We All Scream for Ice Cream!

To learn about states of matter and chemical reactions, we made ice cream in a bag: Put 1/2 and 1/2 , sugar, and vanilla in a ziploc bag.  Put it into a bigger ziploc bag with ice and salt and shake for 15 to 20 minutes. 

Everyone thought the ice cream was great.

The salt mixed with ice got colder than ice cubes without salt and allowed us to make ice cream.  We experimented by making up one bag with salt and one without and then passed them around the circle.  Everyone agreed that the ice/salt mixture felt much colder.  

We had extra time to do an engineering challenge: fold a piece of construction paper into a column that will support books placed upon it. 

The students worked in teams and used trial and error.

This team is testing its column.  Each team submitted its best column and we measured the strength by adding books one at a time.  So far the strongest column supported 25 paperback books!