In Year 6 Science, students explored the three states of matter (solids, liquids, gases) with four different experiments! Elise from 6E tells us all about it:
“In the butter-making experiment, I found it interesting how the texture changed so suddenly – how it became thicker and gooier than before when it was more liquid-like. It was both satisfying and interesting when it changed colours too, from creamy white to a nice shade of yellow after mixing in with the salt. I think the cream turned yellow after mixing the salt in because the salt is spread and broke down into salt particles, entwining with the butter molecules."
"In the balloon experiment, I found it interesting that baking soda combined with vinegar made enough gas to rise up and fill the balloon. I am curious to know why the air would rise up instead of just remaining in the bottle neutrally, because gas has no shape, it just takes the volume of the container it is in. Next time, I think I would put more baking soda and vinegar to see how big the balloon gets and try to estimate how much gas is released when they are mixed."
"For the dishwashing liquid and food dye experiment, I found it both fascinating and intriguing that the food dye moved away from the dishwashing liquid as we poured it into the milk-filled plate. I am interested to know why this is and how it works, so maybe I could try to make some interpretations and more questions about this experiment. I am thinking that there is a specific reason we used milk – maybe it has something to do with the experiment, maybe it alters some molecules as the two mix in."
"For the last experiment, the melting chocolate experiment, I found it interesting that even though it was melted underneath, it didn’t loose it’s shape right away and just melt into a puddle, that we only discovered that it was melted when we moved the chocolate. I think that the steam rising up went to the top plate and stayed there, forming droplets, and making the surface of the top plate heated, melting the bottom of the chocolate squares. If I were to change the experiment, I would increase the distance between the plate of chocolates and the plate of boiling water, and see what happens then.”