The Mad Scientists of Goodrich

1^st and 2^nd grade students have had the opportunity, during the first after school session this year, to participate in Science Club. This is a hands on experience during which students have many opportunities to explore, test and experiment with the world around them. So far this year, we have been able to test so many different theories and ideas that relate specifically to the life or interests of a 1^st and 2^nd grader. I have documented below some of our findings from our recent experiments.

During one of our experiments, we wanted to see if adding more Mentos mints to a 2 liter of diet coke would affect how high the pop geyser would go. During our testing we learned that the coating on the Mentos reacts with the carbonation in the diet coke to create a reaction. We predicted that if we added more Mentos that there would be a bigger reaction. When we tested it, we found that our prediction was correct because every time we added more Mentos the geyser rose higher!

Then, we moved onto testing to see which types of materials would make stronger houses for our friends…the 3 little pigs. We made houses of toothpicks that were held together by either marshmallows, gum drops or Styrofoam. When the big bad wolf (my hair dryer) tried to blow them down, we found that the houses using the Styrofoam and the gum drops stayed standing while the marshmallow houses fell down or leaned. We decided that, based on our observations, we would recommend for the 3 little pigs to use dense materials, like Styrofoam or gum drops, when building their next houses.

The mad scientists of Goodrich will continue to explore over the next 4 weeks. 

We are so excited about what new conclusions we will make as we continue to experiment and explore!