Sawdust and Shavings

On Monday afternoon, we continued on in our unit on wood.  We investigated sawdust and wood shavings.  We started out by observing a cup with sawdust for a few minutes, then we observed a cup containing some wood shavings.  Our discussion included how the sawdust and wood shavings were the same and how they were different.

After some time observing, we combined the two materials.  When we did this, we saw that the sawdust was on the top of the cup.  However, once we stirred the mixture with our craft sticks, the sawdust filtered to the bottom of the cups "because it is smaller".

Next, we dropped the mixture into a container of water and watched it for two minutes.  "It looks like it is raining sawdust."  After two minutes, we stirred our cups to see what would happen.

We learned that when water soaks into wood, it is waterlogged.  Waterlogged wood sinks to the bottom of the cup of water.

We strained the water out of the wood pieces and discussed wet wood.  We set the wood out to dry.  We will use it for a pretty fun project on Wednesday...you will have to check the blog to see what it is!