Teaching PNIEB... ideas and cool things



TORNADO IN A BOTTLE 

MATERIALS:

• 2 2-liter clear plastic pop bottles (empty and clean)

• water

• duct tape

• Food coloring and glitter (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Fill one of the bottles 2/3 full of water.

2. Take the duct tape and twist it on the first bottle.

3. Grab the second bottle and attach it to the duct tape.

4. Turn the tornado maker, so that the bottle with the water is on top.

EXPLANATION:

The swirling motion you give the bottle forms a vortex and is a easy way to create your own tornado.

CLOUD IN A BOTTLE 

MATERIALS:

• 2-liter clear plastic pop bottle

• matches

• warm water

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Fill the clear plastic 2-liter bottle 1/3 full of warm water and place the cap on. As warm water evaporates, it adds water vapor to the air inside the bottle.

2. Squeeze and release the bottle and observe what happens. Nothing happens.

3. Take the cap off the bottle.

4. Carefully light a match and hold the match near the opening of the bottle.

5. Drop the match in the bottle and quickly put on the cap, trapping the smoke inside.

6. Once again, slowly squeeze the bottle hard and release.

EXPLANATION:

Water vapor, water in its invisible gaseous state, can be made to condense into the form of small cloud droplets. By adding particles such as the smoke enhances the process of water condensation and by squeezing the bottle causes the air pressure to drop. This creates a cloud!

MAKE DEW & FROST 

MATERIALS:

• 2 tin cans without a lid

• rock salt or table salt

• crushed ice

PROCESS:

1. In one tin can put a mixture of crushed ice about half full and about 4 tablespoons of salt.

2. Mix it well for about 30 seconds and then let sit.

3. In the other can put only crushed ice and cool tap water.

4. Fill the can about half way full of ice and then put just enough tap water in the can to cover the ice.

5. Observe the 2 cans.

EXPLANATION:

The salt wants to absorb water to make a salt solution. To do that, the salt has to melt the ice into water. The heat required to melt the ice comes from the ice itself. The strange effect is caused by the chemical reaction between the salt and the ice. Strange as it seems, melting the ice actually makes the mixture cooler. The salt water mixture inside the can gets below freezing, so the moisture from the air that collects on the outside of the can will freeze. This is why frost forms!

On the other can, dew forms because the mixture of the melting ice and water is just at freezing and the temperature outside the can is warmer causing the dew to form.

MAKE FOG 

MATERIALS:

• glass jar

• strainer

• water

• ice cubes

PROCESS:

1. Fill up the jar completely with hot water for about a minute.

2. Pour out almost all the water, but leave about one inch in the jar.

3. Put the strainer over the top of the jar.

4. Place a few (3-4) ice cubes in the strainer.

5. Observe

EXPLANATION:

The cold air from the ice cubes collides with the warm, moist air in the bottle causing the water to condense and forming an eerie fog.

MAKE A THERMOMETER 

MATERIALS:

• clear, plastic bottle (11oz. water bottle works)

• water

• rubbing alcohol

• clear plastic drinking straw

• modeling clay

• food coloring

PROCESS:

1. Fill about 1/4 of the bottle full with equal parts of water and rubbing alcohol.

2. Add a few drops of food coloring.

3. Put the straw in the bottle, but don't let it touch the bottom.

4. Use the modeling clay to seal the neck of the bottle, so the straw stays in place. (Make sure the straw does not touch the bottom of the bottle.)

5. Hold your hands on the bottom of the bottle and watch the mixture move up through the straw.

EXPLANATION:

Why does this happen? Just like any thermometer, the mixture expanded when it was warmed. This made the mixture no longer fit in the bottom of the bottle. As the alcohol expanded the colored mixture moved up through the straw. If they bottle were to get extremely hot, the mixture would have come up through the top of the straw

BAKING SODA VOLCANO

MATERIALS:

• 6 cups of flour

• 2 cups of salt

• 4 tablespoons cooking oil

• 2 tablespoons of baking soda

• dishwashing detergent

• food color

• vinegar

• warm water

• baking dish or pan

PROCESS:

1. Make the cone of the baking soda volcano. Mix 6 cups flour, 2 cups salt, 4 tablespoons cooking oil and 2 cups warm water. The mixture should be smooth and firm. Add more warm water if needed.

2. Stand the soda bottle in the baking pan and mold the dough around it into a volcano shape.

3. Fill the bottle most of the way full with warm water and a bit of red food color.

4. Add 6 drops of detergent to the bottle contents.

5. Add 2 tablespoons of baking soda to the contents.

6. Slowly pour vinegar into the bottle.

EXPLANATION:

Why does this happen? The red lava is the result of a chemical reaction between the baking soda and vinegar. In this reaction, the carbon dioxide gas is produced; pressure builds up inside the plastic bottle until the gas bubbles out of the volcano. This is a good representation of what happens in real volcanoes.

QUICK SAND

Materials:

• 1 cup of maize cornflour

• Half a cup of water

• A large plastic container

• A spoon

Instructions:

1. This one is simple, just mix the cornflour and water thoroughly in the container to make your own instant quick sand.

2. When showing other people how it works, stir slowly and drip the quick sand to show it is a liquid.

3. Stirring it quickly will make it hard and allow you to punch or poke it quickly (this works better if you do it fast rather than hard).

4. Remember that quick sand is messy, try to play with it outside and don’t forget to stir just before you use it.

5. Always stir instant quicksand just before you use it!

 EXPLANATION

If you add just the right amount of water to cornflour it becomes very thick when you stir it quickly. This happens because the cornflour grains are mixed up and can’t slide over each other due to the lack of water between them. Stirring slowly allows more water between the cornflour grains, letting them slide over each other much easier.

Poking it quickly has the same effect, making the substance very hard.  If you poke it slowly it doesn’t mix up the mixture in the same way, leaving it runny.  It works in much the same way as real quick sand.

EGG BUBBLES

MATERIALS:

• A clear glass or jar

• Hot water (adult supervision is a good idea when using hot water)

• An egg

• A magnifying glass

Instructions:

1. Place the egg carefully into the glass or jar.

2. Carefully pour hot water into the glass or jar until it is nearly full.

3. Leave the glass or jar on a table or flat surface and watch the egg closely for a few minutes (the glass may become hot so be careful).

4. Use your magnifying glass to closely examine what is happening.

 EXPLANATION

After surrounding the egg with hot water you will notice tiny bubbles forming on the egg shell which eventually bubble their way to the surface.

An egg contains a small air pocket at its larger end between the shell and egg white. When the air trapped inside this small pocket begins to heat up it expands and tries to find a way out of the shell, but how does it escape?

They're too small to see under normal conditions but with the help of a magnifying glass you can see that egg shells contain thousands of small holes called pores (human skin has pores too).

The pores allow air to pass through the shell, making it look like the egg is breathing as the air expands and is forced through the shell.

LAVA LAMP

MATERIALS:

• Water

• A clear plastic bottle

• Vegetable oil

• Food coloring

• Alka-Seltzer (or other tablets that fizz)

PROCESS:

1. Pour water into the plastic bottle until it is around one quarter full (you might want to use a funnel when filling the bottle so you don't spill anything).

2. Pour in vegetable oil until the bottle is nearly full.

3. Wait until the oil and water have separated.

4. Add around a dozen drops of food coloring to the bottle (choose any color you like).

5. Watch as the food coloring falls through the oil and mixes with the water.

6. Cut an Alka-Seltzer tablet into smaller pieces (around 5 or 6) and drop one of them into the bottle, things should start getting a little crazy, just like a real lava lamp!

7. When the bubbling stops, add another piece of Alka-Seltzer and enjoy the show!

EXPLANATION:

The oil and water you added to the bottle separate from each other, with oil on top because it has a lower density than water. The food coloring falls through the oil and mixes with the water at the bottom. The piece of Alka-Seltzer tablet you drop in after releases small bubbles of carbon dioxide gas that rise to the top and take some of the colored water along for the ride. The gas escapes when it reaches the top and the colored water falls back down. The reason Alka-Seltzer fizzes in such a way is because it contains citric acid and baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), the two react with water to form sodium citrate and carbon dioxide gas (those are the bubbles that carry the colored water to the top of the bottle).

FOAMY MOUNTAIN

MATERIALS

• A clean 16 ounce plastic soda bottle

• 1/2 cup 20-volume hydrogen peroxide liquid (20-volume is a 6% solution, ask an adult to get this from a beauty supply store or hair salon)

• 1 Tablespoon (one packet) of dry yeast

• 3 Tablespoons of warm water

• Liquid dish washing soap

• Food coloring

• Small cup

• Safety goggles

PROCESS

1. Hydrogen peroxide can irritate skin and eyes, so put on those safety goggles and ask an adult to carefully pour the hydrogen peroxide into the bottle.

2. Add 8 drops of your favorite food coloring into the bottle. 

3. Add about 1 tablespoon of liquid dish soap into the bottle and swish the bottle around a bit to mix it. 

4. In a separate small cup, combine the warm water and the yeast together and mix for about 30 seconds.

5. Now the adventure starts! Pour the yeast water mixture into the bottle (a funnel helps here) and watch the foaminess begin!

EXPLANATION

The foam you made is special because each tiny foam bubble is filled with oxygen. The yeast acted as a catalyst (a helper) to remove the oxygen from the hydrogen peroxide. Since it did this very fast, it created lots and lots of bubbles. Did you notice the bottle got warm. Your experiment created a reaction called an Exothermic Reaction - that means it not only created foam, it created heat! The foam produced is just water, soap, and oxygen so you can clean it up with a sponge and pour any extra liquid left in the bottle down the drain.

Layered Liquids

Materials:

• ¼ cup (60 ml) dark corn syrup or honey 

• ¼ cup (60 ml) dishwashing liquid 

• ¼ cup (60 ml) water 

• ¼ cup (60 ml) vegetable oil 

• ¼ cup (60 ml) rubbing alcohol 

• a tall 12 ounce (350 ml) glass or clear plastic cup 

• two other cups for mixing 

• food coloring 

PROCESS

1. Take the 12 ounce glass. Being careful not get syrup on the side of the glass; pour the syrup into the middle of the glass. Pour enough syrup in to fill the glass 1/6 of the way. 

2. After you have added the syrup or honey, tip the glass slightly and pour an equal amount of the dishwashing liquid slowly down the side of the glass.

3. Next mix a few drops of food coloring with water in one of the mixing cups. Color the rubbing alcohol a different color in another mixing cup. 

4. Be careful to add the next liquids VERY SLOWLY. Tip the glass slightly, and pouring slowly down the side of the glass, add first the colored water, then the vegetable oil, and finally the colored rubbing alcohol. 

5. On a piece of paper, make a sketch of the glass and its liquids, labeling the position of each liquid in your glass. 

EXPLANATION

One property that is different in all of the liquids is color. Another property unique to each liquid is thickness (viscosity). The property of the liquids that is responsible for the layering effect is density. Another property that keeps the liquids separate is that some of them are immiscible liquids, in other words they do not mix with each other. As you proved in the first experiment, oil and water are immiscible liquids. On the other hand, water and rubbing alcohol are miscible and will mix with each other. Water and the dishwashing liquid will also mix.

GREEN COIN EXPERIMENT

Materials

• Vinegar

• Different coins

• Paper towels

Process

1. Get a few paper towels and stack them on each other to create some thickness.

2. Pour out some vinegar in the middle of the paper towels so that it is soaked up.

3. Place a coin on the vinegar area of the paper towel and leave it there. 

4. Leave it for a full day to get the best results.

Explanation

The copper in the coin reacts with the oxygen in the air to form a coating of green copper oxide.

Cornstarch Suspension

Materials

• 1 cup cornstarch

• bowl

• 1/2 cup water

• spoon

• pie plate

• food coloring

Instructions:

1. Empty 1 cup of cornstarch into a large bowl.

2. Stir while you add water SLOWLY -- don't add all of it if you don't need to.  

3. Add a few drops of food coloring. Stick your hands in the mixture.  

4. Pour the water into a pie plate. Smack it

5. Empty the pie plate. 

6. Pour the cornstarch mixture into a pie plate.  Smack it.

 EXPLANATION

When we talk about "states" of matter, we usually talk about the three types:  solid (like a rock), liquid (like water) and gas (like the air we breath).

A mixture of cornstarch and water make what is known as a suspension.  When you squeeze a Cornstarch Suspension it really feels like a solid because its molecules line up.  But it looks like a liquid and acts like a liquid when no one is pressing on it because the molecules relax.  This is another state of matter, called a suspension (It can act like a liquid, or, when pressed like a solid.).

COFFEE DOUGH FOSSIL

Materials:

• 1 cup used coffee grounds

• 1/2 cup cold coffee

• 1 cup plain flour

• 1/2 cup salt

• Mixing bowl

• Wax paper

• Objects with which to make 'fossils'

Instructions

1. Mix the ingredients together and knead the dough until soft.

2. Spread the dough onto wax paper and cut round shapes using a knife, jar, glass or cookie cutter.

3. Press objects into the soft dough to make 'fossil' impressions.

4. The dough can be left to harden overnight.

EXPLANATION:

Dinosaur traces are often in the form of impressions left in mud. The impression can be of a bone, skin, egg fragment or tooth. Once the mud hardens into stone the impression is preserved... hopefully avoiding erosion from water and wind so that paleontologists get to look at the impression.

Dinosaurs aren't the only fossils found in rocks. All manner of living things can be found if you know where to look. Try going for a walk along a rocky headland next time you're at the beach. If you look into these rocks you can often find impressions of ancient marine organisms.

MAGIC INK

Materials:

• lemon

• water

• small plate

• toothpick

• white paper

• lamp

Instructions

1. Squeeze the lemon juice into a small plate with a few drops of water and mix with a spoon.

2. Dip the toothpick into the lemon juice mix and write a message on the white sheet of paper.

3. When it dries the writing will be invisible.

4. Heat the paper by holding it over a lamp with the writing side down.

5. The inviable ink writing will slowly turn brown and appear on the page!

Explanation:

The acid of lemon is reveled with heat.

PLASTIC MILK EXPERIMENT

Materials:

• Cup of milk

• 4 teaspoons of white vinegar

• Bowl

• Strainer

• Microwave oven

Instructions:

1. Put the milk into a bowl and microwave for a minute or two depending on the strength of your microwave. Be careful not to let the milk boil. You want it hot, not boiling.

2. Stir the vinegar into the milk. Keep stirring for about a minute.

3. Take a strainer and, over a sink, pour the hot milk mixture through it. You want to keep the white lumps left in the strainer when the rest of the liquid has passed through.

4. Once the lumps are cool, press them together into one mass.

5. Press the material into a mold or create your own shape and set it aside. In a few days time it will harden into a plastic-like consistency.

Explanation:

The lumps left behind by the strained milk are called casein. This is a material that is produced when the protein in the milk reacts to the acid in the vinegar.

The casein separates away from the acid and forms the lumps you can collect and then mold.

While it is plastic-like, true plastics are made from polymers and not milk and vinegar.

FIZZ-INFLATOR

Material

• One small empty plastic soda or water bottle

• 1/2 cup of vinegar

• Small balloon

• Baking soda

• Funnel or piece of paper

Instructions

1. Carefully pour the vinegar into the bottle. 

2. This is the tricky part: Loosen up the balloon by stretching it a few times and then use the funnel to fill it a bit more than half way with baking soda. If you don't have a funnel you can make one using the paper and some tape. 

3. Now carefully put the neck of the balloon all the way over the neck of the bottle without letting any baking soda into the bottle. 

4. Ready? Lift the balloon up so that the baking soda falls from the balloon into the bottle and mixes with the vinegar.

Explanation

The baking soda and the vinegar create an ACID-BASE reaction and the two chemicals work together to create a gas, (carbon dioxide) Gasses need a lot of room to spread out and the carbon dioxide starts to fill the bottle, and then moves into the balloon to inflate it.

Color Symphony

Materials

• A flat tray (like a cookie baking tray)

• Food coloring (at least 3 different colors)

• Whole milk

• Liquid soap used for washing dishes

Instructions

1. Carefully pour the milk into the tray so that it just covers the bottom

2. Add about 6-8 drops of different colored food coloring onto the milk in different spots

3. Add about 5 drops of the liquid soap onto the drops of food coloring and watch the show!

Explanation

So you know where the color comes from, but why milk and liquid soap? The main job of dish soap it to go after fat and break it down. Usually the fat is on dishes from the food we eat, but fat is also in whole milk. When you drop the liquid soap onto the tray, it tried to break down the fat in the milk. While it was doing that, it caused the colors to scatter and mix creating a very colorful display.

Acid Rain

Materials:

• Three Jars with Lids

• Three Growing Bean Plants In Small Cups or Small Separate Planting Containers

• Masking Tape

• Marking Pen

• Lemon Juice

• Water

• Tablespoon

Instructions:

1) Put a strip of tape on each jar or bean plant container and mark them "A", "B", and "C".

2) Next label the three jars with masking tape "A", "B", and "C".

3) Add 1/2 cup of lemon juice to Jar "A".

4) Add 1/4 cup lemon juice to cup "B".

5) Don't put any lemon juice in cup "C".

6) Add 1/2 cup of water to each jar (A,B,C).

7) Place the growing bean plants in their containers in a sunny windowsill or outside in a mostly sunny place.

8) Water each plant with four tablespoons of the solution marked for that plant (plant "A" gets solution "A", plant "B" gets solution "B", plant "C" gets solution "C").

Explanation:

Acid rain is caused by air pollutants pumped into the atmosphere through the smoke stacks in factories and industry and exhaust of cars. Many other pollutants contribute to acid rain in the atmosphere as well. The pollunts gather in dense clouds and fall back to earth when it rains. The pollutants which are acidic like the lemon juice, build up in the soil and effect the growth of plant life (like the lemon juice did to your plants). The more acidic the rain (like solution "A"), the sooner the plant is effected. Over time, the plants will die and new plants will not be able to grow! Now go grab some friend and do the acid rain experiment.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download