Static Electricity Experiment

They say opposites attract and that couldn't be truer with these fun static electricity experiment. Find out about positively and negatively charged particles using a few basic items, can you control if they will be attracted or repelled to each other?


What you'll need:

• 2 inflated balloons with string attached
• Your hair
• Aluminium can
• Woolen fabric

Instructions:

1. Rub the 2 balloons one by one against the woolen fabric, then try moving the balloons together, do they want to or are they repelled to each other?
2. Rub 1 of the balloons back and forth on your hair then slowly it pull it away, ask someone nearby what they can see or if there's nobody else around try looking in a mirror.
3. Put the aluminium can on its side on a table, after rubbing the balloon on your hair again hold the balloon close to the can and watch as it rolls towards it, slowly move the balloon away from the can and it will follow.

What's happening?

1. Rubbing the balloons against the woolen fabric or your hair creates static electricity. This involves negatively charged particles (electrons) jumping to positively charged objects. When you rub the balloons against your hair or the fabric they become negatively charged, they have taken some of the electrons from the hair/fabric and left them positively charged.
2. They say opposites attract and that is certainly the case in these experiments, your positively charged hair is attracted to the negatively charged balloon and starts to rise up to meet it. This is similar to the aluminium can which is drawn to the negatively charged balloon as the area near it becomes positively charged, once again opposites attract.
3. In the first experiment both the balloons were negatively charged after rubbing them against the woolen fabric, because of this they repelled each other.

Biology Facts!

People who study biology are known as biologists.

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is the largest living structure on Earth. Reaching over 2000 kilometres (1240 miles) in length.

The first person to see a live cell with a microscope was Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, in 1674.

Ecology is the study of ecosystems and how organisms interact with their environment.

While some bacteria can make you sick, others have positive benefits such as helping you digest food or even make yoghurt.

Moulds, yeasts and mushrooms are types of fungus.

The common cold is a type of virus.

Viruses can be treated with antiviral drugs.

Bacteria are extremely small and are made up of just one cell.

Bacterial infections can be treated with antibiotics.

Animals that eat plants as their primary food source are known as herbivores.

Endangered species are those that are in danger of being completely wiped out, they include blue whales, tigers and pandas. Without protection these species may eventually become extinct.

Born on July 5th 1996, Dolly the sheep was the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell.

When the DNA of an organism changes and results in a new trait (characteristic) it is known as mutation.

French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur was well known for inventing a process to stop various foods and liquids making people sick. Called Pasteurization, it reduces the amount of microorganisms that could lead to disease without having a noticeable effect on taste and quality in a way which methods such as sterilization might.

Charles Darwin developed the idea of natural selection, sometimes called survival of the fittest. It is a process that involves living things with favorable traits being more likely to reproduce, passing on their favorable traits to future generations.

Happy Teacher's Day!

The Science & Math's Club of SMK Seafield on behalf of every student and the whole school would like to wish all teachers throughout the nation a very Happy Teacher's Day!
Thank you for all the support, guidance, care, love and patience. Behind every great student is always a determined teacher working his or her socks off.


To our beloved teacher advisor of the club, Pn. Chuah Lay Suan, and to every teacher out there, thank you. Your sacrifices made the path for our future.

Happy Teacher's Day!

Teachers are expected to reach unattainable goals with inadequate tools. The miracle is that at times they accomplish this impossible task.
- Haim G. Ginott