Year 2 Science Superstars in the Prep Lab
Year 2 had an exciting introduction to Year 3 Science on Wednesday and were treated to colour changes, pops, bubbles, fizzes, glows and changes of temperature as a result of chemical reactions taking place before their eyes!
The transition assembly was also used to introduce the ‘home science book’ where every Year 2 will get a red science book to record anything scientific they encounter at home – be that a visit to a museum, a walk in the park, seeing blossom appear, watching a sunset or baking a cake. Science is everywhere and we would like to share your news through ticket stubs, photographs, a little write up, a brochure or pamphlet – all of which can be stuck into the book to share at school.
The Year 2s were given front row seats to some lovely hands-on experiments they could try at home from colour mixing with food dyes and paper towels, to making carbon dioxide by mixing bicarbonate of soda with vinegar – which we used to blow out candles without taking a breath!
Also using this fizzy mixture were the deep-diving balloons which we had race to the top of a tall water column. Only once the jar base had sunk to the bottom could the balloon, filled with some vinegar, invert and mix with the bicarbonate to release the gas. The green balloon was perhaps the fastest to inflate as it was so eager to inflate it didn’t even touch the bottom, but the purple balloon was the biggest gas producer as it managed to shoot to the top and a few moments later worked itself free of its jar and jumped out of the tank
We investigated how hand warmers work because of a chemical reaction – we made a giant hand warmer in a jar and then had our own to try – they went from around 20 degrees to a toasty 30 to 34 degrees. And how does it do this? All it takes is a tiny seed crystal of sodium acetate or a click which shocks the super-saturated liquid and instant, warming crystals appear.
Following on from the colourful food dyes experiment, we took to colourful light rays and used transparent paddles and torches to see how the world looked through colour lenses and what happened if we mixed wavelengths to make new colours. there was some fantastic collaborative work where children designed their own experiments to see how many overlays could still let light through and what colours worked to let the least light through.
We finally learned how a chemical reaction happens between an inner and outer liquid in a glow stick and what happens when you hear that click. We all really enjoyed putting the glow sticks in our pockets and seeing how they lit up!
All in all a fantastic morning of science, and the children were certainly looking forward to seeing what they would do in Year 3.
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