Earth Day: Air Pressure (Playing with Fire)

 

Playing with fire in the name of science, courtesy of Mombrite, was the spotlight for this particular experiment to demonstrate air pressure and change in temperature.

It's a hobby of mine to seek out these sorts of science experiments; the ones that you can commit to with common items from around the household and also have a Wow factor involved.

All you need is a plate with a lip, a birthday candle, matches, some playdough or plasticine and clear glass jars/cups. Cover your plate with approximately 1cm of water. Place your plasticine in the center of the plate and sturdy your candle within. Light your candle and place the jar upside-down, over top. Then wait to be wowed!

Before we begin, we ask for predictions.

After we're done, the science inevitably continues with expansions. If you have a lot of "What If" questions going on, you can assume the activity is worth their time (i.e they're brains are in motion.)

"What if we add more candles?"

"What if we add more water?"

"What if we change the size of the glass jar?"

The big kids are generally asked to take our experiments to paper, meaning creating some sort of lab image as well as labels or explanations. In this case, they were asked to paraphrase the explanation given, in their own words, to make sure they understood the science behind the experiment.