Eighth grade students in Ms. Georgia Plakas' science class at Dodd Middle School are hard at work, crafting their annual Science Fair Projects. Rosa Chacon Martinez and Raul Lopez stayed afterschool to complete their experiments with assistance from Ms. Plakas.
Rosa is analyzing how the size of tablet pieces effects the number of blobs created in her "Blobs in a Bottle" experiment. For this, alka-seltzer tablets are added to an oil and water mixture to form gas bubbles, which cause blobs of water to rise to the top of the mixture. The gas then escapes, causing the blobs to sink. The larger the tablet size, the more blobs are formed.
Meanwhile, Raul is working on how the size of the bottle effects how much the balloon fills for his "Build a Fizz Inflator" experiment. For this, baking soda and vinegar are used to create an ACID-BASE reaction, which then forms carbon dioxide gas. The gas starts to fill the bottle, moving into the balloon to inflate it. The more the balloon inflates, the more gas is formed.
The Science Fair will be held at Dodd Middle School on March 12 from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.