Magic Sand is regular sand covered in a hydrophobic substance, which prevents the sand from getting wet; therefore keeping it dry. Hydrophobic substances repels water, as for hydrophilic substances which absorbs water.
Looking Back:
I think our moon sand turned out pretty well and looked really cool. When we put it in water, it came out dry as if the sand was never in the water at all. It was it was actually kind of cool to see the sand float on top of the water and being able to stick your finger in and it would come out dry. While we were playing with the magic sand, our group ended up putting just a bit too much water and it kind of got diluted pretty quickly. The sand ended up not working after that because of the amount of water, so it turned back into regular sand sadly. Some of the grains just sunk to the bottom and was wet when it came back up. The method wasn’t exactly perfect, even though we used about 7 layers of the hydrophobic substances.
Looking Beyond:
During this lab, the class learned the properties of substances that are hydrophobic and hydrophilic. Hydrophobic substances does not mix well with water. The term “water-fearing” is often used to describe the word hydrophobic. Hydrophilic substances, on the other hand, are “water-loving.” For example, oil and water don’t mix well because it’s hydrophobic. Since oil is hydrophobic, the oil does not mix with food coloring or the water. Magic sand is regular sand that has been coated with an oil-like substance that is "water-hating" or hydrophobic. The surface of sand grains is made wet by water, which means that water molecules are attracted to sand grains and makes it hydrophilic.
Looking Inward:
I don't think we got the best results, but we got pretty good results. This lab wasn't very hard nor did we have to do much because Andrew just sprayed a hydrophobic substance on the sand and we mixed them together and put it in water. Personally I thought it was kind of boring to make it because only one person was mixing it together while the rest of the group was either sitting around, talking, or taking pictures. I wish we had less people in a group instead of six or seven so not many of us would've been off task. There wasn’t a lot to do for everybody in the group. But overall, in the end we all enjoyed messing around with the sand and water.
Looking Outward:
I worked with Carmina, Ivy, Daisy, Morgan, and Maia on this lab. I thought our group worked pretty well with each other. Were all really great friends outside of class, so there wasn’t any disagreements on what was happening. I’m pretty sure the only disagreement was what sand color to pick which was kind of funny and we just ended up picking both. I'm pretty cool with everyone that was in my group except for Maia because I didn't know her that well, but I've gotten to know that she's a really cool and awesome person to chat with.
Looking Forward:
For better results, I think real sand from the beach would have probably worked a lot better instead of hermit crab stand. The Hermit crab sand didn’t really have the same effect as we should have gotten because it’s artificial. I would’ve liked to see the difference between the two. If I were to do this project over again, I would stick to one color because the green and pink sand mixed looked really weird and it just didn't look pleasant to me. I would also consider the amount of people in each group because 6-7 people in one group was just a little too big.
Takeaways:
A takeaway I had was that it’s really hard to make your own magic sand. It took about 7 coats of the hydrophobic substance to cover almost ever grain of sand. Some of the grains didn’t even have the substance on it and it because wet. Also, it's not bad to work with other people in the class because you never know what you'll learn about them if you never try.
Looking Back:
I think our moon sand turned out pretty well and looked really cool. When we put it in water, it came out dry as if the sand was never in the water at all. It was it was actually kind of cool to see the sand float on top of the water and being able to stick your finger in and it would come out dry. While we were playing with the magic sand, our group ended up putting just a bit too much water and it kind of got diluted pretty quickly. The sand ended up not working after that because of the amount of water, so it turned back into regular sand sadly. Some of the grains just sunk to the bottom and was wet when it came back up. The method wasn’t exactly perfect, even though we used about 7 layers of the hydrophobic substances.
Looking Beyond:
During this lab, the class learned the properties of substances that are hydrophobic and hydrophilic. Hydrophobic substances does not mix well with water. The term “water-fearing” is often used to describe the word hydrophobic. Hydrophilic substances, on the other hand, are “water-loving.” For example, oil and water don’t mix well because it’s hydrophobic. Since oil is hydrophobic, the oil does not mix with food coloring or the water. Magic sand is regular sand that has been coated with an oil-like substance that is "water-hating" or hydrophobic. The surface of sand grains is made wet by water, which means that water molecules are attracted to sand grains and makes it hydrophilic.
Looking Inward:
I don't think we got the best results, but we got pretty good results. This lab wasn't very hard nor did we have to do much because Andrew just sprayed a hydrophobic substance on the sand and we mixed them together and put it in water. Personally I thought it was kind of boring to make it because only one person was mixing it together while the rest of the group was either sitting around, talking, or taking pictures. I wish we had less people in a group instead of six or seven so not many of us would've been off task. There wasn’t a lot to do for everybody in the group. But overall, in the end we all enjoyed messing around with the sand and water.
Looking Outward:
I worked with Carmina, Ivy, Daisy, Morgan, and Maia on this lab. I thought our group worked pretty well with each other. Were all really great friends outside of class, so there wasn’t any disagreements on what was happening. I’m pretty sure the only disagreement was what sand color to pick which was kind of funny and we just ended up picking both. I'm pretty cool with everyone that was in my group except for Maia because I didn't know her that well, but I've gotten to know that she's a really cool and awesome person to chat with.
Looking Forward:
For better results, I think real sand from the beach would have probably worked a lot better instead of hermit crab stand. The Hermit crab sand didn’t really have the same effect as we should have gotten because it’s artificial. I would’ve liked to see the difference between the two. If I were to do this project over again, I would stick to one color because the green and pink sand mixed looked really weird and it just didn't look pleasant to me. I would also consider the amount of people in each group because 6-7 people in one group was just a little too big.
Takeaways:
A takeaway I had was that it’s really hard to make your own magic sand. It took about 7 coats of the hydrophobic substance to cover almost ever grain of sand. Some of the grains didn’t even have the substance on it and it because wet. Also, it's not bad to work with other people in the class because you never know what you'll learn about them if you never try.