Fan a Flame: Combustion in space!
Fan a Flame
A candle, chalk, crayon, cards, paper, beads, and a quick video bring this lesson on fire to life.
Combustion Song
To the tune of "a tisket a tasket"
Combustion, combustion,
It's red and yellow and blue.
Blue is hot but red is not.
And yellow's in the middle.
We like making a lesson more memorable by singing a repetitive song together as we work. Try this one out for yourself, and let us know if you think of something catchier.
Studying fire can be fun for kids. Especially when you mention that flames look different in space.
Here is a photo of a candle with three wicks burning here on Earth. A card with the word "flame" sits beside.
Draw It!
We observed our flame and drew it on our chalk board. Our first pictures were simple. Here is our 8 year old's first flame drawing. It is a teardrop shape on a stick, drawn with white and yellow on a small chalkboard.
For our two year old's drawing, she used only white chalk. She did not hold her chalk with a consistent grip, which allowed the chalk to draw with varying thicknesses. The resulting image captured the uneven dance of a flickering set of flames.
Flames in Space!
Fire looks different in space than it does on Earth. It forms a perfect sphere
Here is an image of a flame in microgravity from the NASA image archives.
Here is a link to a video we enjoyed that talks about how flames behave in microgravity. It talks about an astronaut who did an experiment with fire and what he saw looked a bit like a jellyfish.
This video opened our children's eyes to the complex colors and beauty that are in each flame, and they returned to their work more perceptive.
Drawing with Understanding
After watching the video about flames in microgravity, our 8 year old wanted to go to space to repeat the experiment herself. She decided that since she couldn't go, she would imagine. She picked up her chalk and drew her own version of a flame in microgravity. She pretended that she was watching the flame as it grew and changed.
This time our 8 year old drew a complex image. She used white, blue, orange, and yellow chalk on her small chalkboard. Her image had a blue outer circle and spots of soot inside. At the center of the flame was a smaller oblong shape with yellow, orange, and white sections that were quite distinct and did not intermix. Here is that picture. She pointed at a speck of soot.
The different colors within a flame correspond with different temperatures. The temperature of a flame can be measured in Kelvins (K). A red flame is 1,000 K. A yellow flame is 5,000 K, and blue flames can be as high as 10,000 K.
Convection
In Earth our flames have a tapered shape. This is because cool air is slightly heavier than warm air, so it falls under the influence of gravity while warm air rises.
Here is a picture of some cards we made to explain convection. Hot air rises and warm air sinks.
This natural convection in 1g is not present in the microgravity of the International Space Station.
Build it!
Did you know that CO2 is released when a fire burns? Here is a picture of our 2 year old adding beads in the place of electrons on a Lewis Dot Structure for a molecule of Carbon Dioxide. We abbreviated this chemical as CO2.
Balance it!
Our 8 year old loves balancing chemical equations, so when she asked what was going on chemically when something catches on fire, we had a good time balancing a few chemical reactions. We started with a simple equation to balance. CH4 is also called methane. When methane and oxygen come together, they combust and form CO2 and water. Here is a picture of the balanced chemical equation. She wrote on a white board with a marker.
Do you want to balance a different equation with us? Here is a link to a video we made when we balanced another equation.
Communicate it!
Our 6 year old loved reading the big words that we learned with our lesson today. As we came across words she didn't know, we wrote them on cards. Then we made them colorful by tracing the vowels with red and consonants with blue. Here's a list of words you might like to learn for this lesson.
Fire
Flame
Air
Hot
Cold
Combustion
Chemistry
Carbon
Oxygen
Conclusion
We had a lot of fun with our special science lessons this week. Do you want to play with combustion chemistry, too?
Want to do more with carbon?
Check out another lesson where we explore carbon cycling. http://steamma.blogspot.com/2021/06/get-crafty-with-carbon.html
Do you want to make your own candle before you do this lesson? Here's a link to another blog post where we guide you through how to pour your own candles.
If you like our lessons, please share them with your friends!
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