She called her experiment “The Exploding Can Experiment…of Doom. (Mwha ha ha)”
I have yet to meet an 11 year old that finds “long and tedious” an exciting prospect. My 11 year old Autumn is in the final stages of her science fair project and the journey to get to this point has not always created an amiable atmosphere between the two of us. A lot of “talks” on being willing to do the hard things were given, I even made her sit and watch this video at one point to encourage her not just to plod through this and other areas of her life but to reach for her potential…. During yet another one of my “talks” when I had begun to wax particularly poetic in my parenting wisdom I curiously asked, “Autumn at what point did you tune me out?” She promptly responded, “Mom. I’m listening to everything you are saying.” (slightly scary for me to realize)
She is amazingly patient, observant and snarky - and she has done a fantastic job reaching these final stages. Last night I was proofreading her observation journal and her outlook on life had me laughing…
Experiment 1: 1/31/13
Set-up: My Mom didn’t want her beloved freezer to get all sticky so we covered the whole middle shelf with tinfoil, and saran wrap. My mom said it would make it “Easier to clean.”( more like, to not stain the walls.)
She also had me fluffing my mommy feathers in pride that she could write the following after all we had been through too…
· Observation: From this data I learned, that our hypothesis was right! With no added ingredients in carbonated water that would block the water molecules from “Bonding”, it froze and exploded first. But then I also made the observation that if there was an experiment of which one would explode first, plain water or Carbonated Water, I think that it would be Carbonated water. The Carbon Dioxide Gas in it would make much more pressure inside the can, making it push out, thus, an exploding soda can. I thought the experiment was very fun, I was right next to the freezer when I heard the Carbonated Water explode, it was really cool! It sounded like ice cracking. I loved doing this experiment, and now I know, why a soda can explodes.
