Darwin: Salt Water Science

 

 

Our first Darwin experiment involved the buoyancy of salt water versus fresh water and how that would effect the islands, like the Galapagos in terms of distribution of plants and animals. The Kitchen Pantry Scientist has amazing Biology experiments, so we checked out their Darwin pages!

 

The little kids poured 4 cups of tap water into containers. Then they tested if our chicken egg would float. No go.

Next they took 2T sea salt and dissolved it in the tap water.

Again, tested the chicken eggs.

No go.

It took 8T of sea salt to finally get the egg to float! Luckily they were eager and patient!

 

Then we tested a variety of seeds from our spice jars; dill, cardamom, coriander, mustard, sesame, cumin...

All floated, except for the mustard seeds!

Then we discussed how plants and animals might arrive at various islands through salt water.