Let's Find Out is RTÉjr's cool science show. Join Captain Zoom, an alien from outer space, and her human scientists, Amy and Mark to learn as we go!
There's exciting experiments, curious kids and a trip to a faraway place. It's produced with support from Science Foundation Ireland.
Watch the full show here on the RTÉ Player!
In this epsideo, Zoom wants to find out all about ice. After discovering that it’s frozen water, two curious kids show her a cool experiment using salt to melt ice!
Teachers can download the full lesson plan below...
As always, the gang have a cool experiment to show you science in action. But, remember to ALWAYS HAVE AN ADULT THERE WITH YOU!!
You will need:
- An ice tray
- Some water
- String
- Salt
- A freezer
- A glass of water
What to do:
- Fill the ice tray with water and place it in the freezer overnight, to freeze into ice cubes.
- Remove three ice cubes and place them on the table in a row.
- Dip the string into the glass of water and then lay it across the top of the ice cubes.
- Sprinkle a small amount of salt onto the top of the ice cube and string.
- Leave for two minutes then carefully lift the string from one end and see what happens to the ice cubes as you lift.
The science bit...
Did your ice cubes lift when you lifted the string? That is because the string was frozen to the top of the ice cubes. How did that happen? When we add salt to water or ice we lower its freezing temperature.
So when you sprinkled a little salt onto each ice cube that made a small amount of ice melt. The string was sitting across the ice cube and was touching off the melted ice.
The surrounding ice made the small amount of melted ice refreeze pretty quickly, capturing the string within it. When you lifted the string it was now frozen to the ice cubes and lifted them too.
Also in this episode
Mark and Amy show Zoom a super strong kind of ice called "pykrete".
And the whole crew go see a river made of ice called a glacier - and some icebergs!
Click here to see all the experiments from the series!
