Materials

Our topic at the moment is Materials. We have been looking at different materials and sorting them into groups according to their properties.

1st We investigated the viscosity or thickness of different liquids and had great fun racing them down a tray to see which was the most mobile. Water came in first, oil a close second, after a bit the tomato sauce came third and after a very long time the salad cream made it to the bottom.

We had a group challenge which was to work cooperatively together to build a bridge out of newspaper, you can see some of our models here. We were all suprised how strong newspaper is if you roll it up.

Sometimes if you mix different materials together they form something new. Thats called irreversible change.We mixed flour, salt and oil together to form salt dough and made lovely models with it. As promised, here is a picture of them.

You can't see air but we made these colourful air current detectors. You should see our snakes slither when the air moves. We have a lot more to learn about materials but we'll keep you posted

We tested the properties of materials to see if they were magnetic, electrical conductors, transpoarent, elastic or waterproof.

We carried out an investigation and discovered that water has no shape of its own.

Mrs Boyiatjis did her own investigation into materials and how they affect the environment and discovered that if she let's her daughter put false nails on her fingers, then she canny type for peanuts.

We have been investigating whether salt or sugar reaches saturation point first. Our results varied a lot. We decided the differences were because everyone had a different idea of what a teaspoonful was and also that we stirred each spoonful for different amounts of time.
We had a lot of fun though, and we discovered that as the material dissolved the level of the water increased.

We have been conducting an experiment this week to see what liquids evaporated first.
After one day the water had evaporated.
Next day we found that the water in the salt solution had evaporated and left the salt behind. The water in the sugar solution had evaporated a lot and left a sticky substance behind.
By the next day there was only sugar left. The oil has not changed at all.

Next is an experiment we did with cornflour and water. Its a non-Newtonian liquid so you can roll it into a ball and if you just leave it it will trickle through your fingers like a liquid. Unfortuneately, the second picture had too much water and didn't work too well.

Our Visitor stats show that a lot of schools in USA, Britain, Canada, Europe and India visit our Materials page. If you are a teacher looking at this page for inspiration on class projects about materials, I hope you find it useful. Please consider emailing Angus and let us know about your school so we can put you on our class map.