Week 15

 This week in lab we experimented with baking soda and vinegar with the goal of designing a learning activity for 5th grade students. The phenomena we were testing was that no matter what happens in an interaction, the total weight of the matter is conserved. We tested this a few times and got results contrary to this phenomena. We found that the weight of all the materials was more than our final product in the bag. Air was escaping from the bag when the materials mixed and we were unable to close the bag fast enough. We discovered that if we create a block in the bag that divides the two materials, we could close the bag before they mixed. This led to us proving the phenomena as the weights were the same before and after the interaction.

This would be a great experiment to do with students. It would be important to frame the phenomena before the experiment and allow them to experiment with the materials just as we did. The students would likely have similar results at first that may lead them to believe that the mixture was indeed losing weight. The teacher could frame questions that guide them to think creatively about ways to get the two to be as close as possible or the same. In the end, this experiment with baking soda and vinegar is a great way for students to explore the conservation of matter.

Some remaining questions I have is if there are other chemical interactions that could be used to test out this scientific phenomena? I also wonder how as a teacher you would handle a situation where even when doing everything correctly, the students are unable to match the weights? 





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