Monday, January 3, 2011

Monday, January 3

Happy New Year!
After a brief discussion on Christmas gifts, we got one sheet of lined paper per table, then switched seats. Then Mr. Finley went to each table and dripped a little liquid (the class believed it was rubbing alcohol) and we observed what happened.
Mr. Finley said that the most simplest way of putting the observation would be to say that the liquid disappeared.
We then talked about mechanisms, or how something happens, and then the table groups came up with separate mechanisms. Some were silly, but they were considered mechanisms as long as they were testable. We shared them with the class. The four that we came up with were:

-Table soaked it up
-Paper soaked it up
-The air took it
-Light took it

We then made a chart similar to a t-chart about how we could test the mechanisms.

Mechanism Test Prediction

Table soaked it Repeat without paper Water stays on paper

Paper soaked it *Left blank* *Left blank*

Air took it Create a vacuum chamber Water stays on paper

Light soaked it Enter a room without light Water stays on paper


Prediction - a guess of the outcome

Vacuum - container where air (or other) can be soaked up

The only mechanism we were able to test was the first one. We repeated the feat, except without the table that time. (We hung the paper onto something that looked like a piece of rope on the ceiling.)

-EL


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