We had a lot of fun in our last week before break. We did an experiment to help with our Bottle Rocket project (which we'll start when we return from vacation), we finalized our procedures and materials for our Science Fair, and made fake snow!
On Tuesday, we worked on our propellant for our future Bottle Rockets. The rockets will use baking soda and vinegar, but how much of each should we use? Our goal was to find the ratio of Baking Soda to Vinegar to have a complete reaction (no leftover baking soda or vinegar).
Working in teams, everyone started with a container with a teaspoon of baking soda (5ml) in it. Then, they each took turns measuring out roughly 15ml of vinegar. They'd pour it in and see if we got some fizz going! If so, they repeated, and repeated, until the reaction stopped—no more fizz : )
We found that it took about 115-120ml of vinegar until the reaction stopped. That made a ratio of about 1:23, or 1:24 Baking Soda to vinegar. Now we know how to measure things out for our Bottle Rockets correctly!
Wednesday and Thursday, everyone finalized their Science Fair project questions, procedures, and materials list. They are ready to go! I can't wait to see how everything turns out.
For our Friday, and our last day before break, we attempted to make fake snow! It mostly worked 😂 A few snowpeople were built before the shaving cream beards started! Our awesome Upper El group helped me take our tents down and set our classroom up for the winter break.
I hope everyone has a happy Christmas, holiday, New Year!