Balloon Surfing

Today we tried an experiment to test how much force is needed to burst balloons. 

We called it “Balloon Surfing”. 

Our question was: How many children can stand on a table that is balancing on balloons?

Here are some of our predictions:

  • It will hold 3 children
  • The balloons will slip out from under the table
  • It will hold 6 children, the balloons will then pop and the table will fall
  • The balloons will get squashed, not burst
  • Three children that are the same size (only tall) will pop the balloons
  • The smaller the children the more that will be able to balance on the balloons

For our experiment, we placed 15 balloons under a table.  We needed to make sure the balloons were only half blown up and that they were evenly placed beneath the table.  We also needed to have this experiment on the carpet.  Ms. Tieppo helped balance the table while the children in our class hopped onto the table. Very slowly each child carefully climbed onto the table.

 Were we surprised!!!  We managed to get 16 children on the first time and when we repeated it we got 18 children.  There were so many giggles and screams as we kept adding another child!  It was such great fun!

Here is why the balloons didn’t burst:  When the balloon flattens out enough, the pressure of the air inside the balloon equals the pressure of the desk on the balloon and the balloon can support the weight of the desk.

 

Balloon Surfing on PhotoPeach

Making Flubber!

We made flubber or “cornflour slime”.  We wanted to find out what would happen if we applied force to the mixture.  When we punched it with great force it went hard like a solid.  When we moved our fingers through the mixture slowly, it was runny like a liquid.  We had so much fun.  It was amazing!

Making Flubber! on PhotoPeach

Science Experiments

This term we have been working on our Passion project named “Why is it so?”  We have conducted a variety of science experiments to show how matter, which is made up of solids, liquids and gases, can change.  Here is a sample of our experiments.

Rubber Egg Experiment

We placed a hard boiled egg into a jar of vinegar for three days.  Here is a record of what happened.

On Day one some brown scum began to appear in the jar.  The egg shell was still hard.

End of day one in vinegar.

End of day one in vinegar.

On Day Two there were lots of bubbles around the egg shell and there was also lots of foam.  The brown scum around the egg was getting darker.

Day two in the vinegar.

Day two in the vinegar.

         On day three, Wesley and Lauren helped to lift the egg out of the jar with a spoon.  As they lifted the egg, the shell slipped off the egg.  It had turned into a brown scum.  The acid fron the vinegar had “eaten up” the carbonate shell.   We were all amazed at how the shell had disappeared. We tried to bounce the egg but we didn’t have much luck.  Wesley and Isabelle tried but it just broke!

IMG_0045 (Medium)lift egg

Wesley and Lauren took out the egg.

IMG_0048 (Medium) scum

The eggs shell had dissolved into a brown scum.

IMG_0047

What the egg looked like after we tried to bounce it!