Something to digest

So we have heard all about enzymes but can we see them working?

First take 20ml of starch solution

 Measure out a specific amount of amylase

 Different groups used different amounts of amylase 

It must be measured out carefully

Then put a couple of drops of iodine in each dip of a spotting tray

Iodine goes black with starch

 Once everything is ready

 Add the amylase to the starch, mix and start the timer

 Keep mixing 

 And every minute add a drop of two of the mixture to a dip in the spotting tray

 Keep going until the iodine does not go black

 Then you know the amylase enzyme has turned all of the starch into glucose

This set of results shows that the amylase took between three and four minutes to digest the starch.

The class found that the more amylase you have the quicker digestion occurs.

Permeability tests

Year 3 carried out a permeability test on some rock samples. 

Do they absorb water?

Now to record the results

Update to revision guide

One new video added and the table of contents glitch sorted.
You can still use the link in the revision guide on the new website or you can use the link here
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7g90qhv4ckv3g4p/Spring%20revision.ibooks
Both will send you to the same place and you can download the ibook form there.
Happy revision
IRP

What if the wet had been a freeze

Mr Gomm told us that 171,226,000 tonnes of rain fell on Sussex last week. I just wondered how deep it would have been had it been snow that fell rather than rain. 

The density of snow is given as anywhere between 50kg/m3 for freshly fallen snow to 300kg/m3 for settled snow. This makes the problem quite difficult and gives answers between 28cm and 172cm. 

Looking at my garden on Friday I'm not sure which I would have preferred 

7N test a McDonalds

In this lesson about nutrition the pupils are testing a Big Mac meal to see if it contains certain food types. 

Is there any sugar? The Benedict's test will show us. 

Any fat? Look for an emulsion after adding drops of water to the filtrate. 

Protein shows as dark blue or pink. 

There must be starch in the bun. 

Watch this space for the results. 

Year 8 investigate current

Today year 8 have been testing components to see how much current they take. 

Year 5 are learning about shadows

Year 5 have been studying the Earth, Sun and Moon in Science this term. As part of this topic we have been looking at how shadows change throughout the day.

We started by looking at why we get shadows. We saw that light could not bend around opaque objects.This is because light travels in straight lines. 

Then we chose an object and drew around it. 

We shone a lamp from different angles on a protractor. This represented the sun appearing to move throughout the day. 

We observed the shadows that were produced and drew around them. 

We saw that the shadows were pointing to the west in the morning and the east in the afternoon. We also saw that the shortest shadow was at midday whilst those in the morning and afternoon were much longer. 

Year 3 rock

Year 3 made detailed observations of a selection of different rock samples in their lesson today. They filled in a chart using a word bank of scientific terms.

Mirror mirror on the - lab bench????

Year 7 are discovering the law of reflection. 

First set up your ray box

Draw in the incident ray

Put the mirror in place

Mark the reflected ray

Now measure the angles

Then make a graph of the results

Today's task to make traffic lights

Year 8 have been working on electric circuits 

This task was to make a traffic light system for a driveway. 

Designing the circuit to do the job

Success and now to record the results

Year 6 Parents

Some of you asked about the microscope iBook we have used in year six classes. Here is a link to a copy on Dropbox which you are welcome to download onto an iPad for revision purposes.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/l5nkzdhu6p4lkz7/Microscope%20ibook.ibooks

It is a big file so might take a while to download.

IRP