Apologia General Science Experiment 7.1
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This was a VERY easy experiment, and one that my Dd really enjoyed doing. Module 7 is talking about fossils---so we made a mold in play-doh and poured in some Plaster of Paris to make a cast. Dd learned which is which--the mold and the cast.
I found a great video on YouTube on how to do this experiment, which doesn't normally happen, so you can watch it if you go to YouTube. If not, you can see the basic steps below---really easy experiment to do! and fun! |
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| Just a reminder of the Student Notebook that you can buy to go along with the text book. I really like how we have to discuss, think/talk, and write in key points. |
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I also buy the kit with all the supplies for the experiments, as I have previously not done many experiments b/c I didn't have one simple item. We actually had all of today's ingredients, but that isn't always the case.
Items Needed:
plate, play-doh, vaseline, shells or rocks, Plaster of Paris, water, spoon for stirring, teaspoon for measuring water, and water. |
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| The directions said to pick ONE item to make a cast of...but Dd couldn't just pick one!!! Roll out your play-doh on your plate, rub vaseline over your shells (so the plaster doesn't stick to the shells), press the shells deeply into the play-doh, then remove the shells from the play-doh and mix up the plaster. |
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| The kit has ziplock bags with most of the necessary ingredients. |
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| Stirring the water and the plaster together. |
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| You can see the imprint from the shells into the play-doh. The vaseline on the shells made them come out perfectly. |
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| Pour the plaster over the grooves. |
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| HOURS have gone by, and now the plaster is dry and hard. Dd carefully pulls the play-doh off the plaster. |
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| This is what our plaster cast looked like after pulling off the play-doh. |
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| Dd washed off some of the gunk. She now wants to do a lot more casts this week---she is inspired! |
Advise:
You can mess up in two spots, that I saw--1) Careful to add just the right amount of water to the plaster. Our kit said to add 3 Teaspoons to the plaster; and me, being me, added Tablespoons! Luckily we have a big tub of plaster on-hand and could add in a little more plaster to get it goopy enough. 2) Make sure you wait until the plaster has really hardened and dried---a few hours---before taking it out of the play-doh. We did fine on this, but I've done a fair share of plaster work and knew to make her wait longer than she might have.
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