Science News

Saving the world – one plastic bag at a time!

Science Club started back with a bang! Last week student’s observed the explosive production of Elephant’s Toothpaste and practised their crystal growing skills making Valentine’s Day themed sucrose crystals.

This week students made bioplastics to replace our fossil-fuel produced plastic bags and cling-wrap. They used common household products such as gelatine, agar and glycerol to produce bioplastic solutions. We made moulds from plasticine and are currently drying our solutions to form sheets. We will glue the sheets together (using bioglues) to form plastic bags next week.

In other news, Year 8 are growing treats for home! As part of the Ecology topic and a study of decomposers, each Year 8 class is growing some Pink Oyster Mushrooms. We are testing the best growing conditions, with one classroom acting as a control (just the brick of fungi starter), and others under varied conditions e.g. a cardboard box on its side (to reduce wind from fans and therefore increase humidity), another set completely within a box with holes for ventilation. Data loggers are tracking the temperature, wind speed, carbon dioxide levels and humidity. We’re just starting to see our first flush of fungi!

Mia Sharma
Science Teacher