Forensic Science (White Powder)

Today you will be a Forensic Chemist. 

A bag of white powder has been confiscated by the airport customs.  You need to find out what white powder it is?

Aim: To learn about the makeup of different white powders.



There are a number of different white powders in our everyday life. Some of these are harmful and others are not. Test the four white powders listed to see which one has been found at the airport.

You will be given a small amount of 4 white powders on your cardboard. On the black cardboard using a magnifying glass look at the powders.

Look at them under your magnifying glass and record what you see. 

These are the four powders we will be using. Upload a photo of each powder. 

1.  Cornflour
2.  Baking Soda
3.  Salt
4.  Sugar 

Before you add the iodine, vinegar or water you will need to divide each powder into 3.

Materials

1.  Sugar
2.  Salt
3.  Baking Soda
4.  Cornflour
5.  Water
6.  Vinegar
7.  Paper
8.  magnifying Glass
9. Iodine
10. pipette

Steps

1.  Grab piece of paper
2.  Fold paper into quarters
3.  Write Sugar, Cornflour, Salt and Baking Soda on each of the quarters
4.  Put powers down on the correct names 

5.  divide the powered into groups of three.
6.  using a pipette add all three liquids to every powder
7.  Now use the magnifying glass look at what is happening.
8.  Get a new piece of powder with a random powder and try and find out what it is.

Findings:


Words to use: Absorbed, spread, frothed, fizzed, melted, blob,

	Sugar	Salt	Baking Soda	Cornflour
Appearance (White)	White	White	White	White
Grains (small, medium large)	Large	Medium	Small	Small
Smell (Strong, none)	none	none	weak	weak
Iodine	absorbed	absorbed	fizzed	fell through
Water	absorbed	absorbed	absorbed	bounced off
Vinegar	absorbed	absorbed	frothed	bounced off

Write a conclusion about your findings. ( 4 plus sentences)
Use the Hexagon activity to give you some more ideas.

The sugar...... The sugar absorbed all of them and the liquids made the sugar wet.
The salt..... The salt did the same as the sugar but the color was a bit different.
The Baking Soda...... Baking Soda made most of the things go bubbly then changed at the end when it dried out.
The cornflour..... The Cornflour made everything bounce off and even the iodine was no match for it as it went straight through.





Do all the same experiments on the mystery white powder. What is it?
I have found out that the mystery powder is baking soda because when we did the test on the powder it turned out the same as the baking soda. It also looked more like baking soda.

BYE!