Learning is Anything But Dry

By Yaakov Malik:

Recently, the eighth graders participated in a dry ice presentation. On Dry Ice Day, the eighth-grade science teachers, Mrs. Sheinbein and Mr. Beckman, brought in a few boxes of dry ice to demonstrate its properties to the students. Dry ice consists of solid Co2. First, we watched the dry ice subliming, which means melting straight from a solid form to a gas. Then, we dropped some of the dry ice into a vat of warm water and watched the sublimation process speed up. Later, we added soap to the water and observed the formation of gas bubbles. This is a result of the gas within the liquid vaporizing. The bubbles were far more breathtaking than regular bubbles. Instead of regular air inside, it had a thick gray gas in the middle of the bubble, as the gaseous mixture that we visualized was pure Co2 before mixing with the oxygen. Afterwards, the boys who had brought in gloves were able to touch the dry ice and slide it around. The gloves protected our hands from the extremely freezing temperate of dry ice which is -109.3 F. If dry ice is touched with bare hands it can cause frostbite. In conclusion, Dry Ice Day was very informative and entertaining.