Science with Sophie

Date: 27th Jan 2019 @ 7:05pm

Sophie had been working in Year 5 during the day and very kindly offered to come and stay in Darwin’s Den, where she demonstrated two experiments with the children, they were:

 “Chromatography” (separation of molecules) using coloured pens on coffee filter paper; dipping the bottom of the filter paper in water allowed the different colours in the pen ink to separate as the water travels up the filter paper.

A homemade lava lamp, made from sunflower oil, water, and food colouring in a clear plastic bottle, shows how “intermolecular polarity” keeps the water molecules from mixing with the oil in the bottle. Adding an effervescent antacid tablet to the bottle makes the blobs of water rise-up through the oil, then sink back down to the bottom again.

These two fun experiments demonstrate the basic building blocks of pharmaceutical drug development; separating the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) from any harmful impurities, and understanding how that API will behave when it is introduced to the body.

A wide range of exciting science experiments can be performed with basic household materials, see the STEM at home website for more fun science activities that anyone can do.”

http://www.stemdupage.com/parents/stem-at-home.html