I have finally finished my SRP report that I have put so much work and effort in. I went to the library yesterday to do some research and find some books that gave me more information on water evaporation. It was quite helpful. I found parts of my report a bit challenging, especially when I had to repeat myself in the different sections. The sheets and past reports were very very useful because I always referred to them when I had trouble and they acted as guidelines when I was stuck.

Now, I will go and print off the report and have it ready for tomorrow. Looking back, I'm glad that I spread it out and didn't save it until the last minute.

I've finally finalised and completed the practical part of my experiment. Now, I need to put the photos up and start my SRP Report. I really don't know where to start, this is so muddled up. I'm going to go and write everything that I know first, and then tackle each section down one by one. Hopefully, Ill make some progress!

Okay, SRP is due tomorrow. Let's make sure I have everything:
Climatic Graph: Check
Method: Check
Consistency of blogging: Umm.. check? :) (Fingers crossed!)

Okay, so re-posting my method. I had it written out last time, and there wasn't many things wrong with it. I'll just touch it up according to how I did it. Also, my first experiment was alright. I'm not sure if I did it correctly with the correct timing/procedure/placement of containers etc. etc. So I'm going to do it again over the next week or so, and then maybe a third time round? I also took a few photos, which will probably be up soon.
Anyway, here's the method:

1. Pour 250mL of water into container
2. Cut out a 30cm x 30cm sheet of plastic.
3. Place plastic over the container and securely wrap it around all edges
4. Clearly label your container
5. Wait 4 days
6. Take off sheet of plastic and measure the amount of water left in container
7. Record observations
8. Repeat steps 1-6 with the different brands of plastics

Yes! I was fiddling around with the timezone and I think I finally managed to get it right. Let's hope this turns out to be like 7:30pm ish. :)
I managed to finish my climatic graph last night, yay! I decided to hand draw it and it didn't take long at all! My scanner is having problems with itself these days, so I just took a photo of it. Let's hope this turns out okay:

Woops. I just realised I made two mistakes in my experiment.

1. I had initially forgot to label my containers with which plastic wrap was on which container, and when I had gotten around to doing it I have a feeling I got confused with a few of them and labelled them wrongly.

2. I found a little crack in one of my containers.

Guess that didn't go well. I'm starting it up again soon, and this time I hope I remember eveything I forgot.

During the time my containers are sitting outside, I'm regularly checking them about every 6 hours to see if the level of water has changed in the containers. So far, nothing dramatic has changed enough for me to write anything, but I can see that little condensation bubbles are appearing on the inside surface of some of the plastic wrap.

In this time that I'm waiting, I've been doing some research on water evaporation to make my understanding of this experiment more clear. "Evaporation continuously moves water from the surface to the atmosphere." So in this case, because the atmosphere is blocked by a layer of different brands of cling wrap, it would change the process of evaporation.

Evaporation is when water is changed from liquid to a form of gas. This change requires heat, and is called the "latent heat of condensation". When water evaporates, it removes heat, lowering the temperature of the surface.

http://www.weatherquestions.com/What_is_evaporation.htm

The amount of water evaporated from a certain place depends on the temperature in the water and air and the humidity and velocity of the air above the surface.

Maybe.. I should have placed my containers by the window so evaporation would occur faster? But then it wouldn't really be a fair test, because they would get different amount of sunlight and each day would not have the same amount of sunlight, too. I'll just leave them where they are and see how this goes.

Over the weekend, I bought 4 different types of cling wrap and decided to start up my experiment. I put 250mL of water into 5 take away containers and sealed it over with the different types of cling wrap, all cut into 30cmx30xm squares. I didn't put any plastic or covering over the last container because I wanted to use it as a comparison to all the other ones after the experiment.

I placed all the containers in a place where the room temperature was pretty constant, so it would be a pretty fair experiment. Today is my second day in waiting, and after a few more days I'm going to take the cling wrap off and see which container holds the least/most water.

Now that I've found a good SRP topic: To test the evaporation of water using different plastics for cover, hopefully this experiment will work. I know I'll have to conduct it more than once to make it a fair test, because things may not go well the first time. I need to go shopping to buy the different plastics, and find 5 same containers. I may as well use take away containers, I have tonnes of them. I'm glad because I'm also curious how this experiment will turn out, and it can easily be done at home. I have all the materials I need, except the plastic, which I can easily get at the supermarket. Yay!

But for now, let more creative juices come!

okay, I've finalised this!
I'm going to do:

What type of plastic wrap prevents evaporation best?

Okay well, not that I got that out of the way I can set up everything I need.

Aim: To investigate which type of plastic wrap prevents evaporation best.

Hypothesis: The thinner the sheet of plastic, the more the liquid will evaporate.

Equipment: 5 different containers, 5 different brands/sheets of plastic.

Method:

1. Pour 250mL of water into container
2. Cut out a 30cm x 30cm sheet of plastic.
3. Place plastic over the container and securely wrap it around all edges
4. Wait 4 days
5. Take off sheet of plastic and measure the amount of water left in container
6. Record observations
7. Repeat steps 1-6 with different plastics

Okay, after discussing it with a few people, I've decided choose from either
'What type of plastic wrap prevents evaporation best?'
How permanant are 'permanant' markers? What will dissolve the ink?


I narrowed it down to these two because these ones in particular because they would go over for a couple of days, maybe even a week or two and that is exactly what I want.

For the first one:
Independant variable: The number of days the plastic wrap stays over the container.
Dependant Variable: The type of plastic wrap.
Controlled variable: The length of the sheet of plastic and the amount of water/liquid.

For the second one:
Independant variable: The amount/types of liquids that goes on the sheet
Dependant variable: The different markers.
Controlled variable: The amount of writing on the paper.

I have a feeling I'll stick with the first one actually. The second one doesn't sound like it'd work out very well.

I got some more new ideas, but they're all a bit weird.
Do frozen seed sprout?
What type of plastic wrap prevents evaporation best?
How permanant are 'permanant' markers? What will dissolve the ink?
Is a seed affected by its size?
Does the amount/absence of light spoil food slower/quicker?

Okay now I think I have enough ideas to get me started. Now, I just need to finalise them and pick the best one that I'd enjoy the most. Hmm... What to do what to do?

This is my science blog, and I'm totally at loss of what to do. There are so many ideas floating around but I don't know what works best. I don't even know if they are all science related. I just know that the experiment we conduct or what we're trying to see has to involve a change.

I've talked with a few people and they all have interesting ideas. I kinda see what previous students mean by 'Don't leave this till the last minute', cus it's quite frustrating. In fact, don't leave anything till the last minute!

I've come up with only a few so far:
How fast do fabrics burn?
What type/brand of chewing gum sticks the longest onto different surfaces?
The absorption rate of different paper towels

That's all I have so far, and I don't know which one to work on. I'll also think up of a few more over the next few days... or hours.