Guest blog by the team from Chillistick

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Chillistick is passionate about dry ice! It is a great material to demonstrate scientific principles for students of all ages.

Hero and Villain - some fun facts about dry ice/carbon dioxide

Carbon dioxide plays a very important role: plants and animals depend upon it for life. Through the process of photosynthesis carbon dioxide in the air is combined with water in plants to make sugar, the sugar in then converted to starch and cellulose. Animals eat the plants and in getting energy from the food, they produce carbon dioxide and return it to the air as they breathe.

Did you know that on average we breathe out about 1kg of carbon dioxide gas every day?

Carbon dioxide is one of the main gases responsible for global warming. (The dry ice used in the science pack comes from  re-cycled source and so we are not damaging the environment…)

Check out the fire extinguishers in the classroom – chances are one of them will contain CO2. With the Chillistick Science pack it is possible to demonstrate how CO2 puts out flames.

Dry ice is the solid form of carbon dioxide. At atmospheric pressure it exists as a solid at -79˚C. Dry ice changes from a solid to a gas without passing through a liquid phase, this phenomenon is called sublimation (and this is why it is called ‘dry’ ice!)

Carbon Dioxide gas gives soda its fizz!

The Science Of Dry Ice In The Classroom

Dry ice demonstrates states of matter really well by offering an amazing visual experience which significantly helps children learn and understand the processes through fun science experiments.

From making instance ice cream to powering water rockets and from making loud bangs to blackcurrant flavoured dry ice clouds – it’s great for bringing science to life!

Competition Time

Your chance to win a science pack worth £75 during British Science Week!

Chillistick have developed two education packs suitable for Primary and Secondary Schools. There are seven demonstrations in the Primary Pack that can be carried out over an afternoon and over 20 experiments in the Secondary Pack.

Each pack is supplied with dry ice, hardware and fun instructions.  

If you pledge to run an in-class science demonstration on Demo Day (Thursday 16 March), before our deadline of 9 March, then you will be in with a chance of winning a pack. Pledge your participation here!

The BSA will announce the winning schools ahead of British Science Week and the free packs will be distributed for you to use during the Week, so you have several days to use the ice before it sublimes into gas.

Free Download

You can get a free download on the use of dry ice in the classroom by going to the following link:

www.chillistick.com/schools.html

There’s also lots of information about using dry ice safely in education and you can see our videos of dry ice in action.