Out of the last two investigation ideas to make fog (dry ice or liquid nitrogen), Mrs. Brinza went with dry ice first. There's been some talk about using dry ice intermittently throughout our study, so she went with that. Both dry ice and liquid nitrogen are cold, and we're thinking that they might be cold enough to get the humidity in the air to condense on the CCNs that we know are in the air.
So looking at a dry ice safety sheet, students had to convince Mrs. Brinza on whether we should use dry ice, and the overwhelming vote was "NO."
Students ideas:
1. Dry ice is TOO cold. We're going to get frostbite/burns and safety is important to reach our constraints. We've got goggles to protect our eyes but we don't have insulated safety gloves.
2. We don't have the right storage container. It's going to blow up the cooler Mrs. Brinza has because it's sealed tight, and as the dry ice sublimates, we don't want an explosion in our classroom.
3. Our classroom isn't well ventilated, and we don't want to suffocate and die.
4. It's expensive to get and ship. Dry ice is anywhere from $1-3/pound, but the shipment and delivery charges ADD up quickly, not meeting our "affordable" constraint.
SO...
We talked about using dry ice to be our last-ditch effort at making fog (or liquid nitrogen). We walked through each of their concerns about safety and cost, and came up with the following:
1. Mrs. Brinza will be the one to touch the dry ice. She's committed to getting low-cost insulated gloves this weekend to protect her skin. Everyone will wear goggles to protect their eyes.
2. When getting regular ice at Mariano's grocery store this week, Mrs. Brinza saw loose-lid Styrofoam coolers that were around $6. That's fairly low-cost. And it will allow the sublimating dry ice to escape and not build up pressure in the cooler.
3. We will open the windows and blow fans to keep the air moving in our classroom so our room is well-ventilated and no one suffocates.
4. Mrs. Brinza will attempt to get a small amount of dry ice. We'll do some things with it that we think will cause fog, and if it works, we will figure out exactly how to use it in our designs before we get a BIG shipment of it. Heck, it might not even work, so getting a small amount will lie within our constraints of cost.
5. We don't want anyone to get hurt, so we will keep the Styrofoam container of dry ice in a safe, out-of-the-way place, clearly identified with a safety set-up (like a sign that screams "DO NOT TOUCH!"). Kind of like those "FLOOR IS WET" signs when someone spills something that has been mopped up.
We are hoping that Mrs. Brinza can get some dry ice over the long weekend (thank you, Veterans). Fingers crossed!
So looking at a dry ice safety sheet, students had to convince Mrs. Brinza on whether we should use dry ice, and the overwhelming vote was "NO."
Students ideas:
1. Dry ice is TOO cold. We're going to get frostbite/burns and safety is important to reach our constraints. We've got goggles to protect our eyes but we don't have insulated safety gloves.
2. We don't have the right storage container. It's going to blow up the cooler Mrs. Brinza has because it's sealed tight, and as the dry ice sublimates, we don't want an explosion in our classroom.
3. Our classroom isn't well ventilated, and we don't want to suffocate and die.
4. It's expensive to get and ship. Dry ice is anywhere from $1-3/pound, but the shipment and delivery charges ADD up quickly, not meeting our "affordable" constraint.
SO...
We talked about using dry ice to be our last-ditch effort at making fog (or liquid nitrogen). We walked through each of their concerns about safety and cost, and came up with the following:
1. Mrs. Brinza will be the one to touch the dry ice. She's committed to getting low-cost insulated gloves this weekend to protect her skin. Everyone will wear goggles to protect their eyes.
2. When getting regular ice at Mariano's grocery store this week, Mrs. Brinza saw loose-lid Styrofoam coolers that were around $6. That's fairly low-cost. And it will allow the sublimating dry ice to escape and not build up pressure in the cooler.
3. We will open the windows and blow fans to keep the air moving in our classroom so our room is well-ventilated and no one suffocates.
4. Mrs. Brinza will attempt to get a small amount of dry ice. We'll do some things with it that we think will cause fog, and if it works, we will figure out exactly how to use it in our designs before we get a BIG shipment of it. Heck, it might not even work, so getting a small amount will lie within our constraints of cost.
5. We don't want anyone to get hurt, so we will keep the Styrofoam container of dry ice in a safe, out-of-the-way place, clearly identified with a safety set-up (like a sign that screams "DO NOT TOUCH!"). Kind of like those "FLOOR IS WET" signs when someone spills something that has been mopped up.
We are hoping that Mrs. Brinza can get some dry ice over the long weekend (thank you, Veterans). Fingers crossed!