Last week at Lowestoft Highers club we completed 3 science experiments together over MS Teams, it was great fun and only a little chaotic, hearing and seeing how everyone was getting on.
Firstly, we made a salt solution, added gummy bears to see what would happen, sadly we had to wait until the next morning to see the results. We then created a ghostly hand, by adding bicarbonate of soda into the fingers of a glove, attaching the glove to a glass with some vinegar in it. You then tip the bicarb in and the results are a glove with a mind of its own, we drew little faces on the gloves and gave them names, the one in the photo is called Jerry. It was hilarious seeing all the different gloves. The last experiment was making a catapult out of just lolly sticks and elastic bands, some also added teaspoons for more accuracy. There were marshmallow flying all over the place, mine hit the ceiling.
The glove and the catapult came out as firm favourites, we even had one young carer using the catapult to flick treats to her dog, which was hilarious. Here are some photos of our creations.
Here is all the information you need to have a go yourself.
1, Grow a gummy bear
You will need:
- 2 bowls
- Salt
- Boiling water
- Tap water
- Measuring spoons
- Gummy bears
- In one bowl dissolve 4 teaspoons of salt into boiling water.
- Leave to cool.
- Fill the other bowl with tap water
- Once boiled water is cool, add 2 gummy bears to each bowl and leave 2 on the side for comparison.
- Leave them overnight to see what happens.
What’s going on?
To make gummy bears, sugar, gelatine and flavour are dissolved in a warm water solution.
As the solution cools, water leaves the gelatine solution and the bears become firm but chewy. (Not all the water leaves the gelatine however, otherwise the gummy bears would be rock hard.)
It’s this little bit of water that makes the gummy bears act as a solution of water, one with a lot of sugar dissolved in it.
The plain water in the bowl, however, had very little dissolve in it. We know that different solutions of water will want to balance each other.
The plain water, with very little dissolved in it, will move toward the solution of water with a lot dissolved in it, the gummy bear.
This movement of a solvent from one of lower concentration to higher concentration is called osmosis.
The force behind that movement of water is called osmotic pressure.
In the bowl with the salt water, we tried to balance the amount of stuff (salt) dissolved in the water with the amount of sugar dissolved in the gummy bear.
Since our gummy bear placed in the salt water solution did expand a little bit, we knew our salt water solution did have a lot dissolved in it but not quite as much as the gummy bear did.
So, a little water moved into the gummy bear to balance the two solutions.
Experiment taken from: Growing Gummy Bear Science – Playdough To Plato
2, Ghostly glove
We will need:
- White Vinegar
- Baking soda
- Glove
- Glass
- Measuring spoons
- Felt tip
- Pour 3 tablespoons of vinegar into the glass
- Draw a face onto the glove, the fingers are the top of his head.
- Put 2 teaspoons of baking soda into the fingers of the glove.
- Without spilling the baking soda, stretch the glove over the top of the glove.
- Lift up the fingers to allow the baking soda to drop into the vinegar.
WHAT’S GOING ON?
When sodium bicarbonate combines with acetic acid, they form carbonic acid, which, in the second part of the reaction, divides into carbon dioxide and water. The carbon dioxide bubbles up, inflating the glove. At the end sodium acetate is left in the jar.
3, Marshmallow catapult
You will need:
- Lolly sticks
- Elastic bands
- Marshmallows
- A tea spoon
- Take 6 lolly sticks and stack them together, fasten the ends with an elastic band.
- Take another 2 lolly sticks and put one over the stack and one under the stack. Fasten them together at one end with an elastic band. Attach another elastic band where the lolly sticks meet the stack of lolly sticks.
- Take your teaspoons and lay it on top of the lolly sticks, attach with another elastic band, slide it under the other band or attach another band to make it secure.
- Put a marshmallow on the spoon and let it fly – whose goes the furthest, how can you make it go further.
If you do have a go at any of the experiments do let us know and send any photos to hello@suffolkfamilycarers.org
