Vacuum Chambers!

Year 5 were very lucky and chosen to carry out a workshop sent on behalf of the Thinktank Museum on behalf of Fit4Food. We were looking at why our food turns mouldy and what we can do in order to prevent this. We started by giving the children all the equipment and asking them to come up with different ways they could use them. Some of the children were incredibly innovative and explored the equipment, managing to work out how the valves worked as well as how these would affect the syringe. All of the children were engaged and excited. We then looked at how we could create a vacuum chamber and what purpose this could serve in the real world. The children created the chamber and, in order to test it, placed a balloon in the jar. They used the syringe to pump the air from the jar and watched as their balloons deflated. Once we had figured out we had created vacuums, we looked at how mould occurs on food and how we could use the vacuums to prevent this. They then placed a piece of bread in the jar and once again used the syringe to remove the air. We are leaving them for two weeks to see whether mould develops alongside a piece of bread left out in room temperature. Keep an eye out for our tweet showing you the results.