Weird Science flyer for Camden campus

It's the last Weird Science of the year at the Camden campus. So excited for the Mars Rovers they create!

The Final Countdown...

The Sycamore Class has finally finished their science fair project!

We asked the students what they wanted to call their project.
I believe it's aptly named, don't you? 

The school Science Fair will be held on Friday at the River Rd. campus. School judging will take place on Saturday, and then it is on to the Southern Arizona Regional Science and Engineering Fair (SARSEF) to be judged by scientists and engineers throughout the community! This is fantastic exposure for the Sycamore Class students, and it is the 2nd year in a row they've been able to participate. If you have a chance to attend, I highly encourage it so that your student can see their work in a grand space and among the best in the city. SARSEF will be held at the Tucson Convention Center, and the public viewing days are Wednesday, March 13th through Friday, March 15th. For more information on the schedule or other information, please refer to the SARSEF web page.

I can't tell you how proud they are of their own work (and how proud we are of them). Each student contributed significantly to the project and to the poster, and as a group they worked harmoniously like one big, miraculous organism, producing the fruits of their labor for all to see.  Need I say more?

Progress on the Sycamore Class Science Fair Project

Well, we are officially moving on to Phase II of our science fair experiment this week! The kids have been really excited about growing alum crystals, and asking some excellent questions along the way, like:

"Will the crystals disappear again?"

"How can we make them disappear?"

"What will happen if we use food coloring while growing our crystals?"

 To cultivate inquiry in the process, we decided to follow up on some of those questions by having them do some extra experimentation, rather than answer the questions directly. That is, after all, what makes a true scientist! Curiosity is key.

So, this week we will begin Phase II by exploring how, why, or even IF the crystals will grow in a more acidic solution than water (such as vinegar). And of course we'll probably throw in a bit of food coloring to boot!

Meanwhile, here are some photos we captured from Phase I of the experiment. The kids were so proud of their results!

The original alum -- KAl(SO4)-2 * 12H2O 

The original alum looks (and smells) a lot like sugar.

These are the seed crystals that are tied with dental floss
 and hanging from a pencil in the saturated alum solution.

The students were diligent about measuring the pH of their
solution on a daily basis.

An example of the end result-- an alum crystal that is re-
precipitated in the solution (it is actually an aluminum
hydroxide-- AlOH).

'Tis the Season... For Science Fair Projects

Alum crystal, courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.

This year my son's classroom is growing alum crystals for their group science fair project. Already it has yielded exciting results!  If you need a project that is fairly easy for elementary students to conduct, this is a good one.

Even after the first day of creating the seed crystals, we have great variation in seed-crystal sizes among students.  The students record the pH of their solution every day in their science journals, and we also have a measure of what I like to call the "cloudiness factor" of their solution, which is basically a simple way of describing how cloudy each student's water was when they were dissolving their alum in solution. Over the next couple weeks, the students will begin to hypothesize about the relationship between crystal growth and the basic chemical and physical properties of their initial crystal-growing solution.

If you want to try growing alum crystals at home, here is what you'll need.

Materials

1 jar of crystalline alum (found in spice aisle of grocery store)
2 jelly jars (big enough to hold at least 1 cup of water, each, and to withstand high temperatures)
1 - 2 cups RO (reverse osmosis) or distilled water
stainless steel stirring spoon
dental floss
pencil

Methods

Day 1:

Heat water to near boiling.
Pour 1 cup of water into one of the jelly jars.
Slowly pour some of the alum (approx. 1 - 1/2 tablespoons) into the water.
Stir until all the alum dissolves in the water.
Add more alum slowly, continuing to stir, until it no longer dissolves in the water (it will be approximately 2 and 1/2 tablespoons, more or less, when you're done).
Set aside in quiet place where it won't be disturbed, and cover with paper towel overnight.

Day 2:

You should have several seed crystals growing along the bottom of your jar.
Use a spoon to pick your favorite one. Set aside.
Decant the solution into the 2nd jar, leaving the remaining crystals behind. You can discard these or set them aside for another project.
Tie a long string of dental floss around the crystal. It should be long enough to wrap plenty of extra string around the pencil on the other end of the string.
Hang the pencil over the top of the 2nd jar, with the string and crystal hanging down into the solution.
Roll up the pencil and string until the crystal is hanging just beneath the water line.
Clean the 1st jar and leave to dry for the next day.

Day 3 and beyond:

Repeat the process of pouring the solution into the other jar and rehanging the crystal until it stops growing! Sometimes this can take up to 2 weeks, depending on how concentrated your solution was to begin with.

You will be amazed at the results!

Science Experiments You Can Do at Home

Here are some fun Weird Science experiments you can reproduce at home! Most of these are adapted from Steve Spangler Science©. Because Steve is a Science Education Correspondent for Denver’s Channel 9 News, you can watch some of his fun videos on their website (http://www.9news.com/news/education/spangler/default.aspx)

Can you skewer a balloon without popping it?

Materials needed:

1 or more balloons

1 barbeque skewer

a little vegetable oil (any kind will work)

What to do:

1. Blow up a balloon and tie the end.
2. Dip the sharp end of the barbeque skewer in vegetable oil.
3. Look for the “darker spots” of the balloon, or places where the latex molecules are more dense (hint: the top and bottom of the balloon is a good place to start looking).
4. Slowly and tenderly pierce the skewer through a dark spot of the balloon. Then guide it all the way through the middle of the balloon until you reach another dark spot on the other side. Gingerly pierce the other side and…

Voila! You’ve skewered a balloon! 

The science behind it:

The latex molecules that make up the balloon are the least stressed near the top and bottom of the balloon, whereas they are the most stressed (stretched out) along the sides of the balloon. At the ends of the balloons where the molecules aren’t as stretched out, these long molecular chains wrap themselves around the place where you inserted the skewer, consequently keeping the air from escaping the balloon.

Fireworks on a plate!

Materials needed:

3 plates

1 cup of whole milk

1 cup of 1% milk

1 cup of water

food coloring (several colors are best)

Dawn soap

1 or 2 Q-tips

What to do:

1. Cover the first plate with whole milk.
2. Cover the second plate with 1% milk.
3. Cover the third plate with water.
4. Put several drops of food coloring (different colors) in each liquid, in the center of each plate. Be careful not to stir them.
5. Dip one end of a Q-tip in Dawn soap, then dip the same end in the center of the plate with the water and food coloring. What happens? Watch it for a minute or so.
6. Dip a Q-tip in the soap again. Then dip it in the center of the plate with the 1% milk. What happens this time? Again, watch for a minute. Does the food coloring move around more than it did in the water?
7. Finally, dip the Q-tip in soap one more time. Now dip it in the center of the plate with the whole milk. Watch the food coloring for a while. How long does it move around the plate compared to the water and 1% milk?

The science behind it:

Soap is a bipolar molecule. This means that one end of the molecule is polar, and one end is non-polar. The polar end is attracted to water, while the non-polar end is attracted to the fat in the milk. The soap therefore weakens the bonds that keep the fats and proteins in the milk solution. The food coloring is just a “tracer” that allows you to watch it happening!

Upside-down water!

Materials needed:

1 ball jar, with ring that goes around the lid

1 piece of screen (window screen, shade cloth, or similar; large enough to cover top of jar)

1 piece of card stock or similar paper

Water

What to do:

1. Take the lid off the ball jar and place the screen over the top.
2. Screw the ring on the jar to hold the screen in place.
3. Fill the jar to half or ¾ full with water.
4. Place a piece of card stock over the top, so that it completely covers the screen.
5. Holding the cardstock securely in place, turn the jar upside down (over the sink or outside is best!).
6. Ask your child to hypothesize what will happen when you remove the cardstock.
7. Slowly remove the cardstock by sliding it off to the side and then away from the jar.
8. Keep the jar stead and perfectly vertical for this to work!

The science behind it:

The water stays in the jar because of surface tension. Water molecules stick together because of a force called cohesion. This force causes the water molecules to essentially “glue” themselves together between openings in the screen, and this surface-tension “membrane” that is formed is what holds the water in the jar. It is also the reason why raindrops are spherical.

Shuttle Endeavour makes a final voyage through Los Angeles!

Starting at near midnight on Thursday, October 11th and continuing through Sunday morning, October 14th, 2012, the Space Shuttle Endeavour completed it's final "mission:" A 12-mile trek through Los Angeles from LAX airport to the CA Science Center. Weird Science was there to see it!  Here is a link to a YouTube video with still frames and some movie footage from the first night (and a cold one, at that, as you can see by the heavy blankets we wrapped around ourselves), as well as the 2nd day of the trip. We stayed up to watch the whole thing. It was an exciting and historic moment!

Click Here for YouTube video of Space Shuttle Endeavour in LA.

Bernoulli's Dancing Balloons

This is one of my favorite experiments for all ages. The kids at Khalsa-Camden did this last Fall and had a ball (literally). It is a wonderful experiment to show the relationship (that the famous scientist Bernoulli explained between) between velocity and pressure, using balloons, fans, and beach balls. This experiment is best done outside on a still day with no wind. Here's what you need to get started:

• a floor fan that can pivot vertically to horizontally, so that it can be positioned to blow upward (while leaving some airspace under the fan).
• balloons (already blown up).
• beach balls of all sizes.

Have your kids hypothesize about what they think will happen to the balloons if you turn the fan on (blowing upward) and let go of the balloons over the blowing air. Do the same with the beach balls.

What you should find is that once you let go of the balloons or beach balls, they will travel upwards in the air stream. Most kids will expect the balloons or balls to fly everywhere and for the them to fall back down to the ground. However, once the balloons and balls travel high enough in the air stream, they will appear to "dance" in the air and not fall down or fly outward away from the air stream. The reason they stay where they are is because the faster air blowing upward from the fan is creating an area of lower pressure than the surrounding air. The balloons and balls are "trapped" in the low-pressure area and will only come down when the fan is turned off or if a gusty wind pushing them along.

The kids will have the most fun when you place several balloons over the fan rather than just one. Try it at home and let me know if it worked for you!