The Strata of Force

"Ask yourself, Do I have the timer,  recording sheet, and the skittles?"

"Yes.", said in unison response, even though it was meant to be a personal mental check.

"Do you remember what our science experiment is teaching us about? What we are testing?"

"I think so, diffission.", she heard someone say.

"Diffusion. It's the Toucan Box skittle experiment.Take your plates and place the skittles around the outer edge. Don't eat all of them. Only eat the ones you have left over. You have enough for 2 plates."

She watched as her students studiosly followed directions.

"Look at mine. I made a pattern with mine."

"I tried to, but I didn't have enough of the right colors so I gave up."

"It's okay, both look great and should work the same."

"I ate too many of mine. Can I have another pack?"

"Maybe your friends will share, otherwise you will need to wait and I will give you some before the experiment. I can't trust you won't eat them again."

"Skittles are my favorite candy."

"I know you've said that, but you are suppose to have your scientist hat on right now."

"Sorry."

"It's okay."

She filled the electric kettle with water and set it to heat.

"Once the water is warm the assistant or I will pour some water into your plate."

She made sure to stop the kettle before it boiled or got too hot. It would sit for 15 minutes anyways while she discussed safety and recording results. Her students looked forward to science days. The chart she had made for recording was a minute broken into 5 second intervals. There was space for students to record observations. They could use as many sheets as necessary for the time it takes to finish the expirement.

"We are going to start with warm water and then try cold. I will finish by doing one boiling hot water one that all of you can watch me do. I think we are almost ready."

She paced the rows observing how many of the students were ready. She knew her class well, almost exactly 15 minutes later the class was ready. She and her assistant began pouring the warm water. Clicks from timers starting were synchronized with their movement threw the rows.

5 seconds in....

"Mines not doing anything."

"I think mine is."

"What am I looking for."

"Toucan is a bird right?"

"Yes"

"Oh I get it."

"Keep focused on your observations please."

35 seconds in....

"Oooh mine is doing it."

"Aaaahhhh mine is to"

A chorus of amusement could be heard throughout the classroom. All the little scientists recording observations furiously.

60 seconds....

"Wow, thats so cool. Why is it? Why did it do this?"

She looked at his plate. A water colored rainbow of colors trailed to the center of the plate.

"Mine was basically done at 37 Seconds.", a boy named remi said.

"Nice job."

"This is sugar"

"Yes the chemicals are moving or diffusing from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration, trying to equalize. The colors don't mix bc of water stratification."

"Water stratification does this? What is that again?", he says while looking confused.

"They have the same sugar content, but slightly different properties bc of the color used. So they dont mix initially. Do you think this will change with boiling liquid? How about a soda?"

"Who would have guessed", the boy said suspiciously staring at his plate. Even getting eye level with the plate.

Then he spun the plate to make it swirl like a paint spin machine. The whole time staring at his plate in complete seriousness. Before stopping it. Where on stopping it, it became a muddled puddle of colors. For a few seconds the colors had kept the seperate stratification before breaking the barriers and mixing.

The same boy looks up and states very concretely, "Force, force changes water stratification and diffision, I mean diffusion."

She couldn't help but smile, "Yes, an astute observation."

In just one minute a future scientist was born. She was sure of it.





Sent from my Galaxy