Today I asked them what would happen when we mixed oil and water. Many students predicted that it would mix together, it would turn the water light yellow, and a couple students even said it would make the water explode.
When I added the water, they were so confused!!
They used their knowledge from dissolving and suggested that we stir or shake it, so we tried that. But no matter what we did, the oil kept floating to the top.
We learned that the reason that this happens is that the oil is less dense than the water. ("Dense" is a new word that you may want to talk about at home to reinforce).
This encouraged a lot of new questions! (hurrray!!!) Here are a few:
- "what would happen if I put the oil in the container first?"
- are there other liquids that would sink or float?
- is there any way to make them mix?
- what liquids are heavier than water?
We watched a quick video that showed one way to get the two liquids to mix. Here it is here
We didn't have time at the end of the day to discuss why that worked, but many students were interested so this may be something you investigate at home and bring back.
Here is another neat experiment that shows the density of a variety of liquids that you could try at home. It looks quite pretty when you are all done! Liquid Stacking Video
Coming Up:
- Early Dismissal Friday
- Student Led Conferences Feb 2, 3. Sign up for a time here: https://webapps.cbe.ab.ca/myaccount
