By NANCY HILER
That was the basis of a hands-on science experiment the students conducted in Jean Patterson's fourth-grade class at Jacob Gunther School in North Bellmore recently.
As the children broke into small groups and gathered at work stations, Patterson had them spoon powdered sugar into large plastic bags, then add milk, zip them closed, and mix the ingredients by moving their hands around on the outside.
"Is it a mixture or a solution?" Patterson asked. "The powder is evenly dissolved and you can't separate it, so it's a solution," said Kyle Lynam.
The study of states of matter - solid, liquid, gas - is part of the standard New York state fourth-grade curriculum, but there was nothing standard about the way in which the concepts were conveyed during this lesson. "This speaks to all learning styles and abilities," explained Patterson, her class having its share of both challenged and advanced students. Following the hands-on lesson she had the children write answers to several questions about the experiment to reinforce the concepts they learned.
Once the solution was created, and a little green food coloring added in, the children filled larger plastic bags with ice cubes and salt, put the sealed smaller bags inside and started shaking them.
"The liquid is thickening," said student Alexa Silver as the sugary milk began to solidify.
"It's shaken at freezing point," added Elizabeth Berkowitz. The result? Ice cream!
With the change in matter from a liquid to a solid complete, the experiment was officially over, but the best part was yet to come. The youngsters returned to their desks and tasted their concoctions, most with whipped topping and sprinkles supplied by their teacher.
"It tastes like regular vanilla ice cream," said Leena Klein as she tried a spoonful.
"It tastes awesome," said Ben Honigsfeld.
Could demonstrating the transformation of a liquid to a solid be any sweeter?
Photos by Nancy Hiler/Herald
