Science Experiments

Last week we explored Saturation within our unit of work on dissolving. 

This is when no more solid can be dissolved into a liquid.  We tested our predictions using sugar cubes and water.  We discovered that it took about 40 sugar cubes to saturate 100ml of water.

We made several observations about the changes to our liquid during the experiment.  We noticed that the liquid started to increase in volume, it was changing colour slightly as it became cloudier and it was getting thicker.  

It took a lot of patience to get the final result of this experiment.

We didn't have time to complete our saturation experiment with salt and water. This has been set as an optional homework task. 

On Thursday we continued with Dissolving and started to explore the effect of the particle size on the speed of dissolving.

We used a range of different sugars and timed how long they each took to dissolve in hot water.

We learned that the smaller the particle, the quicker it dissolved. 

Week 4 - Mixing and Separating

Density of Liquids

Today, Wednesday, we tested the densities of different liquids.  First of all we spoke about what we knew about liquids and recorded a list of ones which have different properties. 

Then we predicted what would happen when we mix oil and water.  We all had different ideas.

Group 1 thought that the liquid would become thicker.

Group 2 thought that water would diluter the oil and become thinner.

Group 3 thought that the 2 liquids would combine to make a light yellow liquid. 

Group 4 thought that the oil would sit on to of the water as that is what happens during an oil spill in the sea.

We tested our ideas and this is what we found - the oil floated on top of the water.  This is because the oil has a lower density than water - we were surprised by this! 

We were curious about mixing other liquids so experimented with a few more.  We looked at what we had in the science cupboard.

We tried mixing oil, water and shampoo.  They all separated.  We then decided to add diet coke.  We thought that it might just mix with the water as they have the same density.  We were right.

Finally we explored golden syrup, shampoo, oil, vinegar and water.  

Jayden asked if we could try to make a rainbow liquid.  This has been set as a thinking challenge - which liquids would we need to use and in which order would they lie in the jar. 

Later in the week we are going to start looking at trying to separate solids from solids, solids from liquids and liquids from liquids.