Buddy Investigation Day

Year 6 and year 1 had a fabulous day learning about how cool water is. We started the day with a story about Otto the Otter who was scared of water. His mum and dad had written to us at school because all he wants to do is hold their hand and they felt that he was missing out on all the fun he could have with water. We decided to help him by doing lots of science investigations so we could tell him all of the great things about water and help encourage him to play in it.

We watched a gummy bear grow in water; watched water walk upwards and gave ourselves a magic finger which sent pepper walking over water and caused a floating paper clip to sink! We also discussed what makes an orange float.

We then looked at how water could hold up a table tennis ball;

We created a moving jellyfish which we will be able to bring home as a pet;

We found we could make an egg float by changing the density of the water;

We created an ocean in a bottle using a chemical reaction between alka seltzer tablets and the water.  This produced carbon dioxide bubble which looked really cool when we shone a torch through them and watched the bubbles travel up through the oil.

We discovered that the sugar coating of M&M’s dissolves in water creating pretty patterns in the bowl.  If you wait, once the coating has completely dissolved the m’s float off and rise to the surface!

The buddies shared all their exciting findings with Otto the otter.  Whilst he was telling his parents about this discoveries, he let go and realised he could swim on his own.  Well done buddies!  You helped an otter out!