Into the Lab

Every year, juniors at American International School of Guangzhou gather to show off their creativity and scientific knowledge by creating projects for a science exhibition, otherwise known as G4 project (IB Group 4 subject project). The G4 project is a “interdisciplinary and collaborative investigation” where students taking the IB diploma have to conduct and produce a presentation reporting the details of their investigation. The topic of these projects range from parachuting water bottles to popping bubbles with dry ice to speeding balloon cars, spanning across all different subjects of science. Whether it be chemistry, physics, biology, or even design technology, as long as the topic is interesting, creative, and supported by scientific methods and good data, anything is welcome.

Since February, juniors have been hard at work forming groups, brainstorming ideas, making procedures, and gathering materials for their group’s G4 projects. The first G4 meeting took place on Friday March 25th where many juniors formed their groups and began to formulate their project. Seventy two days later on May 6th, many G4 projects are well on their way to being complete; many juniors have already gathered their materials and started testing their projects and collecting data. We went around asking the juniors what their project is about and this is what we found:

• Liquid Nitrogen Explosion
• Displacement of Fasht Khar
• Elephant Toothpaste
• Fire Tornado
• Balloon on a String
• Dry Ice and Soap
• Buoyancy and Salt
• Friction and Hydrophobic Surfaces
• Parachuting Water bottles
• Bacteria in Garlic
• Nuclear Missile Bottle Launching
• Electricity in Acidic Solutions

 Almost every G4 group is down to working on the last little bits of their project, with some even completely done and ready to present. Whatever the topic or subject may be, every and any of these G4 projects will surely be a scientific spectacle to behold.