Something for Christmas

I'm an Engineer... Christmas Lectures Discussion

Sparks Will Fly, as Danielle George, professor of electronic engineering at The University of Manchester, talks about How to Hack Your Home, in the 2014 CHRISTMAS LECTURES.

The lectures will be aired on BBC FOUR over the festive period and will then be available to watch on BBC iPlayer and then on the Ri Channel from January 2015.

From December through to the end of January 2015 students and the public will be able to log in to ask any questions inspired by the Sparks Will Fly theme. There will be a team of hackers and engineers, including Danielle George, answering questions and taking part in live chats.

Yr8 a little revision won't hurt

A Christmas message for Year 8 pupils who did not do as well as they had hoped in the recent exams.
Look at the "Science at Brambletye" page here to get some tips for a little holiday revision. Enjoy Christmas but keep the little grey cells working.
IRP

Preprep Science Club

Preprep Science Club came to the lab today for their final session of term. They learned about the fire triangle and how to handle fire safely. 

Then they had a go themselves

Even Mrs Atkinson had a go

Year 6 back in the lab after exams

Year 6 had their first lesson after the exams in the science labs.

Time to get down to some practical work and so a little investigation into physical changes in glass rod is just the thing.

Nothing too cerebrally taxing on a Friday afternoon straight after exams

But a very useful set of skills being learnt

And some assessment of risk, dealing with melting glass.

And lots of fun too

It can also bring out the artist in you

Revision

The exams are fast approaching and while the best revision is done in class we can't always give as much time to it as we might ideally like as we still have plenty of syllabus to cover.
If you need any extra guidance then the page called Science at Brambletye might help.
IRP

7N have a concentration problem

Two samples of hydrochloric acid.

Which is more concentrated?

How to find out?

Measure out a certain amount of acid

Add universal indicator to see the pH. 

Add alkali from the burette until the solution becomes neutral. 

Repeat to see if the result is reliable then do the same for the other acid. 

Year 6 look a springs

Year 6 have been measuring the extension of springs. 

We add mass to the spring. 

Measure the length.

And write down our results.

We did this with single springs, springs arranged in series and springs arranged in parallel. We found the extension doubled when they were in series and halved when they were in parallel. 

Year 5 investigate enzymes

As part of our topic on the human body Year 5 learnt about chemical digestion. We did an expirment to find out what happens to the rate of digestion if we add more enzyme. As well as answering our aim, we also worked on building on our practical skills and ensuring we are accurate in all our measurements

We measured out some starch solution.

Then we placed iodine in each well of a spotting tile. 

We could then add the enzyme (amylase) to our starch and start the timer. We place some of this mixture in a well of the spotting tile every 20 seconds. If the iodine turned black the starch had not yet been digested. 

We found that the mixture with most enzyme was the first to be completely digested. 

7M vs 7G

Just before we broke up for half term, 7G took on 7M to see which form could identify the best indigestion medicine. We were looking at whether tablets or liquid medicines worked best. A captain was selected from each form and they each drew the type of medicine their form was to test. 7G selected liquids and 7M tablets.

Then we set to work. We measured one dose of the medicine and mixed it with some water.

Then we add Hydrocloric acid to the medicine, a little at a time, and test the pH.

We stopped when the mixture had become pH 1.

Then we made a note of how much acid we had to add. The medicine that requires the most acid is the most effective. 

When we return from half term we will analyse the results and find out which type of medicine works the best (and which form has won!). 

Year 7 make red cabbage indicator

Year 7 have been studying acids and alkalis and have used a number of different indicators to tell them about the pH of substances. Last week they had a go at making their own out of red cabbage.

First they crushed the cabbage with warm water using a pestle and mortar.

Then they filtered the mixture to get their indicator.

Then they could test the indicator with substances and note the colour change. 

Ashdown Iron Site

8S have been studying reactivity of mateals in their latest chemistry topic.
This includes some work on extracting metals from ores so we went to the Ashdown forest to see the Newbridge Iron Site.

 The site map provided by the Wealden Iron Group who research Iron making on the forest

 Searching for evidence of the blast furnace

 Distinctive rock is the waste from the process called slag

 The water course that provides power for the bellows and foundary

 More evidence of slag

 8S archeologists search for more evidence

 The power source

 All searching hard

 And found lots of slag

 A close up

You can see the bubbles in this slag where the carbon dioxidde couldn't escape