Summer SAVY 2018: Session 5, Day 4 – Chemical Spill, Mr. Knorr (Rising 3rd/4th)
Hello Parents!
Today was quite an eventful day. In the morning lab session we continued monitoring the health of our flowering plants that we had watered with an acidic solution the day before. Preliminary results show that plants receiving higher concentrations of acid are less healthy than the plants that received a more diluted solution. We know this by counting the number of flowers and by measuring the height and width of our plants.
We also read an inspiring book together about ten things that we can do outside of SAVY to save energy and help the planet! We are going to make an effort to turn off the water while brushing our teeth, take the stairs instead of the elevator, and make sure that any lights or electronics are turned off when we’re not using them.
We then spent some time in teams matching some of the many branches of science with their correct definitions. We went over geology, ecology, hydrology, zoology, volcanology and many more disciplines of science. Students then went around and shared which scientific study most interested them. Who knew we had so many future volcanologists and zoologists in our class!
In the afternoon, we finally solved our chemical spill mystery! We went down to our spill site and caught a tie-dyed-lab-coat-wearing scientist, Dr. Madness, improperly disposing of harmful acids from his lab experiments. We explained to him the damaging effects that his chemicals were having on the environment and then implemented a cleanup strategy to perfection. We harnessed the power of chemical reactions by sprinkling baking soda around the acidic pool in order to neutralize the pH from ~3.9 all the way up to 6.7. Adding water to dilute the remaining solution successfully brought our pH to 7!
We are so excited to meet you and show you what we have been up to all week!
-Mr. Dave & Miss Janette
Solving the Crime
