Science and Math

Archimedes (of Eureka fame) provided explanations of how levers worked and is purposed to have said, “Give me a place to stand and with a lever I will move the whole world.” But what is a lever and how does it provide mechanical advantage? The grade 12 physics class set out to find out by performing a lab to answer the questions (1) What class of lever is a door, and (2) how does the length of the effort arm in a lever system affect the lever’s mechanical advantage? With just a tape measure, post it notes, their index fingers and their minds, they set up their experiments and pushed their way to the answers.

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There are six types of chemical reactions that are investigated in the grade ten chemistry unit: Synthesis, Decomposition, Single Displacement, Double Displacement, Combustion, and Acid-Base. Simply discussing and recognising the different types of chemical reactions can be somewhat uninteresting (Figure 1 – case in point) and even intimidating.

Figure 1

Life is not always about remembering equations and formulas, because let’s face it; most students forget the majority of the equations and formulas they have learned once they leave the walls of educational institutions. If, however, you can help students see through the equations and formulas and how they apply to the world they experience around them, they will remember that for many years after they have forgotten the formulas and equations.

In order to bring the chemistry from the whiteboard to life, we look at a real-time example of a decomposition reaction. We take a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and add to it a few drops of food colouring (for effect) and a few drops of liquid dish soap (for the wow factor). To that mixture we add a pre-mixed batch of warm water and yeast (to speed of the decomposition of the hydrogen peroxide). What ensues, and what the students witness and ooh and aah at is the oxygen produced from the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide quickly expanding the soap bubbles in the solution and quickly foaming up and over the graduated cylinder.

There are many scientific words used in everyday vernacular that although not always wrong, are often used without knowledge of their full scientific meaning. This is arguably most true for physics terminology. In order to cement their understandings and grasp the full meaning of kinematics (the study of motion and its applications) the grade 12 physics class designed and conducted two different investigations using ramps, rulers, stopwatches and toy cars. The first investigation was an activity that had the students calculate the average speed of a toy car, while the second was a lab that had them determining the average acceleration of a toy car. Observing the students during both investigations leaves me confident in knowing that they will most assuredly be accelerating with a positive velocity towards a good grade in our first unit of the course.

Perogie Palaces and Lactose Free Cupcakes

The grade 12 food and nutrition sciences class takes a look at the many aspects of food and nutrition. Our current unit “Self and Others” takes a look at the personal and social reasons we eat.  In this unit, students are expected to plan and prepare foods based on various criteria.

For the first menu, students had to plan a menu taking into consideration economic, geographic, and seasonal factors.  Students were split into six groups of two and asked to plan a menu with the following criteria:

1. Time (no more than 75 minutes to prepare, cook, clean-up, and eat)
2. Cost (between $50-$60)
3. Seasonal & Geographic (use fruits and/or vegetables that are available in Ontario during October or November

Once students found a recipe that fit the above criteria they made a presentation to their classmates outlining all the information as well as preparing a shopping list for all the ingredients. The class voted on making a dish called “Perogie Palace” as well as a dessert of apples, spices and vanilla ice cream.

The second menu had students planning a menu that had to meet a dietary need, and decided on making lactose free muffins. The ingredients for both menus were purchased at Loblaws during two separate class trips. Both menus were prepared and received very well by Academy staff and students, and were quite delicious. Stay tuned for our next cooking adventure update.

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Breaking Down a Breakdown Reaction

In grade 10 science, the chemistry unit is primarily focused on chemical reactions.  Simply discussing the various types of chemical reactions and what they entail can be for many students a bit abstract. Luckily for chemistry, there are a lot of “cool” demonstrations (or demos as we call them in the biz) that can be utilized to visually represent the power, speed and awesomeness that chemical reactions can have.  One of the types of chemical reactions students learn about in grade 10 chemistry is a decomposition reaction in which a single reactant molecule breaks down into simpler constituents (parts).

2 H₂O_{2 (l)} à  2 H₂O _(l) + 0_{2 (g)}

On Monday October 15, our science class witnessed a decomposition reaction.  In particular this decomposition reaction was one used on the hit comedy series, The Big Bang Theory, and so aside from its “cool” factor, it also had pop culture factor and something the students could relate to.  The reaction is essentially the breakdown (decomposition) of hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) into water (H₂O) and oxygen (O₂). Hydrogen peroxide is a liquid substance that can be found in drug stores and is used on cuts.  The drug store variety of hydrogen peroxides, are only 3%.  The hydrogen peroxide we used for our demonstration was 6 and 30 percent (to make the outcome more dramatic).

To make the reaction go really fast we mixed yeast in warm water and added it to the hydrogen peroxide (the yeast speeding up the reaction significantly).  Added to the hydrogen peroxide before hand was food colouring (for cool effect), and ordinary dish soap.  The oxygen that is released during the decomposition is caught by the dish soap bubbles which causes the liquid to expand as it does.  The outcome is a fun and “cool” demonstration of a decomposition reaction, which is a lot better than simply describing its mechanics.

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