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Ok so I know there are a lot of threads on here with great ideas for fun demonstrations, but do you think I can find them today??? I have been asked to visit Year 3 in week 8 (so I have 2 weeks to get organised) and do 2 experiments as they are learning about procedures. They need to be able to write what happened... They will do elephants toothpaste and the mentos and diet coke experiments in year 4 so they are off the list. The teacher has asked for something explosive and memorable - and by that she means a big reaction, not a bomb!! I thought about a volcano with bicarb soda and vinegar and red food colouring in a large flask. They have just finished a unit on water so maybe something with ice, water and steam? I don't know... Any other ideas? Or can someone tell me what words to search with to find the threads already full of ideas?

We do 'Rainbow Fizz' for Yr 7 Orientation. They love it.
You have five test tubes.

1 5mL water
2 squirt Universal indicator
3 5mL 5% Acetic acid
4 "

Fifth test tube has 1/2 teaspoon anhyd sodium carbonate to which you add in order test tubes 1-4.
Tip: do over a sink.

Oh, and just a thought. When we do volcanoes, we use gelatine, bicarb and Aluminium sulfate. Good gush, nice and lumpy.

Ellice,
Can you post your recipe for your volcano experiment. I haven't seen one that uses those ingredients.
Thanks,
Lyn.

I have found http://www.sciencebob.com/index.php and the CSIRO website really useful for some safe and easy pracs that give a wow factor.

If you visit Science Bob and look under experiments you will find "Fantastic Foamy Fountain" (check out the video as well) and "Making a Film Canister Rocket". I've been waiting for an excuse to try them because they just look like so much fun.

There is a great book I use for Dems,it is by Tony Speering and it is called Chemistry Dems and it is available on the University of Sydney website....I have used it for 20years

Have you thought about doing the blue bottle experiement - just goggle it if you dont have the instructions - it is rather good for the younger students. If you cant find it email me and I will send you our work sheet for this.
Smarty colour splitting is another good one depending on time also.
Make a lava lamp with raisins.


Have fun with the younger ones they are always more interested than the bigger kids to start with.

We also do the pop test - magnesium ribbon and HCl in test tube

KIMMY

The last lot of smarties I used for the chromatography experiment failed, they seem to have changed their colours and they did not do the trick.

Ellice,
May I have your recipe for the volcano? Sounds better than just bicarb and vinegar! What quantities do you use?
Thanks,
Rosalie

Volcano
Dissolve 3 teaspns Aluminium sulfate in 100mL water.(soln 1)
Make another solution of 3 teaspns Bicarb in 60mL warm water, with 2 teaspns gelatine added. Stir in another 40ml warm water to dissolve gelatine. (soln 2).
Put a conical flask (250mL) on a tray. Pour in soln 1. Quickly pour in soln 2.
To stretch it out the kids could decorate the 'volcano' first with paper, etc. Also, added food dye gives a good touch.
We did this once with the preps, and doubled everything and put it in a bigger flask. Stuff flew everywhere! Lots of sceams!!
Cheers, Ellice

sounds perfect!!!

What about dry ice in a balloon? Fill an ordinary balloon with as much dry ice as you can. Place it on a tub filled with hot water, with a dash of food colouring, if you wish. Start this experiment before you do any others as it takes a while. The balloon will expand and eventually explode. When it does the remaining dry ice falls in the hot water and the whole lot goes bubble bubble very dramatically. Practise first, but it's pretty effective.

Put some liquid detergent into a container with some water. Connect a tube to the gas outlet, turn gas on, wet your hand and collect bubbles in your hand and then ignite the bubbles.

Love this time of year. Exams are over, kids are not interested in learning,practicals are almost over, so Lada, lets do something fun. How I hate those words, because it means lot of preparation and mess. Today one teacher wanted to do elephant toothpaste with no warning, and following period rockets and water rockets with footpumps, bottles etc. And "do not forget to demonstrate it". Yeah, sure.
Anyway, I talked him into doing it tomorrow, so I can dig up the pumps, replace rubber stoppers etc.

Lada

Similar thing happening here this week, Lada. I sure know it's Monday today!

It's our last week with the students - next week they all go off for two weeks of 'outdoor activities', so I think the teachers are all breathing a sigh of relief, and have decided they can cope with doing dissections and other fun pracs.
One said to me at the beginning of P1 - we could do that new slime in the last 10 mins of this period, couldn't we? Er - no!
('We' are doing it this arvo, though...).
Tomorrow three classes are dissecting eyes; Wednesday Bio are doing kidneys and brains; Thursday eyes again and plucks.
Have a feeling there'll be more requests for slime + probably elephants toothpaste.

I am blessed to have another few weeks to recover. The following couple of weeks will be spent organising, mending and getting textbooks ready for issuing for next year - but I can enjoy music while I work, breaks when I like, and few interruptions!! Yay, how good is that?

what is elephants toothpaste and how do I make it?????

Lainyv,
The quickest way to find out about elephants toothpaste is to google it and explore. Then you can choose which method you think might be appropriate to let your teachers loose on.
Lyn.

For future reference this site is pretty cool for demos for the litluns http://www.abc.net.au/science/surfingsc ... efault.htm