English Teacher: Michelle Kao
“Wow! It’s raining in our classroom; can you believe it?”
In G1 KCFS classes, teachers use effective teaching strategies and content knowledge to allow students to learn nonfiction naturally through verbal and non-verbal communications. Learning activities develop creativity and imagination in students. Teaching is elaborately planned with hands-on learning and active engagement; effective ways for students to learn. The ultimate goal of KCFS is to improve student’s problem solving skills. We hope our students can be ready to deal with bigger challenges they might have as they mature. To achieve the aforementioned goals, we injected STEAM, an integrated approach to learning, into our G1 KCFS classes.
“Liquid Density” is a STEAM project we completed last semester. In this project, students learned that a liquid, just like a solid, has its own characteristic density. What is density? It is all about molecules. Molecules are tiny particles that make up everything. Some objects are more or less dense than other objects because their molecules are packed differently. For example, the molecules of water are packed very densely; denser than oil. This property of liquid explains why oil floats above water.
Based on this knowledge, we did a simple and fun scientific experiment, “Rainbow Rain in a Bottle”, in class together. The materials we needed for the experiment were:
In the first step, we filled the plastic bottle three-fourths full of water. Second, we poured the vegetable oil into the cup.
Third, we dropped about 6 drops of different food colorings into the cup. Then, using a craft stick, we quickly mixed the food colorings and the vegetable oil. Tiny colored bubbles spread out in the oil to give a multicolored mixture. Fifth, we poured the colored oil mixture into the water-filled plastic bottle. At last, we waited to watch for the colorful rain!
During the experiment, we observed that the tiny colored bubbles in the oil phase burst, and colorful rain was released into the bottle filled with water. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple drops made a beautiful rainbow rain falling indoors. The colorless water gradually became colored by the food colorings.
This experiment is also about solubility. Food coloring agents are soluble in water, but they are insoluble in vegetable oil. That tells us why water and oil do not mix as well. We also saw it rain colors slowly in the water. It is because when you pour the oil phase into the water-filled bottle, the oil layer stays on the surface because it is less dense than water. The colored bubbles trapped in the oil phase were going down to contact with the water because they are denser than oil. The shades trapped in the bubbles immediately diffuse into the water, making a colorful rain slowly fall into the bottom of the bottle. With time, everything mixes. The water takes on a different coloration depending on the colors you choose. Students observed, wrote and drew the process and the result of this science experiment. They all loved it and wanted to repeat the experiment at home.
In G1 KCFS classes, we boost engagement to make sure that our 1st graders enjoy learning. We hope they can be lifelong learners and never stop learning in their future.
“Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.”
by John Dewey