Chemistry!

We finally finished up our geology inquiry projects ( I cannot believe I did not take pictures of those yet!) and moved onto our LAST SCIENCE UNIT OF THE YEAR!!! Holy Moly! I have been pretty stoked to teach chemistry to the boys because they got to do chemistry about three years back with our island fellow at the time. So, they already know a lot but I figured it would be a great hands-on and fun unit to finish up the year with, not to mention a great prep for high school!

We are SUPER thankful to the Matinicus School who loaned us their Foss Science Kit for "Chemical Investigations." What an awesome kit... four HUGE boxes and chemicals, science equipment and FUN!

In our first investigation the boys had to examine and make observations about a "mystery mixture" I presented to them.

They had to record as many observations as they could by just looking at the substance.

Then they added water to the substance and recorded what happened.

Can someone say "chemical reaction!?"

During the second part of the investigation, I gave the boys 9 white substances to use to try and figure out what substances made up the "mystery mixture."

They made more observations about the new white substances and read a bit about the common uses of these substances...

Then it was time for some more chemical reactions... protective eye wear is a must! At least for Hootie!

The boys got to experiment... testing the different substances with water to see how they reacted.

They were able to mix the substance once they had an idea of what kind of mixture would cause the same reaction that occured when they added water to the "mystery mixture."

Lots of substances to chose from!

The testing plate! 

Quinn getting mad that he couldn't figure out the mixture...

So he had to go back to the experiments!

He thinks' hes got it!

During the last class this week, the boys got to use an interactive table of elements to help figure out their final answer of WHAT the mystery mixture actually was!

Pretty cool Foss website!

We left their test trays out overnight to see what would happen after the water evaporated and we're able to make our final guess based on the left over residue of the substances... 

the final answer ... the mystery mixture = citric acid and baking soda!

All this chemistry is exhausting!