Adventures In Science: Borax

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Borax

First, my apologies that last week's object turned out to be a bit of a dud. Okay, a lot of a dud to date. I do have a popsicle stick project I want to link to, but at the moment am having a hard time locating the information I need. Look for it to be coming soon.

Hopefully this week will be a bit more inspiring...

Borax!

I will immediately post some ideas to get the ball rolling. Hope to hear from lots of you out there!

4 comments:

Karen said...: Goop

You'll need to mix up two solutions:
1 - Make a solution of 1 part white glue and 1 part water.
2 - Make a saturated solution of Borax in water (i.e. dissolve as much Borax in the water as you can.)

Have students combine the two solutions and see what transpires. They'll need to spend some time kneading it - up to five minutes - to get the consistancy right.

How do I use this in science - chemical changes/reactions. Observe the properties of the initial solutions and those of the final product - you've created something new. For another idea, keep reading...; February 28, 2008 at 5:50 PM
Karen said...: Tectonic Plates
Give each student/pair of students a small piece of fun foam (a few inches big). Have them cut the foam in half any way they wish - straight line, zig-zag, etc. Have students mix up some goop (see above comment or google "Borax goop"). Place goop in center of small paper plate and set the foam on it, with the two pieces fit back together. Observe what happens... the pieces will slowly drift away from each other. You can have students measure the distance between the pieces perioodically. Also, a good discussion point occurs when some students' pieces interlock or catch on each other and do not move apart.; February 28, 2008 at 5:55 PM
Karen said...: Crystals
You can use Borax to grow crystals the same way you would grow sugar crystals (aka rock candy).; February 28, 2008 at 5:57 PM
Karen said...: Crystal Snowflakes

http://chemistry.about.com/cs/howtos/ht/boraxsnowflake.htm

I've done this the week before winter break, when I've had one section of 6th grade earth science and a small class at that. I've started by telling the students about Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley (snowflakebentley.com), showing them some of his photographs, and then allow them to make the pipe cleaner (I've let them use thread too) snowflakes. I put them in the solution overnight and they have crystalized snowflakes the next day (actually, usually before I leave school for the night - the crystals get very large VERY quickly).

There's a picture book 'Snowflake Bentley' available as well - it's a pretty neat book, although I didn't know about it when I was doing this lesson.; February 28, 2008 at 6:04 PM

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How this came to be:

Before taking time off from teaching to spend with my son, I taught 6th grade earth science, 7th grade life science, 8th grade physical science, and a 4th grade hands-on lab (actually, I taught 3 of those courses at a time...). In a mere four years in the science classroom, I accumulated boxes and boxes and boxes filled with binders, books, and assembled activities.

Now that I am at home with my son, I feel the need to put all those materials to good use, in order to justify the time I spent gathering it all and the physical space they now take up in my house (not to mention the work required to move them from one residence to another).

I was going to be an "Independent Science Education Consultant" - a title I thought I made up, but it seems that it isn't entirely unheard of! My name's out there... at least in this region of upstate New York I now call home... but no hits yet. If you're reading this and you're interested in my services... email me... PLEASE! I'll travel!

I was going to write a book. Turns out, most of the great things I do in my classroom have been borrowed (or stolen) from great teachers and aren't actually mine to publish!

I recently learned the San Francisco Exploratorium holds an Iron Science Teacher competition for local science teachers and those who attend their Summer Institutes. So cool, but I don't live in San Fran and even if I could afford to spend several weeks in California, I don't think the young boy would look so favorably on the idea.

So here I am, creating my own virtual version. It's not live, it's not a competition, but it should result in a great community of sharing and some fantastic ideas for us all to share. Please consider participating!

Adventures In Science

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Borax

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