You can join Captain Zoom and her scientist friends Amy and Mark on Let's Find Out. Step aboard the spaceship Curiosity for some exciting experiments, curious kids and trips to faraway places.
Watch the show on the RTÉ Player here!.
As with all these experiments, adult supervision is essential!
Zoom finds out that one of the invisible gases in the air is called oxygen and we need to breathe it in all the time. And curious kids Amy and Zoe show her how candles need oxygen too...
Get the full lesson plan here...
PLEASE NOTE!
This experiment is different to the one Amy and Zoe do in the show. But it’s a great way to demonstrate that candles need oxygen and a little about Air Pressure.
You will need:
- A small candle
- A glass (that will easily fit over the small candle)
- A plate
- A jug of water
- Food colouring
- Matches or a lighter
What to do:
- Pour a small layer of water onto the plate and add a few drops of food colouring. Mix so all the water is coloured.
- An adult must be on hand to light the candle and place it into the centre of the plate.
- Place the glass (upside-down) over the candle so that the open end sits on the plate and the candle is covered.
- Watch the candle, what happens to the flame?
- What happens to the coloured water once the flame goes out?
What’s happening?/The science bit:
The flame needs something in the air to keep it burning. That something is oxygen. When the candle is covered with the glass, the flame only has a small amount of oxygen available to it, the amount in the air inside the glass. Once that is used up the flame cannot keep burning and it goes out.
When all the oxygen is gone from the air inside the glass it changes the air pressure inside it. This change in air pressure sucks some of the coloured water into the glass.
Also in this episode:
Mark and Amy make a huge "cloud bubble" with CO2
And the whole crew go see the rainforest...
Check out the RTÉ Player to watch the full episode HERE and all the series so far HERE!!
AND there are lots more experiments with videos and full instructions - Just click HERE!
