At Home Science ExperimentsAnd Writing A Report on Your Findings

• Some University courses require time in a lab as part of the work load.

• In the labs the students will do different experiments to learn more about the subject they are studying in a practical way.

• When doing these experiments the students will take notes about what happens then write a report on it.

• Experiments don’t have to be big to learn something about reactions.

• This pack gives a list of experiments that can be done from the comfort of your own home, with items commonly found in the house hold (if you don’t have something don’t worry, just move onto the next experiment)

Introduction…

• These experiments are perfect to do with your younger sibling(s) (if you have any), they’re simple and you can teach them about different aspects of science as you go through the day.

• You can talk about what's happening, and ask them why they think it happened. If they’re not sure then you can explain to them why. If you’re not sure yourself then do some research into it.

• You can do the experiment together and then you can write a small report on what you find. They could even help with that part if they want to.

• If not you can still do the experiments yourself and create a report on the findings.

• Some of these experiments can be done instantly, and some will take a few days to get a result (notes should be made daily to show the progress of change).

Getting Younger Siblings Involved

• It is important that you check with your parents/carers before you start any of these experiments to make sure they are happy with you using the materials you would need. Some of the experiments may also get quite messy.

• You will also need to take notes throughout the experiments, you can then use these to write your report at the end. Use this to write down anything you observe, what went right or wrong, and if what happened is what you expected.

• Do as many experiments as you want/can, and do a report for each experiment you do. This will give you practice at doing work that would be expected from many science based degrees at University.

Before You Start

What You’ll Need:• Baking Soda • Vinegar • A Glass or Jug • Something to put the glass in to contain the mess. A washing up

bowl would work well here, but a tray with high sides or a large bowl/pan would also work.

Optional Extras:• Food Colouring, Glitter, Washing Up Liquid

What You’ll Do:1. Start by putting the glass in the middle of the washing up bowl

(or alternative option)2. Put in 2 teaspoons of baking soda 3. If you want to add any washing up liquid, glitter or food

colouring do so now. 4. Add in the vinegar to start the reaction

At Home Volcano Reaction remember ask your parents’/carers’ permission – this could get messy!

Try some variations: • Try using different amounts of baking soda (add one extra

teaspoon of baking soda each time. Does the reaction last longer?

• Or try one with washing up liquid and one without. What’s different between the two reactions?

Try and think about what you think will happen for each different method of doing the experiment before you do it. What does your younger sibling think? Did your predictions match what happened? Getting Creative with it:• To make this a bit more interesting you could make a volcano

by putting Paper Mache around a plastic bottle and doing the reaction in there. If you’re doing this with a younger sibling that could make the process even more fun for them (and you)

Volcano Continued

What You’ll Need:

• Balloons

• Something to count time (stopwatch, phone timer, clock/watch) with a seconds hand)

What You’ll Do:

1. Take the balloon and rub it on your hair or jumper (or let your sibling do it).

2. Choose a surface to try see if the balloon will stick to it. For example, if you chose a wall place it high up on the wall and then let go to see if it sticks.

3. Write what you tried to stick it to, with as much detail as possible (Is the sofa leather or fabric, is the wall painted or wall paper) write if it sticks or not. If it does stick time how long it stays then write that down.

Static Electricity remember ask your parents’/carers’ permission!

Try some Variations:

• Try sticking the balloon to different surfaces. When doing the experiment this way make sure that you rub the balloon against the same surface you did the first time (hair or jumper), and make sure to rub the balloon the same number of times. See which surface the balloon sticks to for the longest.

• Alternatively you could stick the balloon to the same surface multiple times. In this version you should change the amount of times you rub the balloon against your hair/jumper. Try going up in multiples of 5 and see if it changes how long it sticks to your chosen surface.

This experiment works best when the environment is warm and dry.

Static Electricity Continued

What You’ll Need:

• Either some seeds or small plants (preferably all the same type)

• Pots to plant the seeds in if you choose seeds

• Different places around the house/garden to put the pots

If you don’t have seeds or plant pots:

Alternatives to buying seeds and plant pots if you don’t have any to hand can be easily found around the home.

• Filling toilet roll tubes with soil can replace a plant pot.

• You could take seeds from tomatoes, use the tip of a carrot, or use the roots from onions or leeks instead of using a package of seeds (just make sure you use the same thing for each tube).

The Best Environment for Plants remember ask your parents’/carers’ permission!

What You’ll Do:

1. Take your plants/seeds and then place the pots in various places around the house. Try make each place different; in sunlight, a shaded area, a dark area, a humid area.

2. Then look after the plants as you would normally, water them, add in plant food if you have it.

3. Every day go to each plant and see how it’s growing (or not) take notes on how each one is developing. You could even measure how tall it is each time you check on it.

• Do this until you see differences in the plants. This could take a week or longer. But you can do this one for as long as you want.

Plants Continued

What You’ll Need:• Sugar or salt • Water • Food Colouring• A Glass and as many cups as you need for each food colour you

have

If you don’t have food colouring: You can try different methods of dying water at home.• Skittles will bleed colour into water, just make sure you use the

same amount of skittles in the same amount of water so the sugar content is the same in all of them.

• Fruit and veg peels may also work to dye the water different colours, try experimenting with some and see what colours you can get.

If you can’t get many different colours try alternating between two (e.g. red in odd number solutions, yellow in even number solutions, that way you’ll still be able to see the separation between the different solutions).

Rainbow in a Glass remember ask your parents’/carers’ permission!

What You’ll Do:

1. Put varying amounts of sugar or salt in each cup (one empty, one with 2 teaspoons, one with 3 teaspoons etc.)

2. Add 5 teaspoons of water to each glass and stir them until the sugar or salt dissolves. If some doesn’t dissolve add in one teaspoon in each glass and stir again. Do this until all the sugar or salt has dissolved in each cup. Then add in and stir the food colouring. (if you used pre-coloured water skip this)

3. Start by taking the solution with the most sugar or salt and put it in the glass. Then use a teaspoon to hold over the surface of the water as you pour on the next colour. Make sure each time you use the cup with the most sugar or salt.

• The colours will mix together eventually, but for a while you will have a rainbow in a glass.

Rainbow Continued

Why Write a Report?:

• At University, students who take degrees with lab time will write reports on what they learn during the lab

• Scientists also do this with their experiments, which lets them show their evidence to other professionals in their field. Other professionals can then review these findings

• Readers should be able to recreate the whole experiment from a lab report, to see if they get the same results

How to Write a Report:

• Writing a scientific report on experiments might seem difficult, but it’s easier than you might think!

• All you’ll be doing is writing down what you found. The notes that you’ve made throughout the experiment will come in handy!

• The next few slides will talk about the different parts of a lab report

Writing a Report on Your Findings

For the next few slides, we’re going to use an example experiment to look at how we write a lab report.

The experiment will look at the effect of sugary drinks on your teeth. As we can’t use our actual teeth, we’ll use egg shells instead! Egg shells are made of a similar material as tooth enamel.

A lab report has four main parts:

1. Hypothesis & Aims

2. Method

3. Results

4. Conclusion

What goes in a lab report?

• A hypothesis should clearly give the scientific argument you’re

trying to prove

• The aims of your experiment will set out the steps you have

taken to prove your hypothesis, such as the experiments you

will do

Example: Sugary drinks can damage your teeth. In this

experiment, I will submerge eggs in different drinks to look at the

effect the drinks have on the egg shells.

Hypothesis & Aims

• A method is included to make sure that your experiment can be repeated by anybody who reads your lab report

• You should write in bullet points and short, clear sentences

Example:

• Three eggs were placed in three separate containers. Each container was filled with one of the following: fizzy drink, coffee and vinegar.

• Another three eggs were coated with toothpaste, and then placed in

three separate containers. These containers were filled with one of the following: fizzy drink, coffee and vinegar.

• The eggs were soaked for three days.

• After the eggs had soaked, they were removed from the containers, washed with water and patted dry.

Method

• Your results should explain what you saw in your experiment

• They also allow other people to know what to expect if they

repeat your experiment

• You can include graphs in your results, which will be explained

on the next slide

Example:

Staining was seen on the eggs soaked in fizzy drink and coffee.

The shell on the egg soaked in vinegar had dissolved

completely. The shells of the eggs rubbed in toothpaste before

soaking were not as damaged as the ones without toothpaste.

Results

• Graphs can always help to show what you’ve found, but they’re

not appropriate for all experiments. You could make a graph,

either on paper or using a computer program such as Microsoft

Excel, to show how much a plant has grown over time, or how

long the balloon stuck to each surface before falling.

• The two examples given were made without doing the

experiments, but will give you an idea of how they could look with

your actual findings. You might get different answers by doing the

experiment!

Graphs Are Useful!

0

2

4

6

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7

Plant Growth by day (cm)

Living Room CupboardBathroom Garden

0

50

Balloon

How long a balloon sticks to a surface (seconds)

Jumper Wall (paint)Wall (wall paper) Sofa (Fabric)Chair (leather)

• A conclusion should tie up everything you’ve learnt in your experiment

• It should relate back to your hypothesis, and say whether you were able to prove it with the experiments you did

Example:

In this experiment, we observed that vinegar, which is acidic,

severely damaged the egg shell. We observed that both fizzy drinks and coffee caused staining to the egg shell, which suggests they

would have a similar effect on teeth. The eggs treated with toothpaste showed reduced damage and staining, which suggests

that toothpaste is an effective barrier to protect teeth from drinks.

Conclusion

Please help us by filling out our short feedback survey using the link below:

sgiz.eu/s3/RemoteOutreach-Cat1-Curriculum

It will take you no more than two minutes to complete. We’ll use your feedback to help us design new resources for you and other young people.

If you complete the survey you will be entered into a prize draw to win £25 Amazon voucher.

If you enjoyed doing these experiments, why not think about checking out science courses at College or University?

College Courses • Cheshire College – South and West: https://www.ccsw.ac.uk/courses/applied-science-forensic-btec-

national-extended-diploma-level-3-edexcel/• Shrewsbury Colleges Group: https://www.scg.ac.uk/courses/science

University Degrees • The University of Chester: https://www1.chester.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/physics• The University of Derby: https://www.derby.ac.uk/undergraduate/biology-zoology-courses/• Harper Adams University: https://www.harper-adams.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/13/animal-

production-science• Keele University: https://www.keele.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/undergraduatecourses/chemistry/• Staffordshire University: https://www.staffs.ac.uk/course/biomedical-science-bsc-msci• Summerville College Oxford: https://www.some.ox.ac.uk/studying-here/undergraduate-

courses/biochemistry/

Check out our session on how to become a teacher here:

https://higherhorizons.co.uk/resource/so-you-want-to-be-a-teacher-y9-y13/

If you did this with a sibling, and enjoyed it, maybe you'd make a great teacher