Christmas poem

Christmas is when Jesus was born. 

Holidays is when everyone is happy.

Reindeers help Santa deliver the presents

In the northern hemisphere, Santa makes our presents Stars are across the sky like angels watching over us.

Trees decorated for Christmas.

Merrily everyone singing

Angles sing Christmas chorals along with everyone who is celebrating this holiday.

Santa is the jolly fat man who eats dessert before an actual meal. 

water density

Rainbow Water Density Tower

Aim - To observe how substances with different densities interact

Materials

Glasses - 1 per group

Food colouring (red, blue, green and yellow - you can make purple and orange by combining two colours)

Sugar or Salt (and measuring spoon)

Measuring cup - 1 per colour (you can have 6 colours to work with, or limit it to 4 colours)

Measuring syringes 

Water (warm water from a tap or kettle)

Plastic spoons to mix the sugar and food colouring in the water

Pots of water to rinse syringes between each colour

Plastic plates or trays to protect the table from sticky sugar water

Results 

The different densities did not mix because they are different layers. When we put different amounts of sugar in each cup the density changed and that's why the colours did not mix.

Explanation 

Look at the websites below and also do research of your own - Then write a paragraph explaining ‘the science’ behind the experiment.  Why do we see the results that we did?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H78Xd3ToxP4

https://www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/colorful-sugar-density-tower/

Saveer & Arhans Result:

Rishi & Aaravs Result:

Ice fishing

Ice Fishing 

http://www.sciencefun.org/kidszone/experiments/ice-fishing/

Aim/Purpose:

To see how salt can affect ice or react with ice

Materials 

• Small paper cups, bowl or an ice cube tray
• Glass of water
• String (yarn or kite string works great)
• Small stick
• Salt

Steps/Method:

1. Fill the cup or tray up with water and place it in the freezer.  You can also use ice cubes from your freezer and skip this step.
2. When the water is frozen, remove the ice from the cup or tray.
3. Put the ice in the glass or bowl of water. The cube will bob up and down in the water and then float on the top.
4. Place one end of the string from the fishing pole on top of the ice cube and sprinkle salt on the ice where the string is touching. Watch as the water melts slightly and refreezes.
5. After about 10 seconds, carefully lift the ice cube out of the water with the fishing pole. You caught a fish (ice)!

My results:

Salt - The string stuck really well to the ice and pulled the ice cubes up out of the water

Sugar - The string didn’t stick to the ice cubes and none of them was pulled up out of the water.  Some people started to see the ice cubes stick - but it then failed after that.

Flour - THe ice didn’t stick to the string at all 

Pepper - The ice didn’t stick to the string at all 

More salt than normal - The ice still got picked up by the string

Changing the variables

Don’t wet the string beforehand 

Use only a little salt

Using lots of salt 

Try to catch the ice using sugar instead of salt 

Try to catch the ice using pepper instead of salt

Try to catch the ice using flour instead of salt

Change the time period that you wait before trying to pick up the string.

10 seconds.

Explanation - Why does it work?

When the salt touches the ice it lowers the freezing point making it melt and refreeze, which makes it stick to the fishing rod. 

Resources:

https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/ice-fishing-winter-science/

https://raisinglifelonglearners.com/fishing-for-ice-science-experiment/

https://sites.google.com/site/sciencekiddoexperiments/fishing-for-ice

https://www.sciencekiddo.com/salt-melts-ice-experiment/

https://www.adabofgluewilldo.com/ice-fishing-science-experiment/

https://www.rookieparenting.com/why-does-salt-melt-ice-freezing-point-experiment/

https://whatsubstancemeltsicefastest.weebly.com/about.html

Fresh water biomes

Fresh water water experiment

Water Filter Experiment 

Aim/ Purpose - 

To filter or clean water using a number of materials 

How to clean/filter water - making it clean

Materials -

Sand, 

gravel, 

activated charcoal, 

cotton wool, 

plastic bottles cut in half,

bucket of dirty water (can make the water dirty with soil or whatever from outside)

Predictions - What is going to work best?  What steps/process and in what order - why?

2nd layer up - gravel - The gravel will grab onto the dirty parts and the clean water will drip off the gravel through the gaps.

Second Layer Up  - Charcoal - Second smallest material, can absorb the things not cleared by the bigger materials.

Third Layer Up - Sand - Turns hard when it’s wet - Take all the bigger dirt particles 

Top layer - Gravel - All the hugest dirt particles out first.  

Method/Steps:

1.  First, you put 3 cotton balls ate the bottom.
2. Next, you sprinkle activated charcoal.
3. After we put 1 ½ spoon of sand on the charcoal.
4. Fourthly we added 3 big gravel rocks.
5. Finally, you pour the dirty water in the bottle and wallah fresh water. 

Explanation - How did it work?

When you pour the dirty water into the bottle it will gradually go down to the charcoal and from there the Charcoal takes away all the bacteria and that’s why it ends up clean.

Why is it important for cities/towns etc to purify and clean the water before it gets to peoples’ homes?

So then people don’t get sick and their health won't be sick.

https://science.lovetoknow.com/science-fair-projects/homemade-water-filter-science-project

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPP_Yn2w2Sk&t=157s

https://www.homesciencetools.com/article/water-filtration-science-project/

https://childsci.org/water-filtration/

https://raisinglifelonglearners.com/sand-filter-activity/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df12osqZfQ0

Exploda bag

Inquiry experiment  

Aim/Purpose : 

To see what happens when baking soda and vinegar mix/combine 

To see the reaction that occurs when these two substances are mixed

  

Prediction - What do we think is going to happen:

We think it will explode/ It’s going to blow up

The ziplock bag will pop open and the liquid will spill out

It could fizz up 

The bag might fill up with air 

Fizz up like soda when shaken

The air pressure created inside the bag will cause the seal on the bag to pop open

Steps:     

1.  Open up a paper towel on a flat surface
2. Put 4 levelled teaspoons of baking soda in the centre of the paper towel
3. Wrap up the baking soda in the paper towel like a package - Keep the baking soda concentrated in the middle of the paper towel
4. Tape down your package of baking soda with a piece of masking tape so that everything stays in place
5. Open the vinegar and pour it into a cup - until the cup is half full
6. Then open a zip lock bag and pour the vinegar into it
7. Hold the package inside the zip lock bag, making sure it doesn’t yet make contact with the vinegar - then zip up the bag - making sure that it is completely closed
8. Let the package of baking soda drop into the vinegar and shake the bag up a little so that they start to mix
9. Observe what happens

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlmsiPxEuK0

Materials/equipment:

• Baking Soda  (4 x tablespoons) 
• Vinegar (half a cup)
• Ziplock sandwich bags 
• Plastic spoon
• Paper towel 
• Masking tape

Roles within the group:

1. Presenter - conducts the experiment 
2. Assistant - collects all the materials 
3. Videographer - takes a video of the experiment 
4. Recorder - Record the result

After students have prepared they can present the experiment in front of the class who will be the audience. The videographer can record the experiment and the recording can be shared at a later stage.  

The Result - What did we see happen?

When we dropped the baking soda into the vinegar and that caused a gas eruption. The bag fizzed up and up and until there was no air the bag will explode.  

Variables - How could we change the variables?

Predict what might happen if we change the variables 

Experiment - Were our predictions accurate?

Put 5 or more teaspoons of baking soda into the package - Bigger explosion/more powerful 

If there is too much baking soda and not enough vinegar, it may not work

Put more vinegar  - Bigger explosion/not pop  

Way less baking soda and wrapped in more paper towels - nothing - it would take a longer time to see a reaction 

Baking soda - With no package surrounding it - The reaction would happen instantly and uncontrollably 

The Science - Why did it happen?  Here are some websites to look at…. You may be able to find other websites too!

When vinegar and baking soda are first mixed together, hydrogen ions in the vinegar react with the sodium and bicarbonate ions in the baking soda making a chemical reaction and the air bursts through 

https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/balloon-baking-soda-vinegar-experiment-kids/

https://www.science-sparks.com/amazing-baking-soda-experiments/

https://www.wonderopolis.org/wonder/what-happens-when-you-mix-vinegar-and-baking-soda

https://carrotsareorange.com/baking-soda-vinegar-reaction-experiment/

Kotare kingfishers

Saveer:  Day in the life of a Kingfisher (Kotare)

Hi, my name is Halcon the Kingfisher also known as the Kotare. I do get aggressive when it comes to family and food, so if I were you I would not mess with me or my kind. Anyways, I was just about to go over to the lake for some dinner because I couldn’t find anywhere else which gives free food. 

I was just waiting for a fish to show itself. I was just about to swoop in when I mistakenly got into the sight of a fox. I flew back up all the way back to my nest. Fortunately, I had lost the fox but unfortunately, I had to sleep with an empty stomach. The way I adapted was that I had to compensate for the water's refraction and reflection as I search for prey underwater.

Almost all my species are brightly coloured just like me! I have orange legs, blue and green wings and upperparts and my rump and tail are a bright blue colour. If you haven’t realised I will have to travel to the same river I was at because I need to eat 60% of my body weight a day. Sometimes I wish there was a gym for birds so I can burn some of it out, but I need my energy.

(The next morning) OMG! I couldn’t sleep all night because I only got to eat 20% of my body weight instead of 60%. I hope that stupid fox is still asleep so I can eat some breakfast. I then zoomed over to the lake at my top speed of 40 km per hour and took two fish, just in case I can’t find any lunch or the fox woke up, I could eat the second fish. But hopefully, the fox found its own predators and ran off. Anyways that’s all I am going to be doing my entire life unless I find someone so I can have kids but other than that I’m going to be doing this for a while, see you next time unless I get eaten by a fox or one of my other predators. 

(New Paragraph) Just a few more things I want t tell you, let me know if you meet one of my cousins. You might not know that they are related to me though, because there are 120 of my species. Anyways, I’m hungry again so I’ll just zooooooom over to the lake and catch a fish if I am lucky. One more thing before I go, you might not see me in a long time because I have to go over to my brother’s house which is in the Amazon rainforest, he is a different species from me though because he was adopted. He is a Crested kingfisher and I love laughing at his hairstyle. Cya around.

My Brother                              Me!

 

_____________________________________________

Rishi: Information about the Kotare kingfisher

What is a Kotare kingfisher?

The Kotare kingfisher is part of the Halcyonidae family. The Kotare (kingfisher) is a medium-sized woodland kingfisher that lives in mangroves, woodlands, forests,  river valleys, Australia, New Zealand, and other parts of the western Pacific. 

What do Kotare Kingfishers look like

All kingfishers have large heads, long, sharp, pointed bills, short legs and fat tails. 

The Kotare Kingfisher has a blue-greenish back with yellow under the wings. Kingfishers have short, orange coloured legs. Kingfishers are very vividly coloured. The colour of their wings is a blue/green colour and their upperparts and tails are bright blue coloured. Their underparts are bright orange and they have a small, white bib underneath their beaks, on their throats.

What do Kotare kingfisher eat

Kotare eats small crabs, fish and a variety of tadpoles. You can find Kotare in inland and coastal freshwater habitats.

The Kotare Kingfisher eats 60% of its body weight each day! The Kotare kingfisher can travel up to 40km/h and has the life span of 6-10 years. There are over 100 species of Kingfishers.    The design of a kingfisher’s beak is aerodynamically efficient, allowing it to dive from where it is, towards its prey, with maximum speed and minimum splash. In fact, the beak design is so clever that the front of many Japanese bullet trains is modelled to mimic it.

  Conclusion

Overall the bird is a wonderful bird, bright-coloured and amazing. Thankfully the Kotare kingfisher is not endangered and hopefully, it won’t. Did you know that a Kotare kingfisher’s real name is a Sacred Kingfisher?