Showcasing our work

Today we got to show the rest of the school and the parents some of the experiments we have been doing in class.

We concentrated on the following experiments:

Static electricity – We used some balloons to generate some static electricity by rubbing our hair and a wooly jumper. We checked to see how many rice krispies we could pick up with the balloons and also if we could move a ping pong ball across the table. We discovered that straight hair generates more static than curly hair.
Current electricity & conductivity – We used the makey makey and a computer to test conductivity of objects. We tested some plastic spoons, bananas, metal spoons and a rubber. We discovered that only the bananas and metal spoons were conductive.
Friction – We were exploring friction using a lego rubber band car and our own version of a rubber band car. We discovered that the lego rubber band car had rubber wheels which helped it to create friction which helped it to move. Our own version of the car had cardboard wheels and needed some friction for it to move. It would not move very far at all. We also made hovercrafts with a cd and a balloon and we discovered that the cd would not travel very far on the table until we decreased the friction by using a balloon to lift the hovercraft slightly off the table.
Exploring sound – We explored sound using tuning forks with water to show that sound is made from vibrations. We also made rice dance on top of a speaker and discovered that some songs were better at making the rice dance.
Exploring colour – We made some primary colour mixing bottles using oil and water. We had to get special oil based food colouring to colour the oil and we used water based food colouring to colour the water. We then explored different colour combinations and predicted what colours they would make when we shook the bottles. We also made a colour spinner which turned white when it was spun very quickly.
Exploring light – We looked at different objects in water and showed how we could make an arrow change direction without touching it.