Manaiakalani Film Festival 2013

For our second year being part of the Manaiakalani Film Festival we wanted our movie to be bigger and better. We also wanted it to be different so we based our film entry on changes of matter. Our plot inspiration came from this article about a group of scientists making meat patties from cow cells. They named their meat patties 'Frankenburger' and we used this as the title of our movie.

The film crew consisted of Aaron, Williefred, Naanise and myself. Before we started filming we had to plan and create a storyboard which took a couple of weeks since we were still deciding on the ending of the film. As part of the film crew we were in charge of making the movie for our class. We wanted this movie to be bigger and better than any other movie at The Manaiakalani Film Festival.

When we created this movie we asked the question... if cow cells could be turned into patties, what would be the outcome if the cells from other animals were used to make food instead of what we normally eat today? If you were to think about eating food created from cow cells, would you? This type of question, as our teacher would say, is 'food for the brain'! What would be the consequences from eating chicken burger made from cells of a chicken? Would you still eat it?

Special thanks to Ms Bullôt for providing the resources and equipment needed to create this movie and we also thank her for her support and encouragement across the journey of this movie. 

Gravity Experiment - What Goes Up Must Come Down

Yesterday I carried out an investigation on gravity, what goes up must come down. I tested out seven different materials and dropped them at the same height. On my database sheet I predicted which would hit the floor first from the same height.

Once I wrote down my hypothesis I tested it out. I first dropped a small marble and a ping pong ball. I guessed that the marble would hit the ground first but the ping pong ball was actually first. The materials I used were a small marble, a ping pong ball, a rubber, pencil, paper clip, a flat piece of paper, a feather and a crumpled piece of paper from the flat piece of paper.

If you drop two different objects at different heights it changes the affect of the outcome. But it wouldn’t change an affect if they were dropped from the same height because usually the heavier object would land to the ground faster.

The table below shows my results

Object Dropped		Which hit the ground first? (guess)	Which actually hit the ground first?
Marble	Ping pong ball	Marble	Ping pong ball
Rubber	Paper Clip	Rubber	Rubber
Marble	Pencil	Marble	Pencil
Flat Paper	Feather	Flat Paper	Feather
Crumbled Paper	Feather	Crumbled Paper	Crumbled Paper
Feather	Paper Clip	Paper Clip	Paper Clip
			3/6 correct

Making Sherbet

Today we made sherbet. I mixed a part of baking soda, citric acid, raro and icing sugar all together. My hypothesis was that it wouldn’t react to my tongue and that it would just taste sweet. It felt like a big bang when the sherbet touched my tongue. I could feel it fizz and foam all around my mouth. The citrus taste was from the raro and citric acid and the sweetness was from the icing sugar. I think the foaming reaction came from the baking soda.

Science Investigation : Exploring the Chemicals

We are learning about chemical reactions. Today, we mixed different acids with different bases. We used test tubes to place our liquids and teaspoons to collect different acids. To mix the two different things together we used popsicle sticks and a glass beaker.

My hypothesis for citric acid and vinegar together would be for it to fizz up and foam. When we added the vinegar to the citric acid it foamed and turned yellow/brown in colour. It also smelt very bitter from the vinegar.

My hypothesis for the raro and lemon juice was for it to bubble up. What really happened was that the two dissolved. It smelt like orange juice and looked fizzy. The colour of it was very concentrated as well.

My hypothesis for tartaric acid, baking soda and vinegar was for it to fizzy, foam and bubble up. It did exactly what we thought it would. At the bottom of the beaker the baking soda and tartaric acid which wasn’t touched by the vinegar turned crystally and hard.

My hypothesis for chalk, raro and lemon juice was for it to go bubbly and hard. When we poured the acid into the base it didn’t have a very big reaction. When we mixed the two together with a popsicle stick it just dissolved and turned red in colour.

Underwater Viewer Experiment

On May 10th, Room 8 went out on their very first scientific expedition to find out what sat at the bottom of the sea. Underwater viewers were designed and constructed to help with Room 8’s discovery. The purpose of the underwater viewers were to see things clearly beneath the water.

Our location was set at the Tamaki River. The seabed was muddy and surrounded with mangroves and mudflats. Some of the areas were easy to walk on while other surfaces were more difficult since there weren’t a lot of shells which meant it wasn’t as firm.

A lot of creatures were found on the mud including shrimp, crabs, sea slugs and sea snails which were mainly found underneath rocks. Some sea creatures left behind shells which were scattered along the areas we were examining in. Non-living items including tyres, pipes from drains, broken glass and rusty chains from the boats were also found.

The difficulty of this expedition was reaching the waters edge because at the time we experimented the tide was low. The closer we came to it, the mud became softer to a point where we got stuck. Our underwater viewers weren’t used during the expedition. If the tide wasn’t low that day, the area where we found things would have been under the water. Without the help of our device we still discovered what sat at the bottom of the sea.