Science Fair
The GSA science fair was a happening event! The projects were some of the best ever — interesting, comprehensive and clever. Where else in the world would you find students feeding caffeine to basil plants, driving everyone crazy with the Stroop Effect, secretly testing the power of suggestion, or studying rates of flatulence? Fifth graders discovered that inexpensive hairspray worked the best for holding artificial hair in place, and Sunlight detergent prevented mold from growing on kitchen sponges. The fourth grade now knows that mozzarella cheese spoils faster than cheddar, and a third grade student amazed everyone by growing beautiful crystals in root beer! The second grade found that alka seltzer dissolves faster in alphabet soup than in tomato soup (in case you need your anti-acid to begin working right along with the food that is giving you indigestion), while the first grade tried melting lollipops in oil. The ideas were too many to mention here, but they were all wonderful, and the tri-folds were beautiful at all grade levels. Our girls are just so brilliant!
Newton's Apple
If anyone heard a small explosion on Monday (December 3) it was just the eighth grade science class testing the sublimation of carbon dioxide under various conditions of pressure. We had no idea that it would be so excitingly loud! After a solid hour and a half of sublimation experiments the eighth grade felt that they had mastered all of the routine CO2 lab challenges and were ready to go on to the final challenge — exploding a bottle of Aquafina under the supervision of Mrs. Lamare (everyone wore safety goggles and lab aprons). The first three attempts to blow the bottle up were pathetic duds. The bottles just fizzled, or we didn't add enough of each ingredient. But, bottle number four was a real winner! Even Mrs. Cook came out of her portable to see if terrorists had attacked. Uh...Sorry about that, Mrs. Cook.