Thanks all for your comments & suggestions - I do appreciate them.
I've practically spent my WHOLE weekend running from pillar to post just to help DS with his science homework - and I can definately say without a doubt that, I'm very much the worse for wear.
Regarding the thermometer, I did finally get one with a good range (-40 oC to +150 oC) at my local cookware shop as suggested. So happens this was a digital thermometer costing £9.99
MmeBlueberry - you were spot on in mentioning that the normal sugar/room (or even the freezer) thermometer won't have the reqd range...what I saw on offer at the shops were temp. ranges from -30 oC to +50 oC.
Good point about the school lending out their thermometer to get assignments like this done at home - will raise it with ds's teacher. As for the specifics - instructions were to dissolve 3 spoonfuls of sugar, stir gently and use a stopwatch to record the times it takes to dissolve at diff. temps...
Piscesmoon, I agree with you about such homework being unfair on the child - esp. as an adult would definitely be needed to help out with it. Infact - having trudged through the whole lot, it feels more like my homwork than ds's. check this out:
[1] SEPERATING MIXTURES:
(a.) Write the correct process next to it's definition....
--> Decanting
--> Evaporating and Condensing
--> Magnetism
--> Filtering
--> Sieving
(b.)Write process to seperate:
--> rice + pasta shapes
--> paperclips + sawdust
--> salt + water
--> flour + rice
--> sugar + water
--> sand + water
(c.) Are each of these processes reversible or non-reversible? how do you change each material to the next (another set of 5 given here e.g: Paper > ash, sand + gravel > sand, e.t.c)
[2] INVESTIGATION
To cut a long story short, here goes: Tinky-winky had an accident. He's cleaned up and placed his mess in a bucket. Can you help him seperate the different materials again?
(a.) The mixture contains: Salt, Sawdust, Paperclips, Gravel.
(b.) Use 4 step plan to show how you'll do this
[3] SATURATION
Add 1 spoonful of salt to some water and stir. Add 1 spoonful of sugar to some water and stir. Repeat until no more will dissolve...
(a.) The water dissolved __ spoonfuls of salt.
(b). The water dissolved __ spoonfuls of sugar
[4] HEATING: REVERSIBLE OR NON REVERSIBLE CHANGES?
Here ds is reqd. to heat the following but b4 doing that must:
(a.) predict whether or not the change would be reversible
(b.) Describe the material BEFORE heating
(c.) Describe the material AFTER heating
(d.) Allow to cool then specify whether or not the change was reversible.
[5] CONDENSATION AND EVAPORATION
Based on Solids, liquids and gas. More experiments (quite frankly, was at this stage expecting to be told to use Methane/Propane/Butane but thankfully, not!), labelling diagrams, e.t.c...
[6] TESTS OF/ON SOLUBILITY
(a.) Reqd to complete table based on the following materials:
--> sand
--> sugar
--> chalk
--> flour
--> rice
--> gravy granules
--> coffee granules
(b.)Define the terms soluble and insoluble
(c.) Classify the materials tested into the right category...