This document summarizes an art and physics lesson taught in Bulgaria. The lesson used experiments with water, oil, food dye, salt, and tablets to demonstrate concepts like surface tension, density, and immiscible liquids. Teachers from the Czech Republic planned the lesson, which involved motivating demonstrations, small group experiments, and discussion of results. Students provided feedback that they enjoyed the hands-on learning and gained understanding of physical principles. The lesson was taught successfully in both the Czech Republic and Bulgaria.

2. Art in Physics
Teaching: An effective key to self-learning
This project was funded by European Union.
PRESENTATION AND EVALUATION OF THE LESSON

3. • In September our team decided to teach Physics in
Bulgaria
• We made a research: we studied books, the Internet,
YouTube and talked with teachers.
• We chose experiments with water, oil and food dye to
demonstrate surface tension, density and dissolvement.
Part 1 – Why Art in Physics?

4. We used Facebook chat to learn the experiments.
First our teacher posted motivation pictures:

5. Our teacher sent us
tutorials and other
materials for the lesson.

6. We also used Facebook to learn the physical laws
which are demonstrated in our experiments.
Ámal was very good at the discussions.

7. Then we
practiced
experiments
ourselves.

8. Ámal decided to practice his experiment
at home. He did not have a food dye.
But he remembered that it could be
replaced. He used Acryl colour.
Growing interest in the experiments

9. When he ran out of the cheap oil, he used expensive oil
to finish his experiment.
Feedback from Ámal: „It was satisfying to see how the
colours are blending into each other in various shapes.“

10. Bára tried her experiment at home too. In the first photo
she sprinkled the salt slowly and in the second photo she
added the salt quickly. She observed the differences in the
reaction between oil and water.
Feedback from Bára: „When I added the red colour, only
the water went red. And when I added the second colour,
both colours mixed in water together. And it made a nice
new colour.“

11. Rehearsal in class 6.A
13 October 2016

12. Rehearsal in class 6.A
13 October 2016

13. Rehearsal in class 5.B
17 October 2016

14. Part 2 – OUTCOME for MANUAL
• Title: ART IN PHYSICS
• Subject: Science – Chemistry Target age: 10 - 11 Time: 1 lesson
• Goal: To raise interest in physical laws
• Objectives:
• To introduce experiments with liquids
• To demonstrate surface tension of liquids
• To explain density of liquids
• To demonstrate the scientific principles of immiscible liquids
(liquids that won’t mix)

15. 1) BEGINNINNG of the lesson
• The first activity was introduction of our team
• After this our team shortly introduced the topic of
the lesson which is based on experiments with
liquids.

16. Lukáš presents experiment with
pepper (class 5. B)

17. 2) Motivation - Science Show
Experiment 1a
What you need: a plate or a bowl, water,
ground pepper, toothpicks, washing-up liquid

18. Instructions:
1
Pour water in a plate.
Then sprinkle a thin layer
of ground pepper on the
surface.
2
Place a toothpick in the
water and watch what
happens. Is it covered
with pepper?
Pepper grains do not move away if a clean toothpick
touches water surface sprinkled with ground pepper.

19. Instructions:
3
Dip a toothpick in
washing-up liquid. Then
touch the middle of the
water with the stick´s tip.
4
As the washing-up liquid
touches the water, watch
the grains of pepper.
What happens to them?
Pepper grains instantly disperse to the sides of the bowl
if a toothpick is dipped in washing-up liquid.

20. Explanation: SURFACE TENSION
• We explored how liquid molecules pull each
other together. We learnt about surface tension.
• Surface tension describes the attraction or
adhesion of molecules to one another on the
surface of a liquid.
• The surface of the water is like a stretchy elastic
skin on top of the water.
• The surface tension is broken by the washing-up
liquid and it snaps away quickly.
• As the water molecules try to straighten up
again, they quickly move to the sides of the
bowl, and the pepper moves with them.

21. Adéla presents experiment with milk
(class 6. A)

22. 2) Motivation - Science Show
Experiment 1b
What you need: a plate or
a bowl, fat milk, food dyes,
toothpicks or cotton buds,
washing-up liquid

23. Instructions:
1
Pour milk in a plate or a
bowl. About a half.
2
Then add two or three
drops of liquid food dye in
different places. Use several
colours if you have them.
Drops of food colour do not mix with milk easily. Fat milk
is better then skimmed milk for this experiment.

24. Instructions:
3
Touch the colour spots
with a clean toothpick or
a cotton bud.
4
Place a toothpick in the
washing-up liquid and
then touch the colour.
The food colour moves away if we touch it with a stick
covered with washing-up liquid. The different colours mix.

25. Explanation: SURFACE TENSION
• Surface tension is an interesting concept, like
molecules like to stick together.
• Milk has surface tension, just like water, but
unlike water, it is high in fat and is solid
coloured.
• As the dye is less dense, it does not mix into
the milk unless stirred. It remains separate.
• Washing-up liquid breaks down the fat of the
milk and decreases the surface tension in
milk.

26. Adéla presents experiment with oil
(class 6. A)

27. 2) Motivation - Science Show
Experiment 1c
What you need: a plate, vegetable oil, food dye, toothpicks,
or cotton buds, washing-up liquid

28. Instructions:
1
Pour oil in a plate or a bowl.
About a half.
2
Then add two or three
drops of liquid food dye in
different places. Use several
colours if you have them.
Drops of food colour do not mix with oil. Food dye is
mixed with water and is heavier then oil. Drops go down.

29. Instructions:
3
Touch the colour spots
with a clean toothpick or
a cotton bud.
4
Place a toothpick in the
washing-up liquid and
then touch the colour.
The food colour moves away only a little if we touch it
with a stick covered with washing-up liquid.

30. Explanation: SURFACE TENSION
• Surface tension is an interesting concept.
Molecules like to stick together.
• Oil has surface tension, just like water and
milk.
• As the food dye is less dense, it does not mix
into the oil unless stirred. It remains separate.
• Water food dye is heavier then oil. The drops
of colour slowly goes down.
• Washing-up liquid decreases the surface
tension in oil and breaks the fat. The colour
mix with oil but not as much as in milk.

31. Barča presents experiment with salt
(class 5. B)

32. 2) Motivation - Science Show
Experiment 2
What you need: a glass jar, spoon, water, oil, food
dye, salt, a dropper

33. Instructions:1
Fill about 2/3 of a glass
jar with water. Add oil to
form a layer on top of the
water and wait until the
different layers settle.
Shake gently a spoon of
salt into the jar.
2
Salt goes down and takes
some light oil with it. At
the bottom salt melts.
The oil is released and
floats up.
Oil does not mix with water. Oil is lighter than water.

34. Instructions:
3
Now you can add drops of
a food dye. The drops of
colour do not mix with
oil. They are heavier and
go down.
4
Colour mixes with water.
Add another spoon of salt
in the jar to restart the
reaction. Watch the colour
globs to float up with oil in
our video.
Drops of food colour do not mix with oil. Colour is
heavier than oil but now it floats up.

35. Explanation: DENSITY OF LIQUIDS
• The oil floats on the water because it is less dense
(lighter) than the water.
• Oil doesn’t mix with water. It will not dissolve into the
water.
• The salt however, is denser than water and heavier.
• When you shake the salt onto the oil, it clings to the oil
and after a bit of it piles up, drags the denser glob to
the bottom of the jar.
• After a while, the salt begins to dissolve in the water
until it reaches a point where it can no longer hold
down the glob of oil – the glob floats back to the
surface where you can sprinkle more salt on it and
repeat the reaction.

36. Adam and Ámal present experiment
with tablets (class 5. B)

37. 2) Motivation - Science Show
Experiment 3 – Lava lamp
What you need: a bottle, water, oil, food dyes, effervescent
tablets (citric or ascorbic acid in little water)

38. Instructions:
1
Fill a third of a bottle with
water. Add oil almost to the
top. Wait until the different
layers settle.
2
Add drops of food dye, you
can use more colours.
Watch what the drops will
do. After a while add 1 or 2
effervescent tablets. Watch
the water float up in video.
Oil does not mix with food colours. Heavier water floats up.

39. Explanation: IMMISCIBLE LIQUIDS
• In this science experiment, you could create a
real working lava lamp.
• This experiment demonstrates the scientific
principles of immiscible liquids (liquids that
won’t mix).
• Next you can explore density of liquids. During
the reaction is released CO2 which floats up and
takes heavier coloured water with the bubble.
At the surface the density of the bubble grows
as the gas is released into the atmosphere and
we can observe the colour drops to go down.

40. 3) Class management
1) Dividing pupils into small groups
2) Preparing working place
3) Getting to know each other
4) Preparing supplies for experiments
5) Distributing tasks
6) Preparing worksheets and pens
7) Safety rules for experiments

41. 4) Experiments in small groups
(class 6. A)

42. Experiments in small groups
(class 5. B)

43. 5) Conclusions
• We demonstrated the scientific principles in
several experiments with liquids:
• We explored how liquid molecules pull each
other together and observed surface tension in
different liquids.
• We observed immiscible liquids (liquids that
won’t mix).
• We demonstrated density of liquids and used
salt and tablets. Pupils observed globs of lighter
oil going down and bubbles of heavier water
floating up.

44. 6) Feedback asked:
„What do you think about the lesson?“
• Did you like the experiments?
• Did you learn something? What was it?
• What was the best part?
• Did you understand your „teacher“?
• Did you have a task? How did you feel about it?
• Did your group worked as a team?
• Did you feel well in your group?
• Do you have other comments or
recommendations?

45. We taught this lesson:
class pupils town country Language date
6. A 15 Ostrava Czech
Republic
Czech,
English
13. 10. 2016
5. B 17 Ostrava Czech
Republic
Czech,
English
17. 10. 2016
Sevlievo Bulgaria English 25. 10. 2016
Sevlievo Bulgaria English 25. 10. 2016