Shayna: Ivory soap and Ice float

When I was a kid my grandma, Vava, told me a corny joke. It went something like this:

-Guests are scared out of the room by a ghost that says "it floats!" Finally, one woman asks "WHAT floats?" to which the ghost replies "Ivory soap floats!"

I knew that soap floated, because I had taken several baths (typically once a day) and I had seen the evidence of the floating soap. I didn't exactly know why it floated, but I knew it did.
Last night in class we were modeling the functions of water as heat is applied or removed. It was interesting, memorable and fun. Once we were done dancing around, holding hands and linking arms we went back to our desks. We put some blue colored ice in a cup of red dyed hot water. The ice floated, then melted and we could see the blue colored water rippling to the bottom of the clear plastic cup. Our professor took the temperature of the water at the top of the plastic cup (which we learned was not a good tool as some cups were being deformed by the hot water, next time we will try glass beakers.) The water at the top was about 10 degrees warmer than the water at the bottom. Interesting.

There are 7 Crosscutting concepts, tools that will help learners of science understand the concepts that are being investigated. During our two water activities we applied these concepts. Here they are...

What is the relationship between water in its hot liquid form and water in its icy cold solid form? Water likes to spread its wings and fly when it is solid. It floats. But apply some hot water to that icy cold floatation device and it is very clear that the two are becoming one, slowly neutralizing one another. Now we no longer have extremes; hot and cold, but instead some lukewarm heated pool type water. Ever notice when you jump into a swimming pool and dive to the bottom the water feels cooler? These are the #1. patterns, that's how water likes to behave. If it is hot it wants to hang out at the top and be admired by dipped toes, whereas that cool water likes to lurk below the surface. Funny part is that water has the chance of getting so super cold it turns into a solid. This solid wants to hang out at the top.. it floats.
Why do things happen the way they do? Why does ice float? Why when melted does it run for its life to the bottom of the cup? These can be determined by (#2. cause and effect)...Like a firing pin strikes a primer on a bullet, causes the primer to explode which sparks the gunpowder, the effect is that it projects the bullet out of the gun. You could hurt yourself in science. Be careful.

Or a speeding car causes a wreck, the effect is people get hurt. Stop speeding. Like I alluded to earlier, science is dangerous, take the proper precautions.

We used some super hot water with some super cold ice. Different measures of water's temperature causes water to behave differently. The experiment would have been pretty boring with some red room temperature water mixed with some blue room temperature water. We wouldn't have observed water travel at its finest (#3. scale, proportion and quantity) without the extremes.

We didn't have to go to Alaska to observe icebergs giant huge floating pieces of solid cold water to understand that ice floats. Instead we made a much smaller model of water with a clear plastic cup, filled with hot water and an ice cube floating on top. Clear as day, ice floated. But why? Well instead of observing some tiny little molecules we took a walk to the Atrium, a few steps outside our classroom, and acted like water molecules we were heated up by a flashlight, we moved around linked together arm in arm, spread out hand in hand. Being water is hard work, bouncing around and moving in straight lines, hooking up with other water and then being linked hand in hand with people all around and then taking a step backward, that part was hard, my arms weren't quite long enough... Anyway that's how we used #4. systems and system models.
Our heat source was the flashlight. The light shined on us, we moved around. (#5. energy and matter).

The make up of objects is related to their function. Why does ice float, but cold water typically lies below hot water? That is the #6. structure and function of water. Which is such a wonderful phenomenon.
So how did the solid state of water (ice) and the hot water react. They forced each other into a state of equilibrium, eventually the two would average out and turn purple. That's #7. stability and change.

Some things change so slowly it is hard to see the change until I look back on pictures.

<-----2014... What a difference 4 years makes...