Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Secret Writing...Come Alive!

I had my master's class this evening, and it was extremely enlightening. We presented all of our hard work from throughout the semester and it was so refreshing to see all of the great, creative ideas for projects and activities that people were able to come up with. The assignment was this: conduct a science experiment with your class and then research how a science fair works in your school. Not so difficult right? Well the kids and I put together a great experiment about invisible writing. The kids really wanted to know what was the best way to send secret notes to their friends and so the experiment began! We tested five different methods: white crayon, lemon juice, milk, corn starch, and baking powder. The kids predicted that the milk would prove to be the best material to compose a secret message with.

Lemon Juice Group
Corn Starch Group

Baking Soda Group
White Crayon Group

Milk Group
The kids composed their secret messages and then set them on the windowsill to dry. Although it was torturous, we waited one whole hour before attempting to reveal our messages. This time around the children chose a different message to reveal than the one they had originally created. Each group was given an item to help them in revealing their messages. The lemon juice and milk groups used the heat from a light bulb, the white crayon group used a highlighter, the corn starch group used iodine, and finally the baking powder group used grape juice. I wonder which method worked the best???
Baking Soda with Grape Juice
White Crayon with Highlighter
Corn Starch with Iodine
Milk with Heat
Lemon Juice with Heat

And the winner is....white crayon with highlighter! The kids were a little disappointed that none of the other methods were successful and that their hypothesis was incorrect, but overall it was an extremely fun experiment to do together!

3 comments:

  1. I love your page so far - especially the owls!!!

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  2. Thank you! Still a work in progress, but we're getting there ;)

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  3. I love secret writing and I know your kiddos did too!

    Be sure and add a follow button when you get the chance. Go to design at the top of your blog and then layout. Choose add a gadget and the follow button is the 9th choice.

    If you get the chance, I would love for you to hop over and visit me. =)

    Heather
    Heather's Heart

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