Science Club: making soap and bath bombs

Hands-on activities provide the best opportunities for students to learn new skills. When designing the scheme of work for my Science Clubs, I like to include a session on soap and bath bombs making. It's a great opportunity to make links between science and real life applications. Below are my tried and tested ways of delivering the session.

Soap making

Here are the ingredients to make soap:
- 100 ml liquid soap/shower gel
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 20 g gelatin
- 100 ml water
- optional: oats (this will scrub away dead skin cells)

To make your soap, dissolve the gelatin in in hot water. Once cooled down, mix well with your liquid soap or shower gel and pour into molds.

Bath bombs 

The recipe that has worked the best for me is the following one I came across when I was ordering the ingredients for the session:

I hope you're going to try this with your students.

Click here for my Science Club Scheme of Work.

I wish you great lessons!

Karolina

Spectroscopy in a suitcase

If you are based in the UK or Ireland, I highly recommend checking out Spectroscopy in a Suitcase workshop from the Royal Society of Chemistry. It´s an excellent opportunity for the students to use a spectrometer and learn more about its use.

You can ask for the workshop to be tailored to your students´needs and abilities. I had sessions with my very able Y9 pupils as well as A level students.

I wish you great lessons!

Karolina

Electrolysis

I really like to teach my students how to use less reagents (click here to see my precipitation reactions worksheet). Microscale chemistry offers a great way to do so. While doing Teaching Practical Science: Chemistry course from the National STEM Learning Centre, I learnt an easy way to conduct electrolysis using less reagents. The set-up includes using a Petri dish:

Petri dish contains sodium chloride solution and universal indicator

Once the electricity is flowing through the circuit, the changes are easy to observe almost immediately:

The same set-up can be used to conduct electrolysis of copper (II) sulfate solution:

An alternative to the graphite electrodes are ordinary pencils sharpened at both ends. 

Click here to get the worksheet for this experiment.

I wish you great lessons!

Karolina

Let YouTube help you teach Science #5

Today I would like to share a fantastic demo which you can use in your classroom or as a part of an open evening.

The rainbow flame demonstration is easy to set up and gives you an opportunity to have a great show stopper.

Which topic/s could you use this demo with?
- alternative to the flame test
- transition metals

Key words:
- emission spectrum, metal ions, safety, transition metals

Click here to get more information.

I wish you great lessons!

Karolina

Where to find free resources?

If you are working in a school which provides you with every single resource you ask for, you're in heaven! The reality is, however, that such schools are very rare to find. So, what to do when you want to inspire your students but you are struggling to get resources? Here are some of the places I came across over the years that can support you on your journey.

1. The Crunch Kit (Wellcome Trust)

If you are working in the UK you can get your hands on 2 different kits. These are tailored for  primary and secondary students. Each kit consists of superbly prepared experiments together with all the equipment you need to deliver it.


2. STEM Learning resources

This is a collection of various resources focused around STEM. You can easily find here materials suitable for your students. These can be used both in a classroom setting as well as in an after school club.

3. DIY experiments from STEM Newcastle

This is an amazing collection of experiments perfect for the use in a Science club. Instructions are clearly laid out with numerous pictures and drawings to aid understanding.

4. School Science list

Here you can find a list of 30+ websites which offer free resources.

5. TES resources

Times Educational Supplement is a goldmine for resources. You can find absolutely everything there from worksheets through lesson plans and power points and schemes of work. I started uploading my resources there as well so click here to see what´s available (more to come!).

I wish you great lessons!

Karolina

Mystery Boxes

I recently came across an interesting hands-on activity which will help the students learn how scientists work and how they come up with different theories.

As you can see from the video it's very easy to set up and extremely engaging. I can't wait to try it soon.

I wish you great lessons!

Karolina