Science Fair

In the middle of my Unit Plan planning, snowstorms and the general crisis mode of being in two Dr. Smirnova classes, I created a science fair project.

I can say in all faith and honesty that the science fair took its place on the back burner for me. I was focused on the anxiety of the Unit Plan, the added craziness of snow days and the absolute worst I had for the semester, which is that I would have to teach the two Unit Plans (one for Methods Social Studies and one for Methods Science) back to back.

It was the epic storm of craziness and it happened.

So, given all that was going on, I can't believe I even completed the science project, yet somehow I pulled one together.

I ended up exploring buoyancy, and I did that by placing an orange in a vase with the skin peeled off, and another orange with the skin still on.
I made a quick hypothesis, that the peeled orange would float, since it was smaller. But then I wondered if the orange would float or if the water would inch up through the orange itself through the slices. I had to go forward and let the oranges hold their own water, so to speak.

I had two large vases and filled the vases with the same amount of water, 1 1/2 cups.




The peeled orange sank immediately, for all of my 5 trials. The unpeeled orange did not sink, which was a surprise.

When I dug up some information as to why the oranges floated with their skin unpeeled.

The reason was due to buoyancy. The skin acts as a floatation device and evenly dispels the water around the orange. So while I had thought that the lack of skin would make the orange lighter and therefore would float, I had started the correct thinking that the water would creep through the crevices of the orange slices and weigh it down.




I enjoyed the experiment, although I do wish I had spent more time on the project too. I learned a surprising fact, forced myself to think creatively when I really wanted to panic instead and found a new project to incorporate into my classroom.