Makey Makey Science elective

Students used the Makey Makey to create controllers for games on the computer. Some students even built their own games using Scratch. They used conductive materials in partner groups. This is day 2:

Day 1 was exploration of how to create a circuit using the Makey Makey and conductive surfaces:

Bristol Bots and Homopolar motors

Students assembled Bristle Bots from kits purchased through a RCEF grant. They assembled the mini robots with a partner using a small motor, battery, and toothbrush head. Then we dipped them into primary color paint and let them run on a white piece of paper. We had a visiting high school student who is doing a Career Exploration Passage on mechanical and electrical engineering.

Students also attempted a simple homopolar motor. We got the templates from Babbledabbledo.com.

Acids, Bases and Batteries... oh my!

Science elective students built a battery using galvanized nails, copper wire and vinegar. They tested it with an led, but unfortunately it failed. Science is full of failures! It is how we learn. 

 Safety is first in science elective, so students adorned safety glasses and aprons to protect themselves from any chemical reactions.

 

Say science!

 Students also tore purple cabbage leaves to blend with water to extract the color in the food processor. Then they strained the pulp and poured the juice into test tubes. We expected the juice to be purple, but it was green. Another failure because the color did not change for our experiment. We experimented with acids and bases, which should have changed the color of the liquid. We tested milk, baking soda, baking powder, coffee, lemon juice, orange juice, laundry detergent, dish detergent, and alka seltzer.

Alka seltzer and cabbage juice

Acidity and Sour flavor

 In the Science elective, students brought in sour candy to test for acidity. Each student received one of each type of eleven different kids of sour candy. First they taste tested the sour level and ranked them from most sour to least. Then they made a solution with the candy and added baking soda to see it react with water and candy. They ranked the candies by which ones made the most bubbles or foam. Then they looked in the ingredients to see what chemical was reacting.