Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Mixtures and Solutions




We've been working hard and doing some great experiments in class this past week or so.  Students learned that a mixture is when two materials are put together and that scientifically any mixture can be separated.  After doing some small experiments students took what they learned, came up with a procedure, and successfully separated a mixture of gravel, salt, and powder (diatomaceous earth).


After than we discussed solutions: specialized mixtures in which one material (a solute) dissolves in another material (solvent).  They then realized that different materials have different solubilities to reach saturation.  They conducted and experiment where they mathematically found how much salt would dissolve in 50 mL of water to reach saturation.



Next we will learn about concentration.  Students will see that when you add more solute to a solvent it becomes more concentrated.  We will also connect this to the information we learned earlier in the year surrounding molecules in the air, creating wind patterns, and the atmosphere.

What amazing scientists I've seen this year!