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

Upthrust practical

I recently had to teach a lesson on upthrust. I wanted to make it more interesting with a class practical and not just have a dry, theoretical lesson. After some research, I came across an interesting practical called "Design a boat" (click here). Despite being designed for primary students, I used it with my Grade 8 MYP Science classes. I was extremely pleased with how much engagement and scientific discussion it created. I really enjoyed watching my pupils going through many designs, testing them and trying to improve it. Having them talk about real life applications was brilliant.

 I wish you great lessons!


 Karolina

Levitating flame

Levitating flame is one of my favourite experiments to demonstrate convection and conduction. It's extremely easy to set up and it's also a great addition to open evenings.

Click here for the instructions.

I wish you great lessons!

Karolina

Water density

A few years ago I came across an article in the Catalyst magazine called "Water in the oceans". Apart from discussing whether or not salty water in the oceans would mix, it had a simple experiment which explored water density.

Start with two cups of water. In one, make a saturated solution salt solution and add food colouring of your choice. To the second cup of water just add different food colouring. Once done, try mixing the two together and you will get two distinctive layers.

This is a great experiment to use in a lesson on density. Super easy and cheap to prepare.

I wish you great lessons!

Karolina

Let YouTube help you teach Science #11

What can you teach with this seemingly useless equipment?

Surface tension of water is one of the options. How? Have a look at the video:

This easy to prep experiment is great to merge fun and learning. Click here to read more about the science behind this activity.

I wish you great lessons!

Karolina 

Chemical magic

If you need to run an open evening and showcase your department it´s good to have a selection of experiments and demos that will leave the audience speechless. I have already discussed the classic ammonium dichromate volcano (click here) and today I would like to share some chemical magic. This simple to set up experiment when paired up with a bit of acting can easily surprise your audience as you turn water into wine:

Then wine into water:

and lastly water into milk:

I tested it in beakers but for your "official" demo I suggest following the instructions and use wine glasses and a glass milk bottle.

If not used as a demo, you could use it in your lessons to discuss phenolphthalein as a narrow range indicator. Furthermore, it could be used in precipitation reactions lesson.

I wish you great lessons!

Karolina

Let YouTube help you teach Science #6

As a Chemistry teacher I feel confident to deliver demos and practicals within my subject specialism. I always know how to modify the experiments to cater to my students' needs. When I need to deliver Biology or Physics lessons, I always like to do extra research to make sure the lesson is interesting and that my subject knowledge is sound. A few years ago I came across this demo to show how the digestive system works and it's absolutely brilliant!

Which topic/s could you use this video with?
 - digestive system

Key words: bile, blood, digestion, enzymes, large intestine, mouth, oesophagus, saliva, small intestine, rectum, stomach,  teeth, villi

I wish you great lessons!

Karolina

KS3 Science Club - Scheme of Work

I have been running after school clubs since I started working as a teacher. I really enjoy the freedom a science club can give you to try experiments that you wouldn't normally have time to do in a lesson. One of the restrains that I had to face, however, was the issue of money to buy the resources I needed. This I managed to overcome by applying for grants and getting free resources (I mentioned some of the places here). After testing a wide range of experiments and getting feedback from my students, I put together this KS3 Science Club Scheme of Work, which I hope is going to be useful for your students too.

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

Let YouTube help you teach Science #3

I really like introducing Science concepts to my students using demos and experiments they can later do at home. This really ensures that the pupils are interested in the subject and maintains their curiosity. Furthermore, if students decide to conduct the experiment at home, it helps to develop their dexterity and lab skills. Here's a simple experiment you can introduce your students to:

Which topics could you use this video with?
- How does soap work?
- How does washing up liquid work?
- Hydrolysis of fats
- Saponification
- Science Club experiment

Key words: hydrophilic, hydrophobic, saponification, soap molecule

I wish you great lessons!

Karolina