Mr Murphy 5th Class: Science Week

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Our class was busy this week, planning, conducting and recording an experiment. We were investigating the density of various liquids. We predicted outcomes and, as the experiment was in progress, we recorded our observations. It was a tremendous learning experience😁

Firstly, the three liquids we would be investigating were cooking oil, syrup and water (dyed blue). Some of the objects we added later, are shown above. (Plastic cork, nuts and bolts, potato pieces, sponge).

We dyed our water blue for better visibility. We then added syrup which sank. Finally, we added oil which floated. The liquids created three distinct layers.
Next, we began to test the density of the liquids compared to the density of our range of solid materials.
Our observations were as follows:

The syrup was more dense than the water and the water was more dense than the oil. We predicted these things but we were still surprised by how the three liquids did not mix at all. Instead, they made three distinct layers. As you can see, the coin/bolt was more dense than the syrup and sank to the very bottom. The potato piece was less dense than the syrup and so remained on top of it. The plastic cork eventually sank through the oil but would not sink through the water. It was less dense than water. Finally, the sponge remained on top of the oil, as it was the least dense material we tried. The boys finished by testing their own objects and comparing their results to the class results.

We officially recorded the experiment in our copies, as shown above.

Further investigation will focus on whether the results would remain the same when other variables are taken into consideration. (Changes to materials over time, same object but different sizes etc). Our class worked like real scientists this week and it was a pleasure to watch them in action. We plan to expand our knowledge further soon, by discussing how to calculate the density of various solids. By dividing the mass of the object by the volume of the object, we will establish its density. Our Maths caps will be on for that one!!!!!!!