Firework models; Chemical Reactions

 

We haven't ton a ton of chemistry lately in school, so it was fun learning about some basics like chemical and physical changes and chemical reactions with the kids. We did a bunch of the classic demonstrations like convection currents and baking-soda-and-vinegar and hydrogen-peroxide-and-yeast reactions. (Here's a fact sheet and experiment page for that last one.)

I love their pleased smiles as the reactions work

…some of them had pleased smiles, anyway.

They liked this "fireworks in a jar" demonstration too (instructions here, but you can just google "fireworks in a jar" if that link breaks; there are tons of examples of it)

The kids really liked making these fireworks "models" out of lentils and poppyseeds and so forth. (That smiley face Ziggy made is how they really would make one of those shaped hearts or smiley faces you see sometimes at fireworks shows!) You can look at pictures of cross-sections of real fireworks to get an idea what they look like and how to make them (one is here, and we'd also watched a few documentaries about the process).

https://www.reddit.com/r/ThingsCutInHalfPorn/comments/8z0a46/cross_sections_of_fireworks_1761_x_1125/ cross sections
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1ixjhzwr_E how fireworks work
••https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfkjm2YRG-Q&t=963s fireworks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS7AXFcvkS4 How it’s made
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuZdCvcZyxw How it’s made

No matter how much tape we put over these sections, some of the seeds and beans always get out!

This is Gus pretending to be a fireworks man, in his safe little hut with all his computer-controlled display set out for the show!

Fireworks Unit Study; Flame Heat and Color

In the summer I did some "Summer School" units with the little kids since the bigger kids were busy with camps and needed more of a break :)

It was fun to revisit some of the things we'd done very long ago when the big kids were younger! 

Here are a bunch of links and resources I used when planning (most are in the table above, but it's too small and you can't click on them!)

Daytime fireworks (smoke) 

https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/14221863591

https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/planet-slow-mos-daytime-fireworks-in-4k

Fireworks failure:

https://bigbayboom.com/news/videos-2012/

https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/felted-fireworks-a-stop-motion-display-by-andrea-love

https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/fireworks-in-reverse-melbourne

https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/a-record-breaking-firework-explodes-across-the-sky-in-zurrieq-malta

https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/pyrotechnics-pro-jim-souza-explains-the-art-of-a-massive-fireworks-show

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUsgkry7kDs&t=67s Shaped fireworks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbPnju11IQs&t=7s Shaped fireworks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LJa5M4MV9M Make a fireworks snake

https://www.salon.com/2018/07/03/a-pyrotechnics-expert-describes-what-its-like-running-a-fireworks-show/

Drone shows:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fKfBb7x9WQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adPqagG1dc0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxIc969qtYo

https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/the-new-fireworks-firefly-drone-shows-spark-wonder-without-smoke

Sparklers:

https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/sparklers-how-its-made-video

Molten Iron Fireworks https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/dashuhua-nuanquan-molten-iron-fireworks

Chemistry of fireworks full lecture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M03esB_HBzM&list=PLLnAFJxOjzZsuAK_f6NSYZcQV9M3TjaMY&index=11

Sam gave a little art lesson on flame color (and the temperature of colors in, for example, stars) and showed the kids how to draw fireworks or flames.

Gus took it all very literally to produce this drawing

I also let the younger kids try painting fireworks with a toilet paper tube as shown in this video. It was pretty fun (though they could have gone through millions more papers than this—it goes very quickly and uses up lots of paper!).

I can't remember who did which of these pictures, so I suppose that information will be lost to the ages

Daisy's maybe?

This one was Junie's

This might have been Goldie's?

Demolition

I decided to make the last day of this unit a study of other uses of explosives---they're not only for fireworks, after all. We read some fascinating books on demolition, and watched some videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK50So-yYRU&feature=youtube_gdata_player (this was the best one we saw---a great montage of different demolitions---the kids wanted to watch this over and over)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggg3C87UVCY&feature=youtube_gdata_player (the kids thought this was hilarious)

The night before, I had the unexpectedly brilliant idea of having the kids carry out their own demolition with blocks. It sounds like kind of a terrible idea, doesn't it? But it wasn't. It was so fun! The kids looooooved it.

First we surrounded the area with blue CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION tape (very important), and added some animal bystanders. Just to make it interesting. :) We wanted our building to collapse within its own footprint, if possible.

Our first attempt

The suspense was significant! My heart was pounding as we did our first countdown. :)

This one was pretty much a failure. The building wasn't sufficiently weakened beforehand. It hardly collapsed at all, as you can see.

Oh, I suppose I should specify how we made our "explosions": I just tied dental floss (leaving the ends long enough to trail out away from the building) around the most important blocks. The boys decided which ones those were (usually some central pillars on the first and second floors, or foundational blocks around the edges). When the countdown began, everyone grabbed a few strands of floss and, at the appointed time, PULLED outward. It worked pretty well, considering. (Considering what? That it wasn't dynamite, I guess.)

After that first try we got smarter, and more complicated. We had sequential explosions going on (this is a very useful technique, but tricky for certain ones among us to master---the older boys inspired much awe and fear with their insistent warnings and instructions). Unfortunately, a few animal bystanders were taken out in this explosion---well, let's not mince words: killed---but the children showed an admirable ability to put it behind them and try again.

This attempt was even better. Only a few casualties.

The final attempt! Sober and concentrating faces.

Demolition in action!

Anatomy of a firework

There are some really cool books and websites that explain how fireworks work. One of our favorite websites was this one, but there are lots more. This one was extremely helpful as well.  Inspired by this picture:

we decided to try to make our own fireworks models, with viewable cross-sections, of course.

I broke out the dried beans, colored lentils, and black sesame seeds. Ah, the joys of spontaneous creation and using what we have on hand. :)

The boys loved carefully including each part: the timed fuse, the short fuse, the lift charge, the burst charge, and so forth. Malachi and Daisy just wanted to pour lots of beans in theirs, and Junie (providing a nice symmetry) wanted to empty all the beans OUT.

We also found several diagrams/lists like the one above, telling about the names of various firework effects. You can even take a quiz here, though we found this one a little bit lacking in clarity. Still, it was fun.