What was your favourite school science experiment?
Ah the school science experiments. Some great, some silly, some just icky. So, which one was your favourite?
I only had to dissect one frog, no worms, and didn’t blow anything up (that wasn’t supposed to blow up). Okay I burned myself in grade 7 pretty well (never grab a porcelain crucible with bare hands just after being over a Bunsen burner), but generally science was a fun time for me. But what do I remember most? Rolling steel balls down ramps in Grade 6.
Yep. It was so fun. Bunch of steel balls, plastic ramps (with markings up the side), carbon paper, and copy paper (or was it mimeograph then?). Man I still remember seeing how the pattern of dots changed as the balls rolled faster down the ramps and across the floor.
Hey this was like 1980 … so after 26 years for me to remember it this clearly, it had to be cool!
So, what was your favourite school science experiment? Even the ones that flopped (or exploded) are good … the “never put a match by the gas jet” can be an important lesson (sure was for my friend who had all his arm hair burned off!).
Let’s hear them!
Tags: school science
April 18th, 2006 at 4:56 am
I reckon it’s the one we did for our Highschool Physics class on Theory of Gravity, wherein we were allowed to demonstrate it by throwing an object from the 4th floor of the building. Hahaha.
I also liked it when I did a project on how volcanoes erupt and I actually made [with the help of my dad, of course] a live model complete with “lava” Hahaha. Uh, does this one count?
Should I be seeing a shrink? ;)
April 18th, 2006 at 6:41 am
Throwing stuff from buildings … ah good times, good times.
Nothing like a really good demonstration to illustrate a scientific principle.
Sasha … of course the volcano counts. I did one too and my dad helped. Of course he snagged chemicals from the hospital and my volcano smoked and threw sparks!
April 18th, 2006 at 7:23 am
Oh boy, we dissected everything. Dissected a full grown cat, then after all of that had to boil all of the flesh off its bones then reassemble the bones. Good times there! I am not quite sure that was my favorite though…
April 18th, 2006 at 7:25 am
That would’ve been a sight! Hahaha.
That volcano thing was waaay back in 5th grade but I got a grade that’s equivalent to an A+. Ha! :)
April 18th, 2006 at 7:30 am
Wow Christina! As icky as it sounds, that would be fun. I did find a cat’s skull once in the backyard.
Good thing you boiled to get rid of the flesh instead of using the mealworm method. Effective, but just plain icky.
April 18th, 2006 at 7:32 am
Thank God my lab partner’s father was the head of the sci. department in school, so we got to boil our cat at his house. I just asked my mother if she remembered us doing that and she was most thankful that she has no memory of it. :)
April 18th, 2006 at 7:37 am
Whew. As much as it might turn people off, forensics and physical anthropology are so important. In fact my anthropology major was geared towards the archaeology end of things and it was a physical anthropology course that got me hooked … I didn’t actually take Anthro 101 until I was almost finished!
April 18th, 2006 at 10:00 am
Fetal pig dissection in high school. Though my dad did a pretty good mini-course on the periodic table back in 3rd grade. I still remember the “Flower Children” elements. Any guesses which ones they are?
April 18th, 2006 at 10:09 am
Oh wow, science class experiments. I don’t know about favorites, especially since we did experiments in bio 1&2, chemistry, and physics; but I remember the giant locusts preserved in formaldehyde (stinky), and the live frogs we were supposed to pith after conducting the range of motion jumping experiments (most of the class made the teacher pith the frogs). Wave tables were interesting, and combining stuff in crucibles fraught with potential danger. The experiment to find optimal glucose solution for CO2 production in yeast was entertaining- the room smelled like a brewery for days. I think my favorite one is probably one of the physics experiments- we had a steel ball suspended from a metal arm dangling over empty floor, and taped a razor blade to the edge of the table. Task- calculate where the ball would hit the floor when swinging the string so that it would be cut by the blade. We had to do all our calculations ahead of time, and put a styrofoam cup on the floor where we thought it would land, and THEN swing the ball while the teacher watched. Ours was the only one that nailed the ‘X’ dead center.
um, yeah, so I was a total nerd in school ;) good times, great memories.
April 18th, 2006 at 8:42 pm
Back in high school Chemistry, when we trapped some hydrogen we got from some chemical reaction into a beaker and turned it upside down into a basin of water. Then we got the beaker and lit the top! Mini hydrogen bomb! No explosion, just a loud popping sound! Way cool!
April 18th, 2006 at 8:55 pm
Ah electrolosis … the hope for generating hydrogen for hydrogen fuel cells.
Just for the record … that wasn’t a hydrogen bomb. It was hydrogen burning and recreating …
yep water. Hydrogen burns, combines with oxygen and viola! Water again!
BTW … BC is one of the leading centres for generating hydrogen for fuel cells.
A hydrogen bomb, as in the mutually assured destruction thing, is a thermonuclear weapon a fusion bomb. Fusing at high speed and pressure tridium (H3) and that’s a kaboom. It’s also what fuels the sun.
Fission, well that’s another story.
April 26th, 2006 at 9:29 am
[...] But tragedy has befallen the people of the Old Scientific Republic. Stephen “Qui-Gon” Granade has discovered that the dark side of the force surrounds a youngling’s science fair entry that has gone unnoticed, or worse, cultivated by one of the Sith. Always two there are. And two there are of accounts by Jedi Trainer Sandra Porter on how to most effectively bring up padawan-learners to become strong biotech apprentices. And Rebel Flight Officer Tris Hussey recounts his academy days, inviting everyone to relate their favorite science fair experiments at The Homely Scientist. [...]
April 26th, 2006 at 10:39 am
[...] I’m still in Boston … coming home soon … I was at Harvard Square yesterday though, no time for the museum . But … the Tangled Web science blog carnival picked my favourite school science experiment post I submitted for this week’s edition. [...]
April 26th, 2006 at 12:00 pm
As a judge at many science fairs, one project stood out to me. An eighth grade girl wanted to do a project involving cancer. She had no lab background and had no idea what she wanted to do, so she called all the oncologists listed in the phone book starting with “A” and moveing on. 80 phone calls later she found a doctor who would help her.
They found a paper that showed an ice helmet could reduce hair loss from chemotherapy. Some how the two got to talking about striations on fingernails caused by chemo-a big thing if you are trying to paint your nails. So they decided to soak one hand in an ice bucket and use the other hand as a control (brilliant!!).
It worked, and I awarded her a scholarship from AWIS.
Einstein said it best:”Imagination is more important then intelligence.
April 27th, 2006 at 12:15 am
I love that! A perfect example of a) hard work to follow an idea –key for scientists and b) finding simple and innovative ways to test and solve a problem.
April 27th, 2006 at 8:44 am
I like to tell people that I was once bitten by a shark. What I don’t tell them right away was that the shark was a very dead and preserved dogfish shark that I was dissecting, when I accidentally pulled down on some muscle/tendon in the gill area that caused its mouth to close on my finger. The damn things have really sharp teeth. A fair amount o’ blood loss on that day.
When our biology class dissected the fetal pigs, we gave them unfortunate names, like Babe, Oscar (from Oscar Mayer), Scneider, Porky, etc.