Mystery Powders

Happy S.T.E.M. Friday!  It was a busy afternoon in our classroom today.  The students were given six different "mystery powders" that they had to use their 5 senses and make observations about.  From their observations students had to draw or describe what it looked like, sounded like on aluminum foil, smelled like, felt like, and tasted like.  Before we started though, we did talk about the importance of not just tasting every little thing in science class.  I told them that because I knew what these powders were it was perfectly fine to taste them.  For the record, they are all harmless household items.  The class didn't find out until almost the very end of the day, but they observed salt, baking soda, flour, sugar, powdered sugar, and cornstarch.  The class really seemed to enjoy using their senses to figure out what powders they were working with.  As a whole class, after everyone had made and recorded their own observations, we tested their solubility in water.  We also tested if there was any kind of reaction when adding vinegar to the powder.  There weren't too many major chemical reactions, except for baking soda and vinegar which brought out many excited sounds from the entire class.  I have included some pictures of the kids using their senses to observe the different powders.  See if you can identify when a student was tasting baking soda or sugar!

What a good group of hardworking scientists and observers.  As one student said today, "Now that is science!"