Science Week

Mad scientists in Glenbrae school

Last Week Term 2 Week 10, Room 7 and the other Glenbrae senior students rotated to each classrooms to learn about the world around us. This was because it was our science week. Our science projects were based on physical and chemical changes of matter.

On the first day of science week as usual we had Mrs. Raj, with Mrs. Raj we learnt about the 3 states of matter which is Solid, Liquid and Gas. We also learnt about the 3 forms of water, the water cycle, evaporation and condensation. The experiments that we did was based on evaporation and condensation. Our first science experiment was about evaporation, Mrs. Raj had already boiled water in a kettle and as soon as it was ready she poured the hot water into a see through glass cup. Then added coffee into the hot water and stirred. Afterwards she got another cup and put it on top of the see through cup. We waited exactly 10 minutes before taking the  cup off, in the meanwhile we were predicting what would happen. When Mrs. Raj took the cup off there were water droplets on the top of the cup which was formed by the steam in the first cup. Mrs. Raj asked us if we had ever wondered if we were to put ice cubes into a cup suddenly water droplets would form on the outside. The reason why water droplets form on the outside of the cup because of condensation. Condensation is when cold air hits the surface of a warm object, as soon as the cold air hits that warm object the water droplets then form.

The next day we stayed with Mrs.Parker, to learn about rising agents. All the materials we needed to make bread were set up on a table in front of the class. First of all we looked at a cartoon to find out whether they are Liquids or not. Afterwards Mrs.Parker poured yeast into a bowl with warm water in it. Then added ¼ of sugar into the bowl and stirred, then left the bowl near the computers for 10 minutes. During the 10 minutes we made a hypothesis about why we need to leave the bread to rise and what we think would happen to the bread dough if we don’t leave it to rise. When the 10 minutes finished Mrs. Parker showed us what it looked like. A few minutes later Mrs.Parker created the bread dough. She asked everyone if they wanted to have a turn to knead the bread dough. I took photos of the students who were kneading the dough and later on I also got to knead the dough. As soon as we finished kneading the dough, Mrs.Parker punched the dough and showed us. Then split the dough in half, we left one to rise for an hour and the other dough went straight into the oven. After an hour we put the second dough into the oven and got the first bread out. When the first bread finished baking, we settled it near the second bread and started making butter. To make the butter we put cream and salt into jam jars and started shaking the jar until butter chunks formed. After that Mrs.Parker generously cut both breads into strips and put the butter on them. When all the bread pieces were finished being buttered we were given 2 pieces of bread from the first bread and the second bread. We compared each bread to each other and I luckily got another piece of the first bread which was delicious. The first bread was smooth in the inside, dense, chewy and tasted sour and sweet. The second bread was rough, had more air holes, less dense and had a crispy crust.

On Wednesday we started rotating around to other classes, Room 7 went to Room 10 to also learn about more rising agents. We started talking about what could we do to prevent a apple skin turning brown. Mrs.T ofa showed us liquids where we could dip an apple into the liquid and leave it in a place where we think that it won’t turn brown. We all worked in our house groups, Kowhai house’s hypothesis was that dipping the apple into vinegar and putting it into the sun would help prevent the apple skin from turning brown. After 10 minutes we checked on our apple and “Guess what!!”, not a single brown stain on our apple. Then we moved on to creating the  scones. Mrs. Tofa, got all the ingredients out and talked about how could we create carbon dioxide out of L&P, Sprite, Vinegar and Water to make the scones rise. To see if the liquids can create carbon dioxide, she put in a tablespoon of baking powder and each of the liquids bubbled up except for the water. After a while we created the dough, my group which were using L&P were trying to get the dough pieces together because it was falling apart and was sticky. Finally our dough was perfect and not sticky, we split the dough into 15 pieces because there were 15 of us in the group. Once we were ready, we carried a tray of scone dough's to the staff room. As we put our scones in the oven, the Sprite scones were in the oven too. The Vinegar scones had to wait 15 minutes before it was going to get put into the oven . As Mrs.Card got the scones out of the oven, the scones smelt wonderful and divine. When we carried the scones back to class, all the groups gathered around their plate of scones and waited for Mrs. Tofa to get some students to hand the scones out. As the scones were handed out, everyone smelt the scones first and then ate them. I really enjoyed baking scones with Mrs. Tofa and I learnt a lot about carbon dioxide.

The day after, the room 7 students went to Mr. Naf’s class. We did an activity that included brown sugar (mixed in water), salt (also mixed in water), spoons, 2 plates and 2 candles. First of all Mr. Naf chose Mrs.Card to come up with him to show the experiment we were doing. Mr. Naf put the brown sugar that was mixed in water on a small spoon and Mrs.Card did the same but with salt mixed in water. Then they lit the candles up and waited for the wax to drip on the plates so the candles can stand. Afterwards they put the spoon right on top of the flame on the candle and the spoon Mrs.Card had started to boil up really fast and evaporating. The spoon that Mr. Naf was holding was slowly evaporating. Soon Mrs.Card’s spoon turned white and there were no salt water anymore. Mr. Naf’s spoon slowly boiled and evaporated, but instead of the spoon turning white, the brown sugar water turned into burnt toffee. We all got a taste of both spoons, but the spoon with toffee on it was not that great. Later on we moved classes after morning tea and went to room 8.

In room 8 the teacher we had teaching us about science was Mrs. Ravi. She said that we would make lemon fizz and predict which cup with warm and cold water would dissolve faster. Mrs. Ravi boiled the kettle and left it too cool down so the temperature is warm. After a while the hot water cooled down so Mrs. Ravi poured some warm water into one cup. Soon after we got cold water and poured it into another cup. Next Mrs. Ravi got Charlie up to help her pour the sugar into the warm cup but at the same as Mrs. Ravi when she pours the sugar into the cold cup. 123, we counted as both Charlie and Mrs. Ravi poured the sugar in the cups and stirred. We found out that the warm cup with sugar in it dissolves faster because of the heat. Later that day we created lemon fizz, first we put lime into a cup of water and stirred. Then added sugar to the cup and stirred once again, even though we didn't get to taste the lemon fizz I still was very excited. After that we did some science competitions. It was house against house, the first activity that we did was writing down information that was outside on the wall and the first group that finishes writing all the information gets 100 house points. That group that won that activity was the one and only KOWHAI HOUSE!!!. We didn't have enough time for another activity because it was time to go to lunch. I really enjoyed creating lemon fizz with Mrs. Ravi and I know that I will be making some more at home.

As I arrived at school the next day I thought really hard on what I had learned during Science week. I learnt how to make lemon fizz, how to make scones as well as bread, all about raising agents, the different sorts of chemical reactions and a lot of information about carbon dioxide. I had so much fun learning all the types of information about science and next time I would like to try experiments that include small explosions if we are allowed.