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Posted on: November 2nd 2023
Science Club
Science Club
KS3 science club continues every Thursday for Year 7 and Year 8 students, with some very helpful Year 9 pupils lending a hand. Our theme since the last newsletter has been “Food and Festivals.”
With Ms. Warsame, pupils investigated what type of solution would make gummy bears grow in size. Some of them even ended up shrinking. Of course a gummy bear can’t grow like you or me, so how did they get bigger and smaller? It was by osmosis in different sugar solutions. This activity allowed pupils to explore a mystery, discuss the characteristics of life, and learn about concentration diffusion and osmosis. A lot to learn from a sweet!
Just before Halloween students put their mind to making ghosts using balloons and the wonder of static electricity. Using static electricity pupils designed and made some spooky displays with ghosts seeming to float and shake with nothing touching them and some hair raising banshees. To add to the creepy atmosphere, pupils designed and carved a pumpkin Jack o’lantern. Miss Harris made the pumpkin look like it was vomiting green foam! This was achieved by using some yeast, hydrogen peroxide, washing up liquid and food dye. Pupils reviewed concentration and rate of reaction in this demonstration.
With all the festive foods that are shared during winter seasons Ms. Warsame helped pupils answer the question, how do we test for the nutrient contents in different foods? Pupils used Biuret’s solution to test for the presence of protein, and the ratio of protein in different mixtures of drinks. There were good discussions about how we could test for different nutrients (maybe in a future science club) and why the nutrients in food isn’t always the same as the nutrients in the ingredients of the food.
With Diwali, Guy Fawkes and other festivals of light approaching, pupils explored how to make different colour fireworks. Pupils always seem to love using the Bunsen burners, to make different colour flames by spraying metal salts through them and this was great fun. Conversations about what different metal salts make different colours went into a lot of chemistry. Science seems to be everywhere!
We really enjoy having so many regular people at science club. Did you know that even though there are themes for each term that you can come to any session? Even if you’ve never been before or only think you can come to one session we’d love to see you in Science 9 on Thursdays after school.
