As a class we made magic sand with hermit crab sand and fabric cleaner, to create water proof sand.
Steps: 1 flatten out sand
step2: add first coat of fabric cleaner
step 3: mix sand until no more clumps
step 4: continue steps 2&3 around four to five times
The whole reason why we added so many coats of fabric cleaner is because we had a large amount of sand and we wanted the mix to be at least water resistant. I think that from this project we were hoping that the mix would be water resistant and repeal the water one we pour it into it.
Unfortunately the magic sand did not work the way we planned for it to work because the water was able to dissolve it. As you can see on the third picture a little bit of where the sand got wet.
Key science terms and concepts:
-Hydrophobic: Fear of water (oil. etc)
-Hydrophilic: attracted to water (dissolves)
-Polarity: have capability of dissolving other polar molecules
-Solvability- level to which something dissolves
Ionic compounds:
- exchange electrons (magnets)
- different structures
This was a team effort, our group members were, Meghan, Brianna (me), Olivia and Darcy. We all worked pretty hard to get this done and working. If I were to do this project again maybe it would be smarter to add a coat of something that is water resistant or substitute the fabric cleaner for something different. I say that because the water was able to dissolve the chemicals in the fabric cleaner and eventually wet the sand. Our goal was for it to stay dry, even if water gets put into it.
Although I must say that I don't think I would do this again because its kind of a tricky mixture. Its complicated to understand why did Andrew choose fabric cleaner instead of something else like water proof sunblock or something? If I was forced to re-do this project I would maybe do something like that or getting creative and use different types of water proof supplies.
Going into this we thought the fabric cleaner would make the sand float and not have a wet texture to it. Since it didn't work the sand got wet and sunk to the bottom. If you could see on the picture a very small amount of sand was able to fight against the water not a lot of it. I think that we tried as best as we could but in order to conserve the material we didn't use as much as we should. Also because part of an experiment is always learning something new. There is always a 50/50 chance of something working out and getting the reaction you want. That is what I learned from this. I also say that because I appreciate how Andrew took a chance and tried something he didn't know if it would work or not. That helped me plan for future experiments more confidentially.
Steps: 1 flatten out sand
step2: add first coat of fabric cleaner
step 3: mix sand until no more clumps
step 4: continue steps 2&3 around four to five times
The whole reason why we added so many coats of fabric cleaner is because we had a large amount of sand and we wanted the mix to be at least water resistant. I think that from this project we were hoping that the mix would be water resistant and repeal the water one we pour it into it.
Unfortunately the magic sand did not work the way we planned for it to work because the water was able to dissolve it. As you can see on the third picture a little bit of where the sand got wet.
Key science terms and concepts:
-Hydrophobic: Fear of water (oil. etc)
-Hydrophilic: attracted to water (dissolves)
-Polarity: have capability of dissolving other polar molecules
-Solvability- level to which something dissolves
Ionic compounds:
- exchange electrons (magnets)
- different structures
This was a team effort, our group members were, Meghan, Brianna (me), Olivia and Darcy. We all worked pretty hard to get this done and working. If I were to do this project again maybe it would be smarter to add a coat of something that is water resistant or substitute the fabric cleaner for something different. I say that because the water was able to dissolve the chemicals in the fabric cleaner and eventually wet the sand. Our goal was for it to stay dry, even if water gets put into it.
Although I must say that I don't think I would do this again because its kind of a tricky mixture. Its complicated to understand why did Andrew choose fabric cleaner instead of something else like water proof sunblock or something? If I was forced to re-do this project I would maybe do something like that or getting creative and use different types of water proof supplies.
Going into this we thought the fabric cleaner would make the sand float and not have a wet texture to it. Since it didn't work the sand got wet and sunk to the bottom. If you could see on the picture a very small amount of sand was able to fight against the water not a lot of it. I think that we tried as best as we could but in order to conserve the material we didn't use as much as we should. Also because part of an experiment is always learning something new. There is always a 50/50 chance of something working out and getting the reaction you want. That is what I learned from this. I also say that because I appreciate how Andrew took a chance and tried something he didn't know if it would work or not. That helped me plan for future experiments more confidentially.