Separation Challenge BY HOLLY AYRES

Aim  To separate all 5 substances from one another.

Materials  2 Beakers, 1 stirring rod, Bunsen Burner, Watch glass or any other glass wear, Sand, salt, rice, foam, iron filings, magnet, plastic bag, tripod, gauze mat, matches, sieve, funnel, stand, de-ionised water, spoon, filter paper.

Method  First get a magnet and plastic bag and hover over the substances  Pull off the iron fillings and put them in a plastic bag  Use the sieve and pour the rest of the mixture into the sieve  Than get the foam and rice into water  scoop off the foam and filter the rice and water.  Put the sand and salt in water and stir the salt until it’s dissolved  Than filter the sand and salt so that they are separated  Put the salt water on the watch glass that is on top of the Bunsen Burner  Light the Bunsen burner and wait for the water to dissolve and the salt to turn into salt crystals.  Put all the substances into separate bags and your 5 substances will be separated.

Results  Flotation - The foam floated to the top and we scooped It out  Filtration - The sand started sinking and then we filtered it and the sand got left behind becoming the sediment with the salt becoming the residue  Filtration - The rice sunk to the bottom than we filtered it with the funnel.  Magnetic Separation - We got a magnet and the iron fillings went onto the magnet, we than put it in a plastic bag.  Evaporation and Distillation - The salt was in the water with the sand gone, than we put it on a watch glass and waited for the Bunsen Burner to make salt crystals, all the water evaporated.

Risks  Glass wear – handle with care  Substances – Do not eat  Bunsen Burner – handle with care

Discussion  In this experiment my group and I had to separate 5 substances. We made a method and when we did the experiment we didn’t have to change the method. We ended up separating all 5 substances by filtering, distillation and crystallisation, flotation, magnetic separation and evaporation. The only problem was that we once accidently poured too much water but nothing happened because the substance we were filtering still went through well we just had to get another paper. The 3 habits of mind that my group stuck with the most was probably persisting, managing impulsivity and finding humour.

Conclusion  In conclusion the experiment was a success and we didn’t have to change anything about our method. We only had one tiny problem that didn’t affect the experiment at all. Over all we didn’t have to change anything about the way we did the experiment.

Quiz