By: Margaret Bass
Carlyle High School teacher Jill Crump’s physical science classes learned how to
measure volume and pressure using math, marshmallows, science, and balloons last week.
To measure circumference, students blew breaths into a balloon and measured its size as
the balloon grew and shrank.
“They went up to four breaths,” Crump said, “and they used a formula to calculate the
volume of the balloon for each breath.”
After they used the balloon, the students moved on to using marshmallows inside a
syringe to see the correlation between volume versus pressure.
“My favorite part of the lab was when we put the marshmallow into the syringe and saw
whether it expanded or shrank when pressure was applied and released,” senior Alannah
Sarclette said.
Pulling the syringe increased the size of the marshmallow and showed how the pressure
and volume changed inside the marshmallow.