Words of the Week - Chromatography and Viscosity

Guess what we have been doing???? SCIENCE!  This week, in preparation for preparing our Science Fair Projects, we have been working through writing up science experiments in the correct format and there is no better way of doing that than DOING the science.

Chromatography was a hit, students drew a dot on their filter paper with a felt pen, then let water soak through the filter paper and the colours from their dot they drew were drawn up the filter paper. It got some great Oooohs and Ahhhhs, but also some great scientific vocabulary and discussion. Some great ideas were tossed around and a lot of "I wonder what would happen if....." I wondered too, so the class all chose an "I wonder" and conducted another experiment. The writing was great! The setting out, even better!

Just to make sure we were on the right track - we made a lava lamp in class. Please don't be surprised if your vegetable oil goes missing (but I suggest you hide the expensive garlic infused olive oil!!!) We added oil to a third of a jar of water and then dropped in some food colouring to see what would happen. Me, being me, tossed in some glitter too! We shook it and then sat back and watched the reaction. Okay, I may have overdosed on food colouring, and it was a lovely shade of almost deep purple, but the conversations and language was outstanding. Well done Hannah for coming up with the word of the week, Viscosity! What a great word and one I'm sure I will see in writing from here on in!

These lava lamps are super simple to make, just make sure you secure the lid well because the last thing you want to do is flood the floor with a very "viscous" solution that is close on impossible to get out of the carpet!!! These jars are really calming for those little ones who are wound up or anxious too.

Science Fair topics should be well and truly chosen by now, and we have six weeks to go before they are due in....The countdown is on!