Floating fizzy drinks experiment

Today's fun class experiment was trying to find out why some fizzy drink can float?

We got into small groups and tried to see which cans would float and which ones would sink in a bucket of water.  We used a variety of drinks - coke, diet coke, fanta, lemonade and mountain dew.

We began by making predictions about which drinks we thought would float and which ones we thought would sink.  We then carried out the experiment and recorded our results.

We found that in most cases it was only the diet coke that floated, while all the other drinks sank to the bottom.  We had to think about why this might have happened.  We decided it was due to the amount of sugar in each can.  When we looked at the sugar content in the drinks, the diet coke had much less sugar and that is why it floated.

It certainly made us think about how much sugar is in fizzy drinks and why they should only be had a special treats occasionally!

ICT with Mr Gover

This term we are lucky enough to have Mr Gover coming to teach us every week on Friday.  He is teaching us how to use the videoing programme 'Adobe Premier Elements'.

We are learning how to load pictures and sound, add transitions and titles, create a video and add special effects.

MVTV Hosts

Well done on all the people who volunteered to help present MVTV today.  You did a great job and made everyone in R21 very proud!

Warren Pohatu Inspired Art

We have decided to use the great NZ artist Warren Pohatu as inspiration.  We looked at a range of animals he has created and discussed the different patterns.

We have started our draft sketches as you can see below in the photos.  Already the quality is looking A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.

Our next step will be to vivid over our pencil and use pastels to colour it effectively.

Stay tuned for our progress.....

Lava Lamp Experiment

This week's Science Experiments was all about Lava Lamps....

We asked the question: How does a lava lamp work?

Predictions:
The Water and Oil will not mix
The Oil might somehow turn into bubbles
The soluble panadol will fizz in the water
The food colouring will mix into the water and teh oil
Bubbles will move up and down

Method:
1/4 fill a glass with water
Add a few drops of food colouring
Tilt the glass on an angle and fill the glass up with oil
Drop in the soluble panadol

Observations and Results:
The oil did not mix into the water
Nothing happens while the tablet was in oil. But once it hits teh water it started fizzing
Big blobs of coloured water float to the surface and sink again

Conclusion:
Tablets that fizz in water contain an acid and a second type of chemical called a base. While the tablet is dry the acid and base can't react. Dissolve one in water and the acid-base reaction takes off, producing bubbles of carbon dioxide gas.
Water sinks in oil because it is denser. Carbon dioxide gas is less dense than oil so it floats. The rising blobs of water contain lots of carbon dioxide bubbles, so they float. At the surface the bubbles pop, the gas escapes and the blob sinks again.

We had so much fun carrying out this experiment - check out the photos below....