We Now Have 30 People Savers in Room 6

Red Cross New Zealand took time out this week to come and teach us some basic first aid skills. It was an excellent introduction to First Aid for the class with a lot of opportunities for some hands on fun! We also learned that even if we call 911 in a panic (or any other country's emergency number), it will still go through to Emergency Services here!

Students were asked to respond to finding an unconscious patient, how to make a call to 111 and give an accurate location, and then learned the steps to take following DRSABC

D = Danger
R = Response
S = Send for help
A = Airway
B = Breathing
C = Circulation

We also got the chance to bandage up a wound and to help someone if they were choking. It was very worthwhile - thank you People Savers and Rachel from the Red Cross.

Everyone was very eager to share their experiences and answer questions.

Patient in recovery position

Rachel with "patient" David

More "Kitchen" Science

Our latest kitchen science experience was to make homemade ice-cream. "That's not science!" was a common statement made - but it is!!! We are mixture substances together (milk, vanilla essence, sugar and chocolate chips), and we can't "unmix" some of them, so it is, indeed, science! We also used ice cubes and salt - MORE science!

Try mixing milk in a bag with ice in another bag - the milk will NOT freeze - it will get very cold, but will not freeze. Add salt to the ice - this will certainly cause the milk to freeze, because salt lowers the freezing point of water - we measured it at almost -14 degrees Celsius - much colder than the freezing point of milk - so the ice-cream is formed.

Brooklin shaking his ice-cream

The highlight certainly was opening that bag and digging in! For those who want to try it again at home you need:

• Large zip lock bag
• Small zip lock bag
• 2-3 cups of ice
• 1/4 cup of table salt
• 200mL of milk
• teaspooon of vanilla essence
• sugar to taste (about a tablespoon)
• sprinkles, choc chips, crushed Oreo cookies etc.

Add milk, vanilla, sugar and sprinkles to small bag - seal and check for leaks!

Add the ice and salt to large bag and then put the small bag inside and seal. 

Gently shake the bags for 5-7 minutes until the milk starts to solidify.

Remove small bag, rinse to remove salt and then enjoy!

Michael getting his ice-cream started

DUE TO THE COLDNESS OF THE ICE AND SALT MIX - BE VERY CAREFUL WITH UNCOVERED SKIN!

Caitlin and Caleb sharing the shaking!

Acids vs. Base

Week 2 saw Room  6 test a variety of household and kitchen items to see if they fall under the category of Acid or Base. Each group tested 12 items, using red cabbage water as the indicator. Many questions came up and lots of suggestions made as to what other items we could test, showing that our Year 7 and 8 students are beginning to think scientifically. When we had all 12 items tested, students were able to line up their cups in order from acids through to bases to form their own pH scale.

I wonder what other plants/vegetables we could use as an indicator? This could be a great science fair project for later this term!

Ben and Shaun with their acid vs. base experiment

Scientists in the making! Nic, Sarah and Jess working in their pH scale

Ryan's face when he tasted Citric Acid - yes Ryan, it's sour!

Looking good girls! Bridget and Holly with their pH scale

I am...... An insight into the lives, hopes and dreams of Room 6

The word "Poetry" often causes students to shudder, but this week we have been focusing on making poetry "real", and all of Room 6 have composed an "I am" poem. These are a great insight into what makes these students tick, how they think and feel, their hopes and dreams. We couldn't wait to display some of these, so we are sharing via the blog! These are definitely "keepers", I am so proud of Room 6's efforts!

Science Fun on Friday!

This term we are looking at Science in the Material World and hope to have a lot of hands on fun while learning. Today was our introduction and we chose to see what happens if we mix an energy drink, such as Red Bull or Monster, with milk. We took this a step further and tried several different types of milk - measured carefully into cups. We used Blue Top (full cream milk), Green Top (Trim milk), Milk for Schools milk, Chocolate milk and a lactose free milk. We topped the cups up with the energy drink and sat back and watched the results.

While we were watching, we had a discussion about why these drinks are not a good choice for young students and after watching the results, most children have now decided they don't EVER want to drink them, especially not after a bowl of cereal!

At the end of the experiment we tipped the "floating plug" out of the cup and several students wanted to see how it felt - and there were screams and groans and a lot of laughing, but more importantly a lot of scientific language being used!

Hugh showing us his five different milk samples

David with Trim vs. Chocolate

These girls used Monster Energy Drink

These girls used Red Bull with milk