A couple of days ago I had this fantastic idea to do a science experiment with the class. To be honest I have been a bit hit and miss with science this term - I seem to enjoying buying numerous books about *FUN* and *EXCITING* science experiments and then never manage to crack the spine...
We've been learning about plants this term - yes, we've already done the standard 'bean growing' experiment, and that went really well until we had a string of days over 32 degrees and all the plants died on us! Whoops (note to self- keep plants out of sun next time).
So for this experiment I decided to look at the importance of water for both plants and our bodies by dehydrating potatoes in salt water. Ah yes and all was going according to the plan laid out in my gloriously new and shiny science experiment book until we realised that the potatoes were going to take a lot longer than the half an hour stated to show any results. In fact, we had to leave the damn things overnight and even then they didn't really show a huge difference!
Anyway, the kids enjoyed the experiment and especially enjoyed peering at the potatoes every 2 mins throughout the first day to see if anything had changed.
So then came results time and an explanation about how our bodies are similar. We discussed the results and noted that the salty potatoes had (eventually) gone soggy, lost some colour and were wrinkly. We had previously talked about dehydration on our bodies and the balance of salt and water necessary to keep us going. So when I asked the class how this experiment linked to dehydration in our bodies, one boy put is hand up and said "If we don't drink enough water we will lose colour, go all wrinkly and really soggy!"
Yep close enough. I think I've now scared them into drinking water. You can thank me later mums.
No comments:
Post a Comment