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The Magic of Moo: Celebrating Dairy Month with Ice Cream

Let's make ice cream to learn more abot the states of matter!

Materials:

• Quart size plastic zip bags

• Gallon size plastic zip bags

•6 cups of ice

•½ cup half and half

•1 tablespoon sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

• 8 tablespoons rock salt

Activity:

  1. Pour milk, sugar, and vanilla into a quart size plastic bag and seal tightly.
  2. Fill a gallon size plastic bag half way with ice and pour in rock salt.
  3. Place the quart size bag into the gallon size bag.
  4. Shake the gallon size bag for approximately 16 minutes.
  5. Observe how the ingredients move through various states of matter as you shake the bag.

Scientific Phenomena:

Matter is defined as anything that has mass and takes up space. Matter is found in 3 major states; solid, liquid and gas. All matter is made of atoms. Atoms are the smallest particle of matter. They are so small that you cannot see them with your eyes or even with a standard microscope.

  • Matter can move from one state to another, but can still be the same substance.
    • A change of state, also called a phase change, is a physical change from one state of matter to another, for example, from solid to liquid or from liquid to gas.
    • If the motion of the atoms is altered by pressure or temperature, the state of matter can change from one phase to another, too.
  • In the activity the rock salt worked with the ice to lower the temperature of the liquid ice cream mixture. Because of the lower temperature, the ice cream mixture froze into a solid. Whether solid or liquid, the ice cream mixture ingredients/components remain the same.
  • The more salt added, the lower the temperature will be before the salt-water solution freezes. For example, water will normally freeze at 32 degrees F. Heat must be absorbed by the ice for it to melt. The heat that causes the melting comes from the surroundings (the warmer cream mixture). By lowering the temperature at which ice is frozen, you were able to create an environment in which the cream mixture could freeze at a temperature below 32 degrees F into ice cream.

References:

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6/2/2020 2:52:40 PM
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