Thursday 19 October 2017

FUN AT BRYNTEG - FINAL WEEK - ACIDS & ALKALIS

We cannot believe how quickly the time has gone - our final session at Brynteg!



For the final week we sorted liquids by pH although we didn't actually use that phrase.
We chatted about acids and alkalis around the home - most of the children knew the word acid and were aware of things like lemon juice and vinegar. We had a closer look at citric acid in sherbet and other sweets.......tarty!
Image result for haribo sweets

I had made a batch of red cabbage indicator ( a good time of year for red cabbage!) and I soaked some art paper in it to make indicator strips.
Image result for red cabbage indicator

We demonstrated what the red cabbage indicator liquid did in acids, neutral and alkali then everyone had a go testing our 6 liquids.



We then had a look at a rainbow of colours given by universal indicator liquid before testing our liquids using paper strips.


Finally we chose our best alkali and used turmeric paper strips to give a deep red.


So our time at Brynteg has finished. We've had a brilliant time and the feedback from staff and pupils has been incredibly positive.


Even more exciting is that Reaching Wider Partnerships has more funding so we will be able to deliver this project to more schools in NEWales.

Thursday 12 October 2017

FUN at BRYNTEG CP week 3 - Electricity

This week we were sorting materials based on electrical conductivity.

We had taken some of our lights from our show Inside the Rainbow and as the room was darkened it looked a treat when the children arrived.


We looked in detail at the different lights especially the plasma ball and some of the class were able to light up fluorescent light bulbs using the energy from the ball.
We also explored some of our lights that work by "muscle power" our wind up torch and our Faraday torch. 
We then looked at how a complete circuit is needed to make the lights work by making our little ducks light up, our comsic ball and our energy sticks.



Then after everyone having a good experiment with the energy stocks we gave each table a tray of different materials so they could make circuits and test the materials to see if the conducted electricity or not.


The energy sticks light up and make quite a noise so this part of the session was quite lively!
Finally we made a huge circle all holding hands and we saw that we could light up the energy stick using the  whole class.


Monday 2 October 2017

FUN at BRYNTEG CP week 2 Colour Chaos

Our second week at Ysgol Brynteg near Wrexham

This week we worked with year 3 & 5 in the classroom exploring mixing and separating materials through colour.

First we thought about the impact that colour has on our lives. How food looks so unappetising when grey! How animals use colour for camouflage, enticement and warning.
















After a short skill lesson in how to handle a pipette and create regular drops we used simple colour mixing to explore how from the three primary colours so many different colours can be made. Simple yes, but it is easy to forget that younger ones often don't actually know what happens if you mix colours. How lovely to hear an excited WOW! when blue and yellow made a stunning green.


Then we used ordinary felt pens to explore  splitting up colours using paper chromatography



We then used Sharpie permanent markers and alcohol in dropper bottles to split and spread the colour. Some of the colours didn't split but all of them spread in a very pleasant pattern


Finally we made a home made lava lamp using colour and light for effect


Next week we will be sorting materials depending on conductivity