Robert Trombly Elementary School
820 Beaconsfield,
Grosse Pointe, Michigan USA 48230
  Exploring Molecule Movement in a Liquid
Mr. Buckman's Second Grade Class
As a part of our "States of Matter" unit in science, our class watched an experiment of how molecules move in hot and cold water. All of the students wrote descriptions of what they observed during the experiment.  Luke and Ian 2 explain the experiment for you with pictures taken by our Computer Lab Assistant, Mrs. McCaughlin.
 

 

   

 

There are funnels in both 1000 ml. beakers of hot and cold water.

 

 

   

Mr. Buckman is putting 3 drops of blue food coloring in each of the 1000 ml. beakers.

 

   

The hot water is already spreading out. But the cold is just setting at the bottom and there's a line of food coloring going down.

 

   

The hot is going down in a wavy line and the cold is going down in a straight line.

 

 

 

   

The food coloring in the cold water is in a straight line going down and the hot is just a little spread out.

 

 

   

 

The food coloring in the cold water is in a thin straight line going down.

 

   

 

The food coloring in the hot water is about to cover the whole beaker.

 

 

 

   

The food coloring in the cold water is still in a straight line going down.

 

 

  The food coloring in the hot water got darker and a little more spread out, and the food coloring in the cold water is very dark at the bottom.

Why It Happened: The cold molecules were so cold they could not spread out. So they just took the fastest root down to the bottom and stayed there until the water started warming up. Mean while the hot was so hot the molecules didn't want to be near each other. But when the molecules started to get cooled down the shade of blue got darker but the food coloring didn't come towords the middle.

 

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