Exploration of Water

In this "exploration of water " lab we experiment with water and other solubles such as sand, salt, clay, sponges, and dishwasher pads. When we poured salt in water it mostly dissolved sand is denser therefore it sank to the bottom, and clay absorbed the water but water also started to dissolve clay. We then tried with different amounts of each variable to see how it would react and we noticed that everything is denser so it’ll sink. If you drop different sized pieces of clay into the water it’ll react due to break in surface tension. The sponge soaked up most of the water and sand solute if it is less dense leaving the mass of sand at the bottom; this is a good example of cohesion and adhesion.

This lab connected to our lectures because we started to discuss the movement of water, mass flow, and how it reacts to different molecules. We can create a scientific story by observing different and unusual aspects of nature that on a normal basis we wouldn’t.  For example, you can admire and appreciate the beauty of water by going to a flowing river up in the Catskill mountains. By actually seeing, touching and being involved with different elements of the earth it makes it much easier to remember information and how our world works when we are given the chance to visualize the content we learn.  We were able to break down advance information into simpler terms by doing something fun. Lab is all about turning something “invisible” into something “visible” because we are always applying what we learn. Last week our table chose the study of “play” and you can connect the physical activity in this lab to that one. We had to discuss our actions as a group and interpret what we observed. We can include the subtopics from “the power of play” to this water experiment because we all had to work in pairs or individually to conclude observations. We got to explore our hypothesis by doing the work and playing around with the material which helped us understand. Our brains are stimulated by visual ideas and it can incorporate the text book material we learn to our lab, its fascinating to see how the right and left side of the brain work together.