My dd (Year 7) needs a funky science experiment she can perform.....

[maidamess]

She has at her disposal a table top, limited access to a socket, and cannot use live animals!(So growing an ear on a mouses back is out of the question)

Any ideas for something suitable that will make folk gasp but is easy to demonstrate?

you could put flowers in water with different colour food colouring and watch petals change colour

you could put baking soda and vinegar together in a bowl and watch reaction

not to sure always wanted to make one of them volcanos they look cool

look here

You can do the one with food colouring with celery too.

Custard powder.

Mix it with wayer untill it is like single cream.

You can pick up a gloopy handfull and press it into a ball, once you relax our hand it turns back into a liquid. It is called a non-newtonian fluid. they are exploring the use of them in bullet proof vests....not cistard powder tho!

The more you press them the more like a solid they become. Brainiac filled a swimming pool and someone ran across it.

Your dd will need a washing up bowl, water custard powder (or corn flour....but not ordinary flour)

You can have fights with it in the garden.....

Apparently (and I've not done this myself, but its supposed to be true, maybe some helpful mumsnetters will confirm)if you put a glass bottle of milk and a piece of liver on a windowsill, a few inches apart, the liver will be attracted to the milk, and will wrap itself around the bottle.

Told to me a friend a few months ago, but she is known for telling wild tales, although my DH says he's heard this before too!

sorry, but that sounds like a load of old toffee. There are no mucle cells in liver, so I am at a loss to know how it could move. It also has no way of sensing that the milk is there

I can tell you how to get an egg into a bottle though

I know a good one with a peeled, hard-boiled egg, though it does involve a lit match. You need a glass bottle with a neck just slightly narrower than the width of the egg - old milk bottle is brilliant, or experiment at home to find a good one. Make sure botttle is dry inside, but dampen around rim. Throw lit match in and then quickly sit boiled egg on top. The egg will get sucked right in and pop into the bottle. I did this at school myself and it was great for oohs and aahs.

Beat ya to it MB!

what greta ideas! I love the custard powder one, it works really well.

I'm not sure the liver one will be up her street! But I would love to try it myself. What on earth attracts the liver to the milk? Yuck.

great ideas. Who's greta?

Volcano?

Build cone with flour, put bicarb in centre of the well and add food colouring and vinegar. Frothes all over the place.

I've suggested that one to her Emmy, as I have done it with my Year 2's,and the effect is great.

And thats just what she said 'Oh thats too year 2'

Can I be an uber pedant about the egg thing?

The egg is not sucked in!!!!!

The atmospheric pressure on top of the egg is greater than that inside the bottle once the flames have gone out. the extra pressure outside pushes the egg in!

Or as I say when we teach the lesson ''Nothing' can't do anything'

egg has to be v soft boiled and neck of the bottle just a wee bit smaller than the diameter of the egg

Floating paper clip?

Thanks MB. x

Come on then, stop teasing...what floating paper clip?

But miss... isn't that what sucked means? That you remove the pressure inside something, so that pressure outside pushes it i? If not, what *does "suck" mean?

likt this....too hard to explain without a picture but dead easy to do

mb, you are sooooooo clever

what you do over the 'sucked' thing is that you pause for a long time and stare at them is disbelief. Then you say in a shocked an incredulous voive, 'Goodness X, doen't you know the difference between sucking somthing and pishing something? Dear me' and shake your head in disbelief!

Cue rest of class hooting with laughter

pushing not pishing! FFS!

how about the mentos in coke? That's always a great one to see. Best done outside though!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNgl6z5Z7k4

That's not an answer though MB! You have to tell me what sucking actually means as I reckon the (non-rude) definition of sucking, and what happens to the egg, are the same thing. Go on miss, take the shame though.

Wow Mentos in coke! My dd is off school ill today and really enjoyed watching those.

well it isn't, and it will get the kids confused about stuff later in their school science.

there are more particles bombarding the upper surface of the egg than inside the bottle , bombarding the lower surface of the egg. So the particles on the top 'push' the egg in. The particles on the inside are not 'sucking', they are not doing anything. and 'Nothing' can't do anything.

So, you don't get sucked out into space if the door on your spaceship opens, you get blown out.

mentos in coke is a good one.

Do you want the scientific explanation of how it works?