Grabbing their interest
“Hooks”
The HIAS Science Team
What do
you think?
What is the
evidence
telling you?
Scientific
enquiry
How could
you find out?
Why do
you think
that?
You can apply the enquiry cycle to all
sorts of things.
For example, a popular yogurt drink
claims that you can feel the
difference drinking it makes after
14 days.
Use the cycle – how would you test
that?
And there’s the classic tea bag
enquiry…
One manufacturer claims that their
tea bags, which are shaped like a
pyramid, allow the tea to dissolve
quicker than other shaped bags.
Is this true?
Or just advertising nonsense?
How could we find out?
Leave the details of the approach to
them, but maybe focus their thinking
on:
1. Try to explain what happens using
your ideas about particles.
2. Try to make sure that the quality of
the evidence you collect is as good as
possible.
A variation might be …
… something has been
bugging me…
..in the TV
advert for ‘Dettol’, we ‘re
told to kill as many bacteria
as possible… BUT… the ads
for…
and
tell us to drink
bacteria!!
Can they both be right?
The media & adverts are a great resource
to get pupils thinking about science …
• “Bad Science” in The Guardian
(Check out “Don’t dumb me down” by Ben
Goldacre in the May/June edition of PSR)
• “The Mirror” website – great stories, easy
to read … but rarely any evidence!
• UPD8 from the ASE
• Adverts …don’t get me started!
The "Acid Bath" murders
(Oaklands School)
Good one this!
John Haigh was freed from prison in 1944 and became an
accountant with an engineering firm. Soon after, by
chance, he bumped into McSwann in the Goat pub in
Kensington. McSwann introduced Haigh to his parents,
Donald and Amy, who mentioned that they had invested in
property.
On 6 September, 1944, McSwann disappeared. Haigh later
said he hit him over the head after luring him into a
basement at 79 Gloucester Road, London SW7.
He then put McSwann’s body into a 40-gallon drum and
tipped sulphuric acid on to it. Two days later he returned
to find the body had become sludge, which he poured down
a manhole.
Cillit Bang! (Brookfield School)
The furring up of kettles, boilers, washing machines, pipes and
radiators can cause problems. The deposits left behind in the
bathroom, in the shower, bath and wash basin are unsightly.
There are many products on the market to prevent lime scale or
remove it.
But how effective are the claims made by the advertisements?
Consider Barry Scott and his Cillit Bang advert on T.V.
“Limescale is simply calcium that sticks, and if solid calcium
dissolves this fast [lump of solid calcium starts fizzing],
imagine how Cillit Bang works on taps and sinks.”
Well Barry, limescale is not simply calcium that sticks and so, no,
I cannot imagine how Cillit Bang would work. The two are not
directly related! (Rant, rant)
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Using limestone as a substitute for limescale
(lime scale is too difficult to obtain, chalk is too
porous and ummm…chalky, marble is too dense)
your job is to test the following for their ability
to dissolve calcium carbonate:
Cillit Bang (of course) £2.98 for 750ml
Tesco Bathroom Cleaner £0.65 for 500ml
Bath Power £2.45 for 500ml
Vinegar £0.48 for 300ml
Citric acid £0.43 for 200ml
Equipment
Anything in the laboratory (well, almost)
Top pan balance, sensitive to 2 decimal places in
grams.
Limestone chips.
Range of commonly used and available descalents.
Hammer
The Y9C group …
• Collaborative group of Hampshire
science teachers.
• Based on some work originally done
in Liverpool – the Aim4Five Project
• Focus – disaffected Y9 pupils.
• Practical work – discussion – test
questions.
• Still being evaluated in the light of
the KS3 test results …
Are the Zorgeons already
here?
1. A meteorite landed on Earth. It contained a new element.
Scientists called the element jovium.
(a)The list below shows some properties of jovium.
Which two properties suggest that jovium could be a
metal?
Tick two boxes.
A It has a high melting point.
B It does not stick to a magnet.
It is a blue solid.
D It is a good conductor of heat and electricity.
E It glows in the dark.
2 marks
The Thermit Reaction
Why is this similar to a meteorite?
Discussion
Why is this reaction like a
meteor coming through the
atmosphere?
Why does it get hot when it
comes through the air?
Examples of meteorites.
Why are all these meteorites different?
How could we find out whether they are
made of
metals or non metals?
Flame Tests
Different metals burn with a different coloured
flame.
What colours do the following metals go?
Metal
Calcium
Copper
Lithium
Potassium
Colour
Now put your sample into the flame.
What metals do you think it contains?
How could you separate one of the
substances?
(b) A scientist put a piece of the meteorite in water
and stirred it.
This produced a blue solution with tiny, solid, black
particles in it.
He separated the black particles from the blue
solution using the apparatus below.
(i) Give the name of this method of separation.
.............................................................
mixture of black particles
and blue solution
flask
1 mark
(ii)The diagram below shows the results.
What do the labels A and B show?
Write your answers on the lines.
A
flask
2 marks
B
(c)The scientist poured the contents of the flask into a
dish. Two days later there were blue crystals in the
dish, but no liquid.
blue crystals
at the start
two days later
What happened to the liquid in the dish?
.............................................................................
1 mark
Substance
Liver
Glass
Hair root
Carrot
Potato
Plastic
Aluminium foil
Reaction with
hydrogen
peroxide
What do your results tell you?
Discuss your findings in your group.
Now test your sample.
What can you conclude?
I forgot to
put the lid
on!!!
How could you test to see
whether the living things are still
inside?
How are they adapted to escape and survive in
our World?
Head lice are insects which cling onto a person’s
hair.
(a) The drawing below shows a head louse.
eye
antenna
claw
abdomen
20 × actual size
Which part, labelled on the drawing,
does the head louse use to cling onto a hair?
..………………………………………………….
1 mark