Plasma Ball and Elephant's toothpaste

The next part of the show saw the boys really interested in our new plasma ball.  They had great fun investigating what happened when they touched it with a finger tip, a whole hand, both hands ...

Many of them were then surprised to see that when I held a small fluorescent tube near the ball, the tube lit up as far as my hand ..

 So of course, I couldn't resist ..

But I think the highlight of the whole experience was when I made Elephant's Toothpaste.  There are lots of examples of this on the internet.  I first saw Steve Spangler do this and thought, "Wow, that looks cool!"  Finding a safer version that wouldn't get me into trouble, we managed to make our own toothpaste at school!  Once again, thanks to Science in a Van for their explanation and instructions.

However, I am thinking that next year we'll have to go for Steve's version and have an outdoor show!

In the next blog, you'll get to find out about our colour changing liquids, what it feels like to be blasted by an Airzooka and some amazing information about a very cool scientist who is making a difference to our world.

Mrs Hawthorne's Science Week Show

I decided to have a go at gathering together a few fun science experiments and having a science session purely for fun (with a bit of learning thrown in of course!).  My aim?  To make the boys go "Wow," "Cool" and "What if?"  And what do boys like to do?  When I asked all eleven classes who came along on Tuesday, the answer was unanimous!  "EXPLOSIONS!!"

So to start the session off with a bang, and with willing volunteers, we made Fizzing Rockets.  I saw this demonstrated at the National Primary Science Teachers Conference in Auckland in the last holidays.  Science in a Van looks like lots of fun and yahoo!  they are coming to Wellington next week and I managed to book their last day so that they can come and visit us.
After my science show I had lots of boys asking me about where to get things and how to do the experiments so over the next couple of blog posts I will try and share all of the experiments.  For Fizzing rockets you need an old film cannister (Alan from Science in a Van said the white ones work the best!) and you can buy Alka Seltzar at your local chemist.  One quarter of one tablet saw the film cannister rocket reach (and touch!) the ceiling of our science room and I'm certain those dents were already there before yesterday!

We all discussed and shared examples of solids, liquids and gases. Boys knew about the properties of solids and so a few boys, after agreeing my white substance was a solid, got to construct a snowman, little did they know that it would slowly 'melt' over the course of the session - and I thought they knew what a solid was!

 I then showed the classes an absorbent ball.  After soaking it in water overnight, the ball had grown to over five times its original size.  It was fascinating to see that when it sat in a beaker of water the ball became invisible!

It was really great to see the boys interested and curious about what was happening.

New Zealand National Science Week

The image is rather blurred but Whoop!  Whoop!  It's Science Week and what better way to celebrate than having a science session where the achievement objective is to have fun, ask questions, be in awe and wonder, "What if?"

Year 7 Boat Building

As part of their sailing sessions, Year 7N and 7M complete a boat building unit within their own classroom.  They then booked in for a whole day session to construct their own designs that they had worked on in class.  Each boy had to bring along their own materials and their own plan.


We had two, very busy and very productive days with the Year 7's.  Over the day, boys got to use lots of equipment including the scroll saws, drill press, electric drills, saws and hammers.  The problem solving and critical thinking was obvious as boys came across problems with their designs and how to actually construct their own design.

There was a wide range of design ideas.  Boys had spent much time thinking about what makes something float, balance, weight, materials, sail shapes and construction techniques.

This was a highly enjoyable day where all boys were very busy for the whole day.  Lots of boys were keen to work through their morning tea and lunch break, such was the enthusiasm!

Year Six Light and Colour

All of the Year Six classes came for three sessions covering light and colour.

All of the sessions were very hands on, the boys got to explore the way light travels, looking at light from the sun, from a torch and from a laser.  Using mirrors, boys had to direct a laser light through three mirrors and then get it to hit their target - quite a challenge and much harder than we thought it would be!

The classes also had an opportunity to explore reflection and refraction.  Through having an opportunity just to play and explore with mirrors, torches, lenses and prisms, it was surprising to see how much learning the boys were able to do on their own.







They particularly found playing with the convex and concave lenses interesting, especially when they found out about what happens when you concentrate the bright sunlight through a convex lens.  And they were all warned not to try it at home...

The last session was spent learning about the colour spectrum, rainbows and how we see colour.  The boys each made a simple spinner that when they spun it, they were able to see the colours of the spectrum.  It was interesting to hear their ideas about what they thought was happening and why we could see colour when it was spinning.