5TH BLOG- IN CLASS RESPONSE

In class on Friday, May 25th we did a lab. This had to be the best lab so far. It was messy though! Our teacher placed corn starch in a beaker then sprinkled a little fod dye inside. Next to the beaker was a smaller one taht contained water. We then poored water into this mixture. It was so hard to stir. The spoon kept getting stuck. Then we were directed to pick up a chunk with our hands. It had teh weirdest feeling. I went first and boy can i say it was interesting!! This gooey substance became hard in an instance jsut by clenching your hand. I realezed if you apply pressure it tightens up. However if you leave it alone, it seems to flow at a fast paste and dangle off your hands. I enjoyed this lab very much. It made a connectionto the mantle of the earth. You see the mantle is flexible.It's made of solid rock and behaves like an extremely viscous liquid so it flows instead of fracturing. Just like the mixture we made.



-http://mediatheek.thinkquest.nl/~ll125/en/mantle.htm

-http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/vwlessons/lessons/Earths_layers/Earths_layers6.html


These two websites provide additional detailon the mantle of the earth and how it works and whats inside of it. The connection that i can make from this lab we did in class was to the actual substance inside of the earth's mantle. The gooey like substance would flow until pressure was applied, like a volcano or the substances inside the mantle. This lab helped teach us students what goes on in the mantle. In addition we had fun proforming it. Altough it was a little messy.