Mad science week - Phoenix Scouts

We’ve been working on our scientist badges since the beginning of term.

Over the past few weeks we’ve built towers from marshmallows and spaghetti, we experimented with changing colour celery, we practiced basic electrical circuits and built fan powered cars.

Tonight…. we started by working in our sixes to try and build a bridge from 4 long planks and 2 short planks. Each group had 2 minutes to work as a team and construct a bridge that was stronger enough to hold a person.

The green six trying to construct the bridge

By the end, every group achieved the goal – well done Cubs!

Here’s Snaggle demonstrating how strong the bridge is!

Next, we watched as Bagheera showed us some weird and wacky experiments.

We watched how vinegar and bicarbonate of soda react together, and that the gas emitted can inflate a balloon!

We saw a tea light rise up, as if by magic, in a glass jar. As the flame consumed the oxygen from the jar, it drew the water upwards and the tea light rose.

We looked at how paperclips float or sink depending on how you place them in the water, and how adding soap makes them all sink.

We also thought about nerve receptors in our skin. We tested our idea that the skin on our fingertips is more sensitive by applying two cocktail sticks to willing volunteers.

Here’s Matty trying to guess whether Bagheera is placing one or two cocktail stick on his arm. Matty was actually really good at this, but his fingertips were definitely more sensitive than his arm.

We also looked at ways we could measure and affect our heart rate. After 4-5 relay races, we found that our heart rate increased significantly!!

And that’s all for this week…..