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Welcome to my class.

We are going to learn some amazing science. We are also going to use some of the wonderful laboratory equipment - including bunsen burners! Before you can use this dangerous stuff I MUST be sure you are safe in the lab. You will revise how to handle equipment safely, how to make yourself safe (goggles and hair tied back, etc) and demonstrate to me that you are mature enough to be 'let loose'. Once we have done that, we are off into super science where we will discover and amaze each other. I will update this site as we go along, your work will be shown here, you will produce a science web page that I will link to my site, and I will add details of the work we need to cover in Year 8. I will also link sites that I think are interesting or can help to this page. Please feel free to email me with anything you want included.

The text books we will use are 'Spotlight Science 8' and the book is split up into 12 separate units. At the end of each unit there will be a test. Click on the unit above which you are currently studying for some help and examples of students work.

We did a practical where we dropped metal balls into sand from different angles and different heights to see if the craters were deeper or had a different shape. We discovered that the bigger the height the balls dropped from the deeper the crater. We also found out that if the ball was dropped from a smaller angle (less steep slope) then the crater was bigger and longer.

Here are some fun experiments that you can do at home.

EXPERIMENT 1

Make a simple compass to find magnetic north, or south, depending on where you live.

Equipment:
1. Sewing needle ~1 inch (3cm?) long.
2. Small bar magnet. Refrigerator magnets may work if you don't have a bar magnet.
3. A small piece of cork.
4. A small glass or cup of water to float the cork and needle.

How to do the experiment:
1. Your compass will work better if you first run a magnet over the needle a few times, always in the same direction. This action 'magnetizes' is to some extent. Drive the needle through a piece of cork. Cork from wine bottles works well. Cut off a small circle from one end of the cork, and drive the needle through it, from one end of the circle to the other, instead of through the exact middle - be careful not to stick yourself!

2. Float the cork + needle in your cup of water so the floating needle lies roughly parallel to the surface of the water.

3. Place your 'compass' on a still surface and watch what happens. The needle should come to point towards the nearest magnetic pole - north or south as the case may be.

4. If you want to experiment further, try placing a magnet near your compass and watch what happens. How close/far does can the magnet be to cause any effects?

Explanation:
The earth produces a magnetic field. This field, although weak, is sufficient to align iron and other paramagnetic compounds such as your needle within it. By floating the needle on the cork, you let it rotate freely so it can orient itself within the earth's magnetic field, to point toward the north or south poles of the planet.