Welcome back to another fantastic year of science with Mr. John! Mr. John does science every Thursday for our classes at the Cuyahoga Falls site. He prepares fun and interactive science experiments that students enjoy so much. After each class your student will come home with an outline of the experiment, your child’s hypothesis and an explanation of what us happening during the experiment.

Here a student is pouring baking soda into a balloon. Each student had the opportunity to fill their own balloon during this experiment!

Here the student is emptying the baking soda in her balloon into a 2liter bottle that is full of white vinegar. The end of the balloon is securely around the opening of the bottle.

Here a student is helping Mr. John as her balloon begins to expand after the baking soda is combined with the vinegar in the bottle. **Why is the balloon filling up and expanding**?

The science, behind this balloon baking soda experiment, is the chemical reaction between the base {baking soda} and the acid {vinegar}. When the two ingredients mix together the balloon baking soda experiment gets it’s lift! The balloon is filling with the gas produced from the two ingredients is carbon dioxide or CO2.Carbon dioxide is Mr. John’s favorite gas.

Week 2:

Here two students are putting eggs into cups of water. One cup has plain water and the other is salt water.

Here the two eggs are in fresh water. They are at the bottom of the cup.

Here the two eggs are in salt water. They are floating at the top.

If you put an egg in a cup of tap water, it will sink to the bottom. Why is this?

Because the density of the egg is higher than the density of tap water, so it sinks. Density is the mass of a material per unit volume. For example, the density of freshwater under standard conditions is approximately one gram per cubic centimeter.

But, if you add enough salt to the water, the egg will actually float back up to the surface! Adding salt to the water increases the density of the solution because the salt increases the mass without changing the volume very much.

When enough salt is added to the water, the saltwater solution’s density becomes higher than the egg’s, so the egg will then float! The ability of something, like the egg, to float in water or some other liquid is known as buoyancy.

Week 3

In week three, all Mr.John needed was water, a plate and SKITTLES! Only 3 materials needed for this experiment.

Mr. John had arranged the skittles by color on the plate. Then he poured water on them. At first, nothing happened. Then all our friends began to point because the water started to change!

The color on the skittles began to mix into the surrounding water. Noticenthough, that none of the colored water appears to be mixing. **Why is that?**

Mr. John explained that each skittlen is covered with the coloring and a itty bit of wax. The wax creates the barriers between the colors. Once the wax starts to mix with the water, the colors will eventually all blend together. Here is Mr. John and friends pretending to be the wax, keeping the other colors away.

So bummed that we didn’t get to eat the skittles!

Week 4

In week 4, Mr. John used oil, water, food coloring, an empty plastic bottle and a funnel. Have you noticed that he tends to use everyday household materials for a majority of his experiments?

Mr. John began with making blue water in the bottle using the food dye. Then he filled the rest of the bottle with the oil.

Then Mr. John had each student shake the bottle to mix all the oil and water. At first it seemed to work.

Mr. John set the bottle down and everyone had their eyes glued to the bottle. The oil and water were separating!

Why does the water not mix with the oil?

Oil is less dense than water. Given the variance in densities the two liquids cannot mix.
Oil and water also do not mix because water molecules are more attracted to each other than to oil molecules.

I hope you enjoyed this month of activities. Don’t forget to check your student’s folder on Thursdays for the instructions for each experiment!

Science Enrichment | Cuyahoga Falls | September 2018

I hope you enjoyed this month of activities. Don’t forget to check your student’s folder on Thursdays for the instructions for each experiment!

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