St Albans' Science Club
  • Blog

Popping balloons

8/26/2017

0 Comments

 
One of the students was inspired by a video they saw on youtube where you could push a pin into a balloon where is was covered by sellotape.
Using this as a basis for the weeks experiments we looked at what pops a balloon and the changes you can do to stop it from popping. We tried the sellotape first and we were able to push three pins into the balloon!
​We then made a mat of pins to find out what happened when we pushed a balloon on it.
Picture

The balloon didn't pop even with us pushing down on it! 
Why does this happen?
When you pop the a balloon with the nail, all of the pressure is concentrated on one point of the balloon so the balloon easily pops. When you place a balloon on the bed of nails, the pressure points are spread all across the surface of the balloon and it won't pop until the pressure in to strong and it finally pops.
One of the best things about doing these experiments is the fantastic variations the students come up with to test the first theory. Amira wondered what would happen if we made another bed of nails and squashed a balloon between the two. Check out the video below to see what happened...
0 Comments

Alkalines and Acids

8/26/2017

0 Comments

 
I haven't updated the blog in a while. This isn't because science club hasn't happened, it's that the experiments have been exciting and involved and I've forgotten to take out the camera in time. 
Fortunately my science helpers have been reminding me and have captured our last few experiments.
Over the last few weeks we have been looking at alkalines and acids and how they react. We created an acid-base indicator from red cabbage. You blend red cabbage leaves with a bit a water and then strain it. It will be a bright purple. When you add the cabbage juice to other liquids it will change colour depending on its acidity.
Picture


​Unfortunately this was one of the experiments that we didn't capture in photo but is a fun experiment to do and can be done at home.
After learning that all liquids have different alkaline and acid levels we did one of the most well-known and fun experiments mixing the two - baking soda and vinegar.
For this variation we mixed the two in an old film canister and watched what happened. The explosion is impressive and the film canister rocket shoots 5 metres in the air!
The students loved watching the rocket and even started coming up with their own variations - is it more important to have more vinegar or baking soda?
As we didn't catch our own rocket on video here is a youtube clip of the experiment of what we did.

0 Comments

    On WEDNESDAY  lunchtimes Year 2-6 students come together to learn about scientific concepts.

    Archives

    November 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    October 2016
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.