The Science Van

Last week was a very special week. It was Science week! We did a whole bundle of experiments in class and in the hall!
We had some people from the 'Science Van' come to our school who travel all across New Zealand. They teach kids experiments like the bed of nails (when you hear that you might think OUCH!). It actually doesn't hurt... each nail is supporting your weight. If you were sitting on one single nail it would definitely hurt! A LOT!

But that's not all, there was another experiment called the waterfall effect. It plays a trick on the eyes and brain. If you focus on the center of the video attached, no blinking, no looking away, for 20 seconds, you will see. It supposedly used to hypnotize people, which I don't know if that works or not. What happens is your eye muscles start to freak out because they are working so hard to focus, your brain gets confused. Try it out then look at someone's head! We did, it was hilarious!

We also learned about Isaac Newton's 3 laws of motion and did some experiments around these! But that's a story for another time!

Remember science can be done everywhere, anytime and is all around us! We learned a lot of things about science and it was a blast! I hope I can go to the science van again one day.

Homemade Lava Lamp

In science week, people can do safe experiments inside the classroom!

One of the people who volunteered to be a science teacher for a day was Elise. She showed us how to make these amazing lava lamps which should be in our class forever because they look amazing!

She starts by adding water, then added cooking oil on top. The oil floats because it has less density than the water, its the same thing that makes the water strider floats!

Then she adds food colouring which sinks to the bottom of the oil layer but NOT the water because it has more density than the cooking oil, and it cushions on the thick layer of oil at the bottom, how amazing!

But that's not all, she adds a tablet that dissolves in the water (like Berocca), the tablet takes the dye with it, and when it "teleports" to the water (along with the surrounding colouring) it dissolves and makes the water blue, including blue bubbles that rose to the top! Everyone was wowed by this.

By Wilmer

Walking Water

During Science week some students in room 1 became the teacher for the day and taught science experiments to the class. Donnacha's Science experiment was called 'Walking Water'. He filled two cups with water, placed two paper towels in each cup to another with yellow and blue in the outer cups and left the middle cup with no coloring. Then we waited for the science to happen. We looked at it after lunch and the food coloring had traveled up the paper towel, and into the middle cup coloring t green.

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By Hollie

Magic Cup

This is Zaina's Vacuum cup experiment. The method was .... 

1. put a layor of water on the plate. 2. light the match and allow it to burn using a lemon slice to hold it straight. 3. Place the cup upside down over the match.

The air around the flame is pushed in all directions. Warmer air needs more space than cooler air! So, the air pushes under the small gap round the rim of the cup and lets the water in, pushing the water upwards!

By Emma and Zaina. 

Rainbow sugar

For science week, some people taught the class a science experiment. Abby's experiment was called 'Rainbow Sugar'. The first thing Abby did was put some water in the bowls. Next, she put three skittles in a triangle and let the colours drain out. When the skittles had gone white and the colours were merging together Abby put a sugar cube in the middle. The ice cube either absorbs the colour or repels the colour after some time. When the sugar cube dissolved Abby changed some of the independent variables to see if anything would change!

By Elise     

Buddy Class

Every Friday we pop into our year 2 buddy class Room 21!

We help them with their spelling, by taking and marking their spelling tests. We absolutely love connecting with other classrooms in the school.

Room 1 Mrs. Cometti is very proud of how you look at for these guys on the playground and help them in their learning. You are so patient and gentle. Keep being the amazing year six leaders you are!