Saturday, September 27, 2008

Science Experiment







Hubby has been working so much lately, he hasn't had the time to do our science experiments. Well, today was the day. He got home a little early from work and got started after he changed his clothes. The experiment was about heat and cold.

You need a plastic bottle with a lid, a straw, some modeling clay, tape, and a small piece of cardboard. Cut a hole in the lid of the bottle. Try to make it just big enough for the straw. Fill the bottle with water and put the lid on as tight as you can. This helps create pressure. Stick the straw through the hole about half to three quarters of the way. Use the modeling clay to put around the straw where it comes out of the lid. You want to try to seal the hole, smoothing the clay out as much as possible. Tape the cardboard to the straw, with enough room to make markings. Let sit for one hour to settle.

After an hour, you put mark where the water level is. You can drop food coloring in the water before sealing the lid to make it easier to see the water level through the straw. Place the bottle in a bowl of hot tap water. Watch the water level rise as the water heats up. Mark the top level of the water. Take the bottle out of the hot water and place it in a bowl of cold water. Mark the lowest level of the cold water.

It turned out to be pretty fun getting the bottles together. It was trial and error with the lids and straws and the modeling clay. But hubby finally got it done. Yea hubby! While he was putting the experiment together, I sat down and wrote a quick 4 question quiz to make sure the kids were paying attention. It worked. I know how my kids get. I posted some pictures.

Have a great day!

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