A Pinch of Salt
All the main science activities in this package focus on the use of salt as a de-icer for roads. The activities are linked using a cartoon character, Chris, who discovers a salt bin at the end of the street and learns that using salt on roads has advantages and disadvantages. The children are encouraged to plan their own investigations and present their findings using a variety of creative methods. The resource also contains suggestions for activities in English, mathematics, history, geography and religious education. The package can be used in its entirety or activities can be selected from it to support another teaching programme.
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A Pinch of Salt
Science topic: Materials
Type of enquiry: Comparative/fair tests
Keywords: freezing, melting, solid, liquid, reversible change
Children investigate the use of salt on icy roads. Cartoon character, Chris, finds a container of salt near his new house at the top of a steep road. He does not know what the salt is for. This prompts the children to plan an investigation into the effect of adding salt to ice.
In the melting pot
Science topic: Materials
Type of enquiry: Comparative/fair tests
Keywords: melt, melting, dissolve, dissolving, predict, predicting, plan, planning
Children investigate the difference between the processes of melting and dissolving by predicting, then finding out, what will happen when a sealed bag of salt and a sealed bag of grated candle wax are added to hot water. Cartoon character, Chris, then hypothesizes that 'There's still some salt on the road because the water is so cold. If the sun warms up the water, more salt will dissolve'. The children plan an investigation to test if he is correct.
Salt from salty water
Science topic: Materials, States of matter
Type of enquiry: Comparative/fair tests
Keywords: solids, liquids, gases, evaporation, water, saline , solution, states of matter
Children are introduced to the word 'evaporation' by considering how objects are dried at home. They then set up an investigation using different methods to evaporate salt from salty water. They then plan an investigation into the effect of the size and shape of the container on the speed of evaporation.
Salt for my chips!
Science topic: Materials
Type of enquiry: Comparative/fair tests
Keywords: solids, liquids, gases, filtering, evaporation, crushing , solution, dissolve
Children make observational drawings of dry rock salt and table salt. They then compare the rock salt and table salt in solution, noticing that both salts dissolve but rock salt contains solids that do not dissolve. Children then plan an investigation to clean rock salt used for de-icing roads, so that it is pure enough to sprinkle on chips. This introduces the children to the processes of crushing and filtering.
Salt and plants
Science topic: Living things and their habitats
Type of enquiry: Comparative/fair tests
Keywords: plants, growing, conditions for growth, salt
Cartoon character, Chris, notices that snowdrops growing on the roadside have turned yellow, and asks what has happened to them. This prompts the children to plan a test to investigate the hypothesis that salty water has splashed onto the soil and affected plant growth.
The problem with salt....
Science topic: Materials
Type of enquiry: Observing changes over time
Keywords: irreversible change, metals, iron, rust, salty water, iron nails
Cartoon character, Chris, discovers that, although salt is good for preventing cars from slipping, cars will corrode more quickly when driven on salted roads. Children follow instructions to test this hypothesis, using nails to represent car body work, into the corrosion of iron by salt. They moisten nails daily with salt water and record their observations.
Partners
Supported by AkzoNobel.