This month in science the 5th/6th graders have wrapped up our plant studies for the time being and have been focusing more on earth science.

For Halloween, we had a lot of fun attempting the mentos cola nucleation experiment (think baking soda and vinegar volcanoes with more height - when it works). The idea was to test different combinations of cola and candy to see what was necessary for a reaction as well as what worked best. We had a few mechanical difficulties (it is a lot harder than it seems to get all the candy into the soda at the same time) though we did seem to find that the flavor of mentos does not matter, and tic tacs and altoids do not work. It was some good sugary fun on the field!

We have been digging into earth science first by exploring the three different types of rocks (Igneous, Metamorphic and Sedimentary) through an interactive game as well as looking through many rock samples and sorting them based on characteristics. We also modeled the rock cycle by creating a sample "rock" out of salt dough and manipulating it by layering, adding heat and pressure or melting (squishing) it to create another "rock". By cooling a solution of Epsom salts and water (and food coloring) at different rates, we compared crystal size (different cooling rates of rocks also results in different crystal sizes). Finally, we modeled tectonic plates and their boundaries by peeling oranges and replacing the peels (adhered with toothpicks) as best we could. We discussed the merits and limitations of this model.

For engineering challenges, they created marble mazes out of straws and glue (many are still in process). Additionally, we briefly explored building earthquake safe structures and testing them on our very own shake tables.