🔬 Year 6 Science at Aspire: Investigating Separating Solutions! 🧪

This week, Year 6 had an exciting opportunity to take their learning beyond the classroom by visiting the Aspire science labs 🏫. The session focused on separating mixtures, and the children worked like real scientists as they followed a carefully structured experiment.

🧂 Step 1: Making a Solution

We began by creating a salt solution, mixing four spatulas of rock salt with 20 ml of water using a measuring cylinder. The pupils then used a glass rod 🥄 to stir the mixture until the salt dissolved as much as possible.

🧃 Step 2: Filtration

Next, we explored filtration by pouring the mixture through a funnel and filter paper 🔽 into an evaporating basin. This helped remove any undissolved particles, leaving us with a clearer solution.

🔥 Step 3: Heating and Evaporation

Now for the most exciting part! The evaporating basin was placed on top of a beaker of water, which sat on gauze over a Bunsen burner 🔥. Using a blue flame, the children carefully heated the solution until almost all the liquid had evaporated.

We learned the importance of careful observation 👀—if the mixture started to split, we knew to remove the Bunsen burner and turn it off immediately for safety.

🧠 What We Learned

By the end of the session, pupils could clearly see how water can evaporate, leaving the salt behind, demonstrating how substances can be separated and recovered from a solution.

⭐ A Brilliant Experience

Throughout the lesson, Year 6 showed fantastic teamwork 🤝, responsibility ✅ and scientific curiosity 🔍. It was amazing to see them working in a real lab environment and applying their classroom learning in such a practical way.

Well done to our fantastic young scientists! 👏🧪