An Experiment with Water
I have begun to take a slightly looser approach to school. I have found my confidence (sort of) and ditched the textbooks (some of them) in favor of "living books" and hands on activities that my kids so loveth. I have also made out what I feel is quite a reasonable schedule and so far, day 4 and it's working well. We're accomplishing more in less time. It's amazing how a little time management can accomplish so much more. If I can just stick to this, things would go more smoothly. But, as usual, I am digressing. The topic here is the girls' first experiment.
So, we read about a fish, living in the arctic, that has a form of sugar in it's blood that prevents the blood from freezing. Then, this led to discussion on how salt in the water prevents water from freezing solid as well. This all led to an experiment with water.
We labeled four bowls-one for control (plain water), one for water with sugar, one for water with salt and one for water with salt and sugar. Then, each bowl got 1/2c water and 1T of sugar or salt or both as labeled. We put all the bowls in the freezer. 3o minutes later and we had the control water nearly frozen and the others were slushy. Tonight, 24 hours later, the control bowl was frozen solid the sugar water nearly frozen, but not completely and the water dishes with salt in them were lightly frozen on the surface, but not beneath. It is pretty cool. It was not real high tech, but definitely cool to see the effects of salt and sugar on the water's freezing temps.
So, we read about a fish, living in the arctic, that has a form of sugar in it's blood that prevents the blood from freezing. Then, this led to discussion on how salt in the water prevents water from freezing solid as well. This all led to an experiment with water.
We labeled four bowls-one for control (plain water), one for water with sugar, one for water with salt and one for water with salt and sugar. Then, each bowl got 1/2c water and 1T of sugar or salt or both as labeled. We put all the bowls in the freezer. 3o minutes later and we had the control water nearly frozen and the others were slushy. Tonight, 24 hours later, the control bowl was frozen solid the sugar water nearly frozen, but not completely and the water dishes with salt in them were lightly frozen on the surface, but not beneath. It is pretty cool. It was not real high tech, but definitely cool to see the effects of salt and sugar on the water's freezing temps.
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