Students Create Dirty Snowballs in Science Lab
Fourth grade students will never look at the solar system, comets, meteoroids or asteroids the same again after their recent lab!
Did you know that dirty snowballs are the nickname for comets? It's because comets are made from ice, rock and other organic compounds. To bring the comet to life, students created "dirty comets" with lower school science teacher Melissa Economou.
They did so by crushing dry ice and putting it in a bag with ammonia, dirt and syrup (under adult supervision). It then formed a ball. Then they held it up to a heat lamp to imitate the sun and watched as the comet began to burn and dissipate as it would when near the sun. This also creates the famous tail of the comet which we learned always points away from the sun, or its heat source.
They did so by crushing dry ice and putting it in a bag with ammonia, dirt and syrup (under adult supervision). It then formed a ball. Then they held it up to a heat lamp to imitate the sun and watched as the comet began to burn and dissipate as it would when near the sun. This also creates the famous tail of the comet which we learned always points away from the sun, or its heat source.
How amazing is that and what an engaging way for students to experience science in action!?
