volcanic Eruptions

We created our own volcanic eruption in a bottle this afternoon. We used hydrogen peroxide, dish soap, and a little bit of food coloring to make it even cooler. We then added yeast that had been dissolved in warm water to the mixture and that's when the magic happened! The mixture of chemicals created a chemical reaction and the mixture foamed and exploded.

After we had finished our own personal volcanoes, Mrs. Owen showed us a bigger eruption using high powered chemicals we were not allowed to touch. (The high grade of peroxide she had could burn our skin, so we had to watch!) The eruption was even bigger than the ones we had created in our bottles! A lot of heat was produced in both experiments. Why is this? When a chemical reaction occurs, it creates energy. As more energy is produced, heat is created. Check out the photo album below to see pictures from our volcanic adventure!

Make a Smilebox photobook

Creating a Replica of the Moon

Today, we created a moonscape out of plaster of paris. In order to make the plaster of paris look like the moon's surface, we had to create some dimension to it. We did this by dropping marbles into the plaster of paris as it became solid. This created deep holes.

The marbles represent comets, asteroids, and other things that have crashed into the moon's surface. Just think, scientists recently crashed a satellite into the moon to find water! The holes created in the plaster of paris became "craters" in the moon's surface.

Blast Off!

Today, we got out the goggles and created our own ROCKETS!!!! We took film canisters and filled them with clear soda and Alka-Seltzer tablets. We popped the tops back on the canisters real fast and shook up the mixture. We threw the canisters in the air and they exploded right before our eyes! We tried it again, but put the canisters on the ground this time. We watched to see how far up in the air they would shoot and they went really high! We found out that the CO2 in the soda and the Alka-Seltzer cause a lot of pressure to build up in the canister. Because of this, it pushes the top off rapidly, causing it to pop and fly up into the air.

No Savvy Scientists 11/3

Parents,

Please note there will be NO Savvy Scientists tomorrow, 11/3. I am out for the next few days due to illness. Please email me at owenc2@mail.leon.k12.fl.us and let me know that you have received this message and have arrangements for your child tomorrow. If you are unable to pick up your child, please remember they have an EDEP form on file in case of emergencies.

The make-up date for this session will be Tuesday, November 24th. Because this was not planned, if your child is unable to attend the make-up session due to out of town trips for Thanksgiving or other plans, it will be an excused absence. Please let me know ahead of time if at all possible.

Sorry for the inconvenience!

The Things We Eat

In Savvy Scientists today, we ATE and ATE and ATE! We had lots of vegetables and fruits, though to ease your mind! We wanted to see if we could figure out what plant parts we were eating. We had broccoli, potatoes, apples, carrots, sunflower seeds, crackers, and pizza. What? Crackers and pizza??? Those aren't fruits or veggies! But... guess what? They are made from plants! Did you know cereal is even made from plants? Raisin Bran has grapes (the raisins) and wheat. Even the sweet stuff comes from plants (corn syrup, sugar... who knew?) We sifted through our food and classified which food went in the categories of roots, leaves, seeds, and stems. Then we looked at our pizza and deciphered which parts were plants. We determined that the crust was made of wheat, and the sauce is made from tomatoes. We even decided that pizza has garlic and herbs, and there is usually some sort of oil put on the pizza whether it be vegetable oil, olive oil, peanut oil, etc. So, before you take that next bite of food, think about what plants you might be eating. You would be surprised!

Components of Blood

Today we explored the four components of blood... in a tasty way! We used red hots to represent red blood cells, marshmallows to represent white blood cells, corn syrup to represent plasma, and sprinkles to represent platelets. What a sweet way to learn! While we were creating our tasty concoction, we reviewed the importance of each component of our blood. We remembered that red blood cells carry oxygen and nutrients through our body. White blood cells fight off disease. Plasma is the liquid that holds it all together, and platelets are what cause our blood to clot so we do not bleed to death when we get a cut. (We also learned a clot can be a bad thing if it forms in our arteries or veins, so we figured we better be careful eating too many sweets like the dessert we created today! We're definitely eating healthy next week!)

Coloring Changing Milk

For our first science experiment, we found out how we could make the color of milk change. We started by putting just drops of food coloring in different places around a plate of milk. We put a cotton swab in the middle to see if anything happened. All of the color spots stayed in one spot. Then, we dipped the cotton swab in dish soap and tried again. The colors exploded all over the milk! We found out that dish soap reacts to the fat found in the milk. The chemicals cause the fat to separate. After much discussion, we came to the conclusion that this reaction is why dish soap cleans our dishes so well. We also figured that this is probably why we use different kinds of soaps for different purposes (laundry soap, body soap, etc.)

Welcome!

Welcome to SYM's Savvy Scientist Club. Please visit the blog frequently for information regarding our club, as well as pictures from our AWESOME experiments! Remember, if you have a google account, you can sign in and choose to follow our blog. I'm looking forward to a fun and enriching time!