Briarcliff 8th Graders' Skills Reveal The Rainbow In A Colorful Science Class

Press release from the Briarcliff Manor Union Free School District:

Precision is the name of the game when it comes to conducting science labs in general, and in Jodi Shearer’s science class in particular.

Briarcliff Middle School eighth graders recently began their first lab of the year with the objective of practicing using a graduated cylinder to accurately measure the volume of liquids.

Students worked in pairs using six test tubes, as well as pipettes and graduated cylinders of different sizes. Each pair also had three beakers containing red, blue and yellow liquids, which Ms. Shearer prepared ahead of time using food coloring.

“The idea is that if they use the graduated cylinders accurately and measure everything properly, all of the test tubes will display the colors of the rainbow in the correct order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple,” Ms. Shearer said.

Students first mixed red and yellow, then yellow and blue and finally blue and red to make orange, green and purple, respectively.

“They have to do everything in a certain order: pour red, yellow and blue into the first three test tubes, and then pour from the red into a different test tube and mix with yellow to make orange,” Ms. Shearer said. “The measurements have to be exact – I will be able to see if the heights are not identical in all test tubes.”

Students used the graduated cylinder to accurately measure liquid volume.

“Following directions and making careful measurements are important in science because you want accuracy in your experiment and data,” Ms. Shearer told the students.

Lily and Giuliana worked together, carefully measuring each step.

“This wasn’t very hard, but the measuring was a little difficult, especially to get the colors in the right order,” Lily said. “We relied on each other to help – it would’ve been harder to do this alone. Giuliana helped me make sure I wasn’t making mistakes with the measuring.”

This press release was produced by the Briarcliff Manor Union Free School District. The views expressed here are the author’s own.