Science: Rock Candy

 Hi there! 

Today I will be writing about how I made Rock Candy at home during lockdown. 

Aim: Make rock candy at home

Method: 

(Note: make sure you have a 3:1 ratio of sugar and water, I will be using 3 cups of sugar and 1 cup of water.)

1. Combine equal parts of sugar and water in a saucepan and heat.

2. Slowly add more and more sugar and mix until it doesn't dissolve any more. The water will start to look a little cloudy, this means no more sugar will dissolve. You can double or triple the recipe if you want, as long as a 3:1 ratio remains. At this point, you can also add flavouring or food colouring if you would like. Remove from heat and let cool.

3. Cut skewers to a desired size (which fits in the jar you will use), then dip them in water and then in sugar. Set them aside and allow to dry fully. 

4. Once the sugar-water mix has cooled down enough, pour it into jars (or whatever you are using). Once the sugar dipped sticks are dry place them in the jar. They must be fully dry, if they aren't, when you place them in the jar the sugar will dissolve. Also, make sure the skewers aren't touching the sides or bottom of the jar. 

5. Let it sit for a couple of days or as desired and you can eat the rock candy. Once you take them out, let them dry and enjoy!

Results:

Day of making:

Discussion:

When the water and sugar are heated together, it creates something called a 'supersaturated solution'. This means there are way more particles of dissolved sugar/solute than water/solvent is normally able to dissolve at a regular temperature. By stirring sugar in hot water, the sugar dissolves faster in the heated/fast-moving water molecules.

As the water cools down, the large amount of sugar particles remains in the supersaturated solution, meaning there's now more sugar than can actually stay in the liquid. This leftover sugar falls out of the solution as particles. They connect with other sugar particles and a rock candy crystal will start to grow. 

The sugar-dipped skewer is a key part in actually getting the crystals growing. The dried sugar acts as 'seed' crystals when you place it in the supersaturated solution. As all the sugar particles start to settle, they join together, forming crystals with other molecules of sugar. You can see this crystallisation happen on the sides and bottoms of the jar, and of course on the skewer. Until you take out the skewer, the molecules of sugar will continue to crystallise on the string and other crystals giving you rock candy.  

Conclusion:

I really enjoyed this experiment. Unfortunately, for me it didn't work on my first attempt so I tried again and it worked. However, crystals grew everywhere in the jars I used apart from the skewers which I found funny. Even if they didn't end up growing, I liked checking on the skewers everyday in the morning.

Thanks for reading!

Breaking News: Volcanic Eruption at Hornby High School!

 Hi there!

Today I will be writing about a model volcano I made in Science over the past few days.  I tried to create a model version of a volcano in Hawai‘i, U.S.A. called Mauna Loa. This will be a mega blog post, featuring what should be 3 blog posts. This will be divided into three sections, here they are below: 

- Mauna Loa research

- Making the volcano

- Elephant toothpaste research

Mauna Loa research

Mauna Loa is located on the main island of Hawai‘i in U.S.A. It is the largest volcano in the world, it is classified as a 'shield' volcano because of its broad shape, similar to that of a shield. 

Mauna Loa is a special volcano, because it is the largest active volcano in the world. It has an elevation of 4,169m and is larger than all the other volcanoes on Hawai‘i combined. 'Mauna Loa' translates to 'long mountain'. The name fits the volcano brilliantly, since it extends 120km from the southern tip of the island to the eastern coastline. It is a certainty that it will erupt again. 

Mauna Loa last erupted in 1984, the eruption lasted from March 25-April 15. The volcano caused earthquakes up to a magnitude level of 6.6. The eruption started at 1:30am on 25.03.1984, luckily, a military satellite detected a strong infrared signal at the summit of the volcano. Minutes after this detection, residents reported seeing a large red glow at the top of Mauna Loa. Within a matter of days, the lava flow from Mauna Loa was 6km from Hilo city, the largest population on the Island of Hawai‘i. Luckily, it didn't reach the city, otherwise, it would have been catastrophic. 

Making the volcano

To (try) make a model of Mauna Loa, I used the following things:

- Newspaper (lots of it!)

- Cardboard box

- Glue mixture of flour, water and salt

- 750mL plastic bottle

- Paint

- Paintbrush

- Reference picture

Method: 

1. Print out a reference photo. After doing this, we were allowed to start building our volcano. I cut out a section from a cardboard box to make the base on which my bottle and volcano would sit. 

2. I made glue using flour, water and salt to stick my bottle to the centre of my cardboard. 

3. I gathered newspaper and started to rip it into smaller sections. Then, I scrunched them up into 'balls' and dipped them into my glue mixture and stuck them onto my cardboard. I made a ring around my bottle, and spread out from there. I started to pile up more scrunched newspaper, trying to make it narrower so my volcano actually looked like a volcano.

4. After a couple days of drying, I started to form my volcano a bit more. I did this by ripping up newspaper into strips, dipping them into the glue mixture and pressing them down on the scrunched up newspaper. I did this because I had to make a surface which would be easy to paint and look more realistic. I covered my volcano fully using the strips and let them dry. 

5. My final step of making the model of Mauna Loa was to do some painting. I used three colours: green, light green and white. I did do some mixing to create lighter versions of the green paints. Firstly, I painted the lower section of my volcano dark green, I started to fade it as it got closer to the halfway point since my reference photo of the volcano depicted it having an 'ombré effect'. Then I started to paint the upper section, using a mixture of white paint and light and dark green. I blended it with the dark green part and faded it as it got closer to the top for my next section. I made another green which was lighter than the previous for the last section of the volcano and used the same colours again. I painted the volcano using this colour until I reached the bottle. Lastly, I added white paint right around the bottle, and partially spread it down the sides of the volcano since I was feeling quite artistic at the time. 

Here is the end product of my volcano, before it erupted: 

Elephant Toothpaste 

Now that I had a volcano, it needed to erupt and look cool. I used elephant toothpaste to create my lava for my volcano. 

Aim: Make elephant toothpaste

Method: 

1. In a measuring cylinder, measure 30mL of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Pour it into a beaker. 

2. Put a couple drops of food colouring of your choice into the beaker with hydrogen peroxide. Also add a couple of squirts of dish soap. 

3. In the measuring cylinder, measure 30mL of water. Pour it into a SEPERATE beaker. 

4. Take two spatulas of potassium iodide and mix it with the water until fully dissolved.  

Results: 

Discussion:

As mentioned above, hydrogen peroxide is also known as H2O2, meaning it has two hydrogen (H) atoms inside it and two oxygen (H) atoms inside it, meaning its make-up would look like this: 

Hydrogen peroxide looks like normal water or H2O, but adding an extra oxygen atom onto it and turns into an oxidant. This hydrogen peroxide is extremely powerful and isn't sold to the general public because of this. 

The special ingredient in elephant toothpaste is the potassium iodide. It acts as a catalyst or something that speeds up a chemical reaction, in this case it was the hydrogen peroxide breaking down. When the hydrogen peroxide breaks down, it splits up into water and oxygen. The soap bubbles we see erupting from the volcano are filled with oxygen. When the bubbles start to appear, they also give off steam, meaning the elephants toothpaste has not only made bubbles, but an exothermic (heat) reaction too!

Conclusion:

I found this project so much fun! I had a blast getting to make my volcano and trying to make it look like Mauna Loa. My favourite part of making it was probably when I was painting it, I enjoyed mixing the colours to try make the most accurate colour match I could. 

I also enjoyed making the two separate solutions for the elephants toothpaste, I really enjoying doing experiments with chemicals in class and learning how certain ones will react with others. 

My favourite part of this project was seeing my volcano erupt. I felt really proud of myself for putting my work into it and it was really fulfilling seeing it finally erupt!

 I also enjoyed researching about Mauna Loa, it is a such an interesting volcano, which looks colossal. Knowing such a great volcano could erupt is shocking and makes everyday issues like not charging your phone or forgetting your lunch like specks of dust compared to what Mauna Loa could do. It basically brings you back to Earth in a sense. Overall, this project was fun beyond words and will always remember it!

Thanks for reading!

English: My Creative Writing

 Hi there! 

Today I will be sharing creative writing I did in English class using a sentence starter from The Outsiders, written by S.E. Hinton in 1967. Here is a link to my work.

Thanks for reading!

Science: Yr10 Project ideas

 Hi there!

Today I will be sharing what I am doing in Science as end of year projects. We are going to create two projects this term, I am going to create an exploding volcano and an Earth structure model.

I am going to create my volcano based off of Mauna Loa, a volcano in Hawai‘i, United States of America. I will need to create an accurate model of Mauna Loa, giving information about it. I will also need to create elephant toothpaste to create 'lava' flowing out of my volcano. I'll need to take pictures of my progress and give my method for how I made everything.

For my second project, I am going to create an Earth structure model. For it I am going to create the Earth, featuring all the layers and tectonic plates too. I will do a write-up of what I did to create my model, as well as some information about the Earth too. 

Thanks for reading!

Wānanga: Personalised Passion Projects

 Hi there!

Today I will be sharing my Personalised Passion Passion Project with you! Here it is below:

Thanks for reading!

Art: What I have been doing so far

Hi there!

Today I will be sharing what I have been doing in Art class so far this term. We have done: 

- 10 minutes of drawing outside with different art supplies

- Propaganda research 

Since Term 4 has started, after arriving to class, we go outside to draw what we see with various art supplies. We stay outside for about 10 minutes, drawing what is in front of us as best we can and majority of us go back since we have finished, while some people stay since they haven't completed their artwork. Below is a slideshow I made show-casing what I have drawn:

We have also been doing research about propaganda in class, seeing what images are try to tell us and make connections with them. At first, we did thumbnail sketches of posters trying to sway people's opinions, some were posters from movies and others were old war posters. 

After this, we created inspiration sheets with cuttings from newspapers and stuck them onto large pieces of paper. We made links between images and tried to see what connections we could make. We then started to make thumbnail sketches by combining images from our inspiration sheets with the first thumbnail sketches we did or with our imagination. Here is a slideshow showing my work:

I am currently working on doing photomontage inspired by Hannah Höch to make my 'cake trapped in a box' and will then go over it in colour, inspired by John Baldessarri. 

What do you think of my work? 

Thanks for reading!

Science: Solar & Lunar Eclipses

 Hi there!

Today I will be writing about lunar eclipses and solar eclipses, something we have recently learnt in Science class.

Solar eclipse in Maba, Indonesia

A solar eclipse happens when light from the sun is blocked by the moon, preventing it from reaching earth. This creates pitch black darkness during the day, however it is only for a short period of time. The place where a solar eclipse happens will be completely dark. The last full solar eclipse happened on March 9, 2016. This eclipse was fully visible in parts of Indonesia and it was partially visible in Australia, south Asia, and east Asia. The next solar eclipse is supposed to happen on December 4 this year in Antarctica, while the next one in New Zealand is due to happen on 22 July, 2028. Below is a diagram of a solar eclipse:

 

A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon is blocked by the earth and it disappears, as the sun's light cannot reach it, therefore, making the moon unable to reflect light. So, while it is night time and there is a lunar eclipse, the moon will temporarily disappear. The last lunar eclipse in New Zealand happened on 26 May, 2021. The next lunar eclipse in New Zealand is going to happen on 19 November, 2021, however it will not be a full eclipse, only partial. Below is a diagram of a lunar eclipse:

Thanks for reading!

Science: Volcano Research

 Hi there!

Kīlauea erupting on 26/10/2018

In Science class, we have started learning about Earth Science. Today I will be sharing my knowledge about Kīlauea, a Hawaiian volcano. 

Kīlauea is located on the largest island which makes up the islands, Hawai‘i. It is the southeastern most volcano on Hawai‘i. It is a shield volcano, it is called this because it looks like a broad volcano which looks similar to a shield. 

Kīlauea is special because it is home to Pele, the Hawiian volcano goddess. Chants and oral traditions tell of lots of angry eruptions of Pele after the arrival of the first European on the island, a missionary named Rev. From topography, it appears Kīlauea is only a bulge on Mauna Loa, so it was thought to be a neighbour and not actually a separate volcano. Research shows Kīlauea is a separate volcano which produces its own magma plumbing system, more than 60km below the surface. 

Not an image of the current eruption

Kīlauea is currently erupting, it started on the 29th of September 2021. There isn't any damage as the lava is still in the crater and only affecting one vent. However, this is good news for the scientists who research Kīlauea. The volcano summit colapsed in 2018, so it is the first time since the 2018 that lava has been seen at Kīlauea since then. 

Thanks for reading!