CHEMISTRY - LOTS OF MIXING

I used the chemistry set to find out what happens when you mix certain chemicals in my chemistry set with water. I wanted to find out which chemicals dissolved and which ones did not. These are the chemicals I tested:

• Copper sulphate
• Sodium chloride (which is the chemistry name for salt)
• Calcium carbonate (which is the chemistry name for chalk)
• Sugar
• Pepper

 

Libby and I predicted which ones would dissolve and which did not. Here are our results. My predictions were correct except for calcium carbonate and copper sulphate. I predicted that the copper sulphate would not dissolve (insoluble), but it did. I predicted that the calcium carbonate would be soluble, but it wasn't. We also heated the chemicals to see whether the heat made them dissolve more quickly.

 

 

I learned some chemistry words:

 

Dissolve - when a solid mixes with a liquid and becomes part of the liquid

Soluble - the solid substance dissolves

Insoluble - the solid substance does not dissolve

Solvent - the liquid you are trying to dissolve something in

Solute - the solid substance you are trying to dissolve

Solution - the final mixture which includes the solvent and the solute

SUPER SWEET GEOLOGY

We made some yummy treats to help me to learn more about geology. I learned about the three main types of rock.

FUDGY IGNEOUS ROCKS

Igneous rocks are formed when very hot runny rock goes hard. This happens with volcanic rock that turns from lava into basalt.

I made some fudge which is formed in the same way. You start by melting the ingredients together and then it sets hard.

METAMORPHIC BROWNIES

Metamorphic rocks form when rocks get very hot and squeezed under pressure. Marble is an example of this kind of rock. Marble starts off being limestone (which is a sedimentary rock) and gets squeezed and heated up because of volcanic and seismic activity deep under the earth.

My brownies were made in a similar way. The ingredients started off looking a certain way and changed into something different (something harder) after it had been heated up in the oven.

SEDIMENTARY SUNDAE

Sedimentary rocks are formed from many layers of rock piling up on top of one another. Sandstone is a good example.

I made a sedimentary ice cream sundae by putting layers of brownie, ice cream, fudge (for igneous boulders) together. Yum!

PUMPKIN SCIENCE

I grew a lovely fat pumpkin in the garden this summer. I did an experiment to find out about a substance called CELLULOSE.

What is cellulose?
Cellulose is the substance that makes plants tough and woody. It is found in plant cells. The reason we have to cook some vegetables is because we need to break down the cellulose so that we can digest it. Animals like cows do not have to cook grass before they eat it because their digestive system is able to break it down. We would get very bad tummy ache if we tried to eat grass.

I cut up three pieces of pumpkin and boiled them up in these different liquids:

1. Plain water
2. Bicarbonate of soda (alkaline)
3. Apple cider vinegar (acid)

I wanted to find out which one would get softest the quickest.

 

 

 

THE RESULTS!

 

 

The pumpkin with the apple cider vinegar got softest first, followed by the plain water and then the bicarbonate of soda. I have found out that our stomachs have acid in them (a bit like the vinegar) which helps to break down the food.

 

 

After I finished my experiment, we made the pumpkin into a jack o'lantern.



ROCKWATCH COMPETITION!

I was so excited to win first prize in the Rockwatch competition for a video I made on rocks and fossils. Here is a link to my video which I put on YouTube:

http://youtu.be/BvyO-UKK148

I went to London to the offices of the big mining company Anglo American to collect my prize which was a cheque for £100! I met lots of other children who are interested in Geology including a girl called Eloise. She won second prize for a video she made about trilobites. A geologist gave a talk and I asked a question and won a special geologist's magnifying glass.

We also went to the Tower of London to see the thousands of poppies that were put there to commemorate the First World War.

I was super excited to see my picture in the Rockwatch magazine.

SUPER ELECTRONICS

Mummy & I decided to take apart my remote control car. We wanted to see if we could use any of the parts to make my brush monster a remote control brush monster. It was very complicated when we opened it up. It was very interesting to see which bits made the car move and make noises.

ELECTRIC CIRCUITS

I used my electronic circuits kit to make some circuits. I learned that you need to have a continous (with no breaks) loop for electricity to work. I learned that you need to have CONDUCTORS to make the electricity work. Conductors allow the electric current to run through. Things made of metal are conductors. The whisk made the light bulb come on, but a wooden pencil did not.

SPLITTING A SUNBEAM

Wow! Light is actually made of the colours of the rainbow!

FLOWER DISECTION

Flowers have a lot of very interesting parts.

Here is a diagram of flower parts.

 

I took the flowers apart and looked at the parts with my magnifying glass.

 

PAINTED LADY BUTTERFLIES

I have grown some Painted Lady butterflies. It was amazing watching them grow from tiny caterpillars to big fat caterpillars, then turn into a chrysalis and then into beautiful butterflies.

 

LIQUID LAYERS

Today I did an experiment with different liquids that DO NOT MIX. I used:

OIL
TREACLE
WATER (with blue food colouring)

I learned that the MOLECULES are different sizes in different liquids which is why they do not mix. If the molecules are close together then it is difficult for objects to get through them. This is why liquids and objects that have more spaced out molecules sit on the top of the treacle. Oil always sits on the top of water because it has very spaced out molecules.

BUGINGHAM PALACE BUG HOTEL

Mummy and I made a bug hotel so that small creatures such as woodlice, ladybirds and bees have somewhere dry and warm to live over the winter. This is what we used to make the hotel:

- An old pallet
- An old brick with holes in it
- Bamboo canes - bees love to go inside these
- Pine cones
- Pieces of rotten wood and sticks that we collected from Tiddesley Woods

KITCHEN CHEMISTRY COURSE - MOLECULES

We have started doing an online course called Kitchen Chemistry. It has been organised by The University of East Anglia. Today we learned about MOLECULES.

What are molecules?
Molecules are made of ELEMENTS.

WATER is made of molecules which are made of the elements HYDROGEN and OXYGEN.
SALT is made of molecules which are made of the elements SODIUM and CHLORINE. The scientific name for salt is SODIUM CHLORIDE.

We learned that there are gazillions of molecules all around us. There are more water molecules in one glass of water than there glasses in the whole world.

We learned today that molecules become less DENSE when they are heated. This means that they spread out. This is what makes HOT AIR BALLOONS fill up and rise. We made our own hot air balloon using a cardboard box, our toaster and a bin liner. These pictures shows what happened:

STATIC ELECTRICITY EXPERIMENTS

I found some experiments in my Usborne book that I wanted to do. They helped me to find out about STATIC ELECTRICITY. These experiments helped me to learn that sparks happen when some materials are rubbed together. It is all to do with ELECTRON PARTICLES that get CHARGED when you rub them. 

First of all, I did a balloon experiment. When the rubber on the balloon rubs against my hair it creates a type of electricity which makes my hair stand on end!

 

I then did another experiment using black pepper. I put some pepper in a plastic box and put the lid on. I then rubbed the lid with a hat made out of wool. Soon specks of pepper started jumping about and stuck to the inside of the lid. It looked really cool!

 

 

The next experiment I did was using bits of paper from a hole punch. I scattered the little circles on a plate and then I rubbed a ruler on the woollen hat to create static electricity. Wool is one of the best materials for creating static electricity. It passes electron particles to the ruler very easily. I loved the result of this experiment.

 

 

POTATO GROWING

We are going to grow our own potatoes in the garden this summer. We got some free seed potatoes from the Potato Council through the post. First of all, we had to CHIT them. These means putting them in a place where there is lots of light so they can sprout some shoots. We left them for about three weeks to do this and then we planted them in compost inside some black bags. I wonder how many pototoes will grow. Here is a photo of me chitting the potatoes.

The potatoes are growing really well. It took them about three weeks to get this big.

Here I am harvesting the potatoes in June. They tasted delicious!