Friday, August 21, 2015

{Science} with a Drop of Water


Although we are in the final term of Year 3, when I saw that there had been added a science component using the book A Drop of Water, I didn't want Royal to miss out.



We began the book during our first week of Term 3 and have been enjoying the wonderful photographs along with the succinct, yet informative description for each topic.

Since week 1, the kids have been begging to do the "floating steel" experiment. Well today we finally got to that portion.

After reviewing some basic properties of water molecules and discussing the reasons why and how a steel pin can float, there was a lot of excitement when I gathered all the materials for the experiment.

I have to say it was pretty amazing that we were all successful at floating the pin!

After a first attempt fail, we tried a different way of lowering the pin into the water, balanced carefully in the cradle of a paper clip, held in "V" formation, so as not to disrupt so much of the surface tension:






Really amazing to see from below how the pin is held suspended on top of the water...

And then to float the paper clip:


If you are using this book, how are you all enjoying it along with the experiments?


3 comments :

  1. We are adding this one in for our second half of Y3 this fall also. :D DD paged through the whole thing as an overview this week (as was suggested somewhere on the forum), and we'll start the reading-and-experiments in earnest this coming week. I'm excited about it....I've been excited ever since it came in the mail :)

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    1. Yay! Before looking it over or knowing much about it, I was thinking it may be a lot to add to our already full schedule, but I was so happy to see that, while rich in content, it is very simple and just takes a few minutes of time and discussion. The experiment we just did was so fun! :-) Hope y'all enjoy it too!

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  2. Thanks for sharing on this book. We missed it since we did Year 3 last year, and I thought about adding it in this year, but then I thought I'll just wait the couple years until my next is in Year 3 and we can do it as a family. It looks like so much fun!

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