Skip to main content

Blog week 15

 Where do the bubbles come from when we mix vinegar and baking soda?

This week in lab we reviewed the baking soda and vinegar experiment. When we were looking at this experiment, we wanted to prove that matter is conserved. What we would have our students do is observe by wight out the amount of baking soda and vinegar, then weighing it after it's combined. Students can also observe by feeling the temperature change and watching the bubbles.  When we did this experiment, we have: 

  • Vinegar: 24.7

  • Baking soda: 18.0

  • Mixing: ending at 42

We started to wonder what happened to the extra amount of mass. Then we realized that we did not close the bag fast enough. We wanted to improve our experiment by getting the same exact mass that is supposed to be conserved. How we improved our experiment by adding baking soda on one side of the bag, and vinegar on the other. We then closed the bag before we mixed them together so we would not lose any extra mass.

Jeff mentioned in the lab how we can gain students' interaction for their experiment. He said in order to get students wondering about this experiment we need to show them that what they expected is not always correct. So starting out the experiment with an open cup and using vinegar with baking soda (10 and 10) they think it would be 20. However, since air is escaping it would not. This would lead them to be curious about why the matter was not conserved.

Questions for the students:
  • How can we prove that matter is neither created nor destroyed?
  • Does the amount of baking soda added to vinegar affect the amount of air produced?
  • Does the baking soda completely disappear?

Comments

  1. Julia MikkelsenMay 3, 2023 at 10:36 AM

    Great post Amber! I really like what you said about showing students that the experiment doesn't work as expected everytime. That is a great strategy for my future teaching.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ali McDermottMay 3, 2023 at 6:06 PM

    Hi Amber- great blog post! I also liked Jeff's idea about doing the experiment in an open cup and then in a closed bag. This would show how matter is neither created nor destroyed. Thank you for all your ideas, I enjoyed working with you this semester!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog week 8

This week in lab was our last week to look at our fast-growing plants. Our plants are beginning to grow seeds/beans on them. That way if we wanted to, we could use those seeds to grow a new plant.  In lab, I learned about mutations. There are three types of mutations: Point mutation : a change to a single nucleotide base  Insertion mutation : a genetic change that involves the addition of a segment of DNA (adding one or more DNA bases) Deletion mutation : a type of genetic change that involves the absence of a segment of DNA  This is something new I have learned. To help us learn/understand this we did a superhero lab activity.  How to relate to what you already know?  In class, we talked about how there can be beneficial/harmful mutations. I can relate this to what I notice are harmful mutations. I did not realize that cancer was a mutation, although after thinking about it long I realized how it was. I realized this was a mutation because it is a permanent cha...
3 comments
Read more

Blog week 14

What is melting? Melting is a phase change between a solid to a liquid that happens when applying heat.  Why does the ice melt faster on metal than wood? The reason why an ice cube melts after on metal than it does on wood is because metal is a conductor while wood is an insulator. This matters because of energy. Energy provides heat which causes an object to melt.  Why do cold drinks get water droplets on the outside? When a cold can is brought out of the fridge the hot air outside hits the can. This causes a temperature change to happen on the can making it "sweat." The can begins to condensate from hot air hitting the cold can. Just like clouds, when water vapor hits pockets of air, they begin to form.  Why does the plunger stick to the table? The plunger acts like a vacuum to the table, it suctions down to the table by collapsing down onto the table. It releases all the particles out of the plunger when it is pressed down.  The best part of the class: We met a ne...
2 comments
Read more

Blog week 10

This week in lab we made a story about evolution. My group members and I made a story called "The Little Rhino that Grew." In this story, we described how a rhino grew during evolution from having no horns back thousands of years ago compared to now, which have horns. Evolution can be a hard topic to explain to younger children so putting this complex idea into a children's story may be beneficial for students to be able to understand better.  Parts of our book: I found this activity very fun and engaging. We were able to pick what type of evolution we wanted to describe in our story. We were given the option of animals, plants, or humans. Groups were allowed to design their book with colors, and images, and create their own unique story.  I can see myself using a technique like this in my future classroom. This activity is creative for students to make fun stories about science while learning about the subject at the same time. Creating stories about a certain concept ca...
3 comments
Read more