Year 5 children spent a whole morning setting fire to things last week in order to discover how different materials burn!

They tested 12 different materials, including polystyrene, a crisp packet, wood, tissue paper, sponge, aluminium foil and a latex balloon.

Wearing goggles, and using tongs to burn materials over a tray of sand ensured that the children remained safe whilst conducting this exciting and sometimes surprising investigation.

In groups, the children predicted how each material would burn, the type of smoke it would produce and the residue it would leave behind when it had finsihed burning. After burning, they recorded their observaitons.

Some surprising things we found out:

Some matrials burn very quickly (tissue paper)

Several materials ‘dripped’ as they burned (polystyrene, latex)

A few materials had a very strong chemical smell (polystyrene, latex)

Wood burns more slowly than paper and tissue paper. Even though they are all made of wood, a piece of wood has a higher density takes longer to burn.

Materials that have loosely packed particles tend to burn quicker as they have more space in between the particles for oxygen (you need oxygen to create fire)

Aluminium will only burn at very high temperatures, which is why it is a good material to use when cooking in the oven as it doesn;t set fire very easily.