Glow in the dark

Another Matariki activity I organised for the school holidays at the Parnell Library was a special glow in the dark room.  We covered up our storeroom in black paper to keep the light out and borrowed a blacklight to make some glow in the dark fun.  Children tried out drawing with different luminescent liquids such as liquid laundry detergent and tonic water (the quinine in the tonic water makes it glow blue) and different colours of highlighter.  I also gave them some different coloured glowsticks to take into the darkroom. This was an excellent activity for generating and testing ideas, and making predictions. Linking to the idea that Science involves "generating and testing ideas, gathering evidence – including by making observations, carrying out investigations and modelling, and communicating and debating with others – in order to develop scientific knowledge" (NZC, 2007), I asked the children to make predictions about what the different materials would look like under the blacklight, and to test their predictions.

 Liquid laundry detergent under the blacklight

Next, Theo, Anh and Otis were off to see what their glowsticks looked like in the dark at the movies!