Activity 3
Which is the best biscuit for dunking?
Any proper tea drinker will know that dunking a biscuit in
your brew is an art form that takes years of practice to
master. Too long in and it crumbles. Too short and you
don’t get the full soggy pleasure.
The method
In the Battle of the Biscuits we need to:
• Select a good variety of biscuits - from the humble
digestive to a custard cream.
• Conduct multiple tests using a stopwatch (one on your
iPad or phone would do the trick).
• Make fresh cups of tea for each biscuit
• Submerge biscuits up to 50% into the tea and hold
until they reach breaking point.
Which biscuit will emerge as the victor in your tests?
Activity 4
Teabag or Not teabag that is the question?
Around 1908, Thomas Sullivan, a New York tea merchant,
began sending samples of tea to his customers in small
silken bags. Some assumed that these were
supposed to be used in the same way as the metal infusers and
by put the sample bag into the pot, rather than emptying out the
contents. It was therefore by accident that the tea bag was born!
Make a cup of tea in a clear container. Watch to see the
shapes and patterns that are made as the tea is added
to the water. You could look at the shape of teabags,
watching to see which promotes the best, fastest
colour-pyramid, round, square or loose leaf.
Activity 2
Which is the best washing up liquid for making bubbles?
How long does it take for the water to go
completely brown?
Make up some Bubble liquid - perhaps using a cheap, mid
range and expensive liquid or altering the proportions of
ingredients in the recipe.
Activity 5
Can you make the water clean again?
The fool proof bubble recipe
To make the perfect bubble, simply mix the following
ingredients together.
Filtration – is it possible to get the tea back
out of the water and make it clean again?
How might you do this?
• 95% water
These activities encourage an inquiring attitude.
• 3% washing up liquid
They help to develop skills:
• 2% glycerine
Use your hands, straws, hoops - anything that you can think
of that has holes in it to make bubbles.
Some tips to help your bubbles last:
Bubbles like...
Bubbles don't like...
• Clean things
• Dirty things
• Humidity - when there is
• Pointy things
lots of moisture in the air
• Dry things
• Wind
• Problem solving
• Predicting
• Data Collection-measuring & recording accurately
• Using safe techniques with instruments & materials
You will discover that materials can change and have
certain properties and connect maths purposefully
with other disciplines.
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