Tower Challenge: Building Phase

Tower Challenge: Solid Construction in Science 4/19

Here are a few photos of our creativity at work in the classroom. Students spend time evaluating the different properties of each solid in order to create towers.  Some of the finished products:

Tower Challenge

This is the view from the classroom, amid the construction during our Tower Challenge.

Our Rocket Skateboard Experiment

The hypothesis was that I thought two Mentos geysers (armed with 5 mint Mentos) duct taped to a skateboard would propel the skateboard 10 feet. It took a few extra hands, but we found out that it traveled almost 47 feet, and with one broken rocket booster! (The force of one geyser blew the tube out of the bottle and didn't allow it to get the full force)

Click here to see the Skateboard Rocket Experiment

The "Soda Balloon"

Sure, just pull the pin and run!  Easy as that.  This was one of my hypotheses, that attaching a balloon to our geyser would create a "soda balloon."

Click the link to see the video of this:

Geyser Fest: Scientific Method with Diet Soda and Mentos - 4/11/14

After our first round of experiments with our Fifth Grade Buddies, and introducing ourselves to Scientific Method, we had more questions than answers. Therefore, we wrote our own questions, formed our own hypotheses (choosing our own variables of type of pop, type of Mentos, number of Mentos added to initiate launch, and predicted height of geyser), and then tested them. The entire process for Scientific Method was used. Great notes were taken on the experimental process, as well as illustrated. Here is a glimpse at what our experiments looked like.  Notice the top of the stick on the bucket is at 16 feet.

Click this link to see:

Our Mentos Geyser Experiments

The Geyser That Started It All...

This was the start of something bigger than we imagined... but a great use of the Scientific Method.  Tomorrow, we will begin multiple geyser experiments, with students forming hypotheses, and testing them.  Is Diet Coke really the "Queen" of all Mentos geysers?

Click this link to see video of one of our first eventful tries:
Our First Mentos Geyser