Does bird feather absorb water?

We investigated how different materials absorb or not absorb (repel) water. As we tested different materials, we know that they react differently towards water. Some materials absorb, while some repel water. First, I had them to make prediction. It was easy for them to guess which one absorbs and which doesn't. But of course they didn't have any scientific reasoning for that. It is good to tell them that scientist starts by making prediction before they run the experiment. The purpose of the experiment is to find out whether we've made a wrong or right prediction. I need to retell this every time we did new experiments, as Iesha hates to make wrong guesses. 

It was also a good time to explain about porosity and material structure. I've discussed why it's important for certain materials to absorb and some to repel water. Here are some of the questions I asked the girls during the experiment:

1. What thing do you use daily that absorb water?
2. Why is it important for that thing to absorb water?
3. What thing do you use daily that does not absorb water?
4. Why it is important for that thing to not absorb water?
5. What happens if our house is made of paper?
6. What happens if the umbrella is made of cloth?
7. Do you think the bird's feather absorb/ not absorb water?
8. What happens to the birds when they're flying in the rain?
9. What happens if the spoon is made of paper?

It was no surprise that they responded with funny answers. Some of the answers were written in the experiment report. You can download the report for free. The reasons why some materials absorb/ repel water lie on the porosity level of the material. I told them the smooth paper look differently under the microscope. They aren't smooth as what they say with their naked eyes. The paper has lots of very tiny holes to enable water to go through it. The larger the holes, the easier the water goes through.

You may refer to this video for kids-friendly explanation on this. 

Till then.

 Materials we used.

 Drop some water onto each material.

 Report the observation.

 I let them continue with free play.

Report by Iris.

 Funny answers, though.

 See how accurate Iyra drew a pipette.

 Further investigation on porosity. 

 Clearly this is not the result from our microscope. This is however kitchen sponges under SEM. This has made Iris shouted "Told you, Horton is right!" (Source: here)

And this is paper under the microscope. 

Report template