Over the last 500 years humans have gone from seeing a man in the moon to seeing a man on the moon. This phenomenal advance in collective learning has taken place thanks in large part to a group of strategies which have come to be referred to as The Scientific Method. If humankind has made so much progress by using the Scientific Method, then why not teach all our children to use it at an early age rather than waiting until high school or college to teach a few who are fast-tracked into science and technology careers. If we have made this much progress with a few humans using these strategies, then what will our collective learning curve look like if we are all trained to make science discoveries and/or to appreciate the discoveries of others?

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Salt vs Snow



PROBLEM: HOW DOES SALT AFFECT SNOW?

HYPOTHESIS: If we pour salt on snow, it will melt faster than snow that has no salt on it.
I think this way because I have seen people pour salt on the sidewalk after a snowstorm in order to make it easier to remove the snow.

VARIABLES:
Independent Variable: Presence of Salt
Dependent Variable: Time it takes the snow to melt
Constants: Same amount of snow
Same place (windowsill)
Same temperature
Same time of day

MATERIALS:

Rock Salt
Cup
Metric Ruler
Area of snow (window sill)

PROCEDURE:

1. Measure the window sill.
2. Make a mark at the middle of the window sill.
3. sprinkle salt on one side
4. Leave the other side without salt.
5. Observe the time it takes for the snow on each side to melt.

RESULTS:

After 20 minutes the side of the window sill with salt was mostly melted.
The other side was just the same.

CONCLUSION: If you pour salt on one half of a window sill covered with snow and leave the other side without salt, then the side with salt will melt much faster than the side without snow.

QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH: Why does salt make the snow melt. Does it make the snow warmer?

COMMENTS: This video shows how a child can be guided from observations made after a snowstorm to a simple controlled experiment. Notice that one experiment always leads to another.
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