Kids STEM: Ice Volcanoes

Kids STEM: Ice Volcanoes

Supplies:

  • Baking soda (1/3 c.)
  • Vinegar
  • Small bowl
  • Golf ball or other small ball that sinks and doesn't float
  • Tray
  • Paper towels
  • Warm water (1 cup)
  • Plastic wrap
  • Food coloring

Directions:

  1. Put a golf ball in a small bowl. Cover both the ball and bowl with plastic wrap, making sure the wrap hangs out over the edge. Push the plastic wrap down around the ball.
  2. Mix a third cup baking soda into one cup of warm water and add food coloring. Mix well.
  3. Pour the mixture into the small bowl and over and around the golf ball. Make sure you cover the ball with the baking soda/water mixture. You may need to spoon in some of the baking soda that sits at the bottom of the bowl of warm water.
  4. Place the bowl in a flat place in the freezer. Freeze for at least 4 hrs.
  5. When frozen solid, place the bowl in warm water so the ice comes loose. Place on a tray and lift the volcano out of the bowl. Pry out the golf ball with a spoon and carefully remove the plastic wrap.
  6. Spoon on some vinegar and watch the icy volcano. This project is fun to do outside.
  7. Refreeze your volcano for another day, if there's anything left.

Watch this video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo3tfS85M4k&list=PLMEg2Dd0dSFctLfDQxsL5…

Kids Make: Eric Carle Inspired Painted Collage Mobile

Kids Make: Eric Carle Inspired Painted Collage Mobile

Supplies:

  • Tablecloth
  • Paints (any kind, or water colors could work too)
  • Paintbrushes (any kind)
  • Paint tray
  • Tissue paper or construction paper (three sheets of different colors or just white works too)
  • Cardboard
  • Glue or Mod Podge
  • Yarn or string
  • Scissors
  • Dowel(s) or a coat hanger or a branch with yarn or string tied on.
  • Scissors

Directions:

  1. Cover your workspace with a table cloth or newspaper.
  2. Spread out your tissue paper (or construction paper).
  3. Apply paint to the tissue paper in broad strokes, (no need to cover the entire tissue paper with wet paint.) After the first color is dry, add another color. Let dry again before adding another color. Add designs too, like swirls or zigzags. Let tissue paper dry.
  4. Take cardboard and draw large shapes like a star, crescent moon, square, circle, etc. Cut out the shapes.
  5. When tissue paper is dry, tear into smaller pieces (but not tiny pieces).
  6. Water down some glue or use Mod Podge to cover a cardboard piece, then place a piece of painted tissue paper onto the glued piece of cardboard. Trim any excess tissue paper. Paint glue over the tissue paper too. Repeat with several shapes and allow all pieces to dry.
  7. With a grown-up's help, poke a hole at one end of each cardboard shape. Using different lengths of string or yarn, string up your shapes.
  8. Hang your stringed shapes from your branch or dowel. If you're using two dowels, you can tie them together first by crossing them and tying string or yarn where they intersect.
  9. Adjust your hanging shapes along the dowel so that it's balanced when it hangs. Hang your mobile art up for all to admire.

Watch this project at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl79U5s4GrA&list=PLMEg2Dd0dSFctLfDQxsL5…

Kids STEM:Hippopotamus Toothpaste

Kids STEM:Hippopotamus Toothpaste

SUPPLIES AND INGREDIENTS:

  • ½ cup 49 Volume Hydrogen Peroxide (*3% solution, first aid quality, will work … it produces a smaller reaction)
  • 1 TBSP liquid dish soap
  • 1 packet (1 TBSP) Active Dry Yeast
  • 4 TBSP warm water
  • Plastic Cup for mixing yeast and water
  • Food coloring
  • Plastic soda bottle (*16 oz. - 1 liter)
  • Washable or protected work surface
  • Foil Tray with high sides and/or Larger cookie sheet or tray with sides
  • Funnel (optional)
  • *Safety goggles (*or … ski/snow goggles, swim goggles) … for general eye protection!

DIRECTIONS:

To make up a batch of hippopotamus toothpaste …

  1. Place the soda bottle in your tray(s) … on a washable, protected surface.
  2. Pour 150 ml (½ cup) of 40 Volume Hydrogen Peroxide into the soda bottle.

    3. (You might want to use a funnel for this!)

  3. Add 1 tablespoon of liquid dishwashing soap to the bottle.
  4. Pour the packet of yeast into the small cup.
  5. Pour 4 tablespoons of warm water over the yeast.
  6. Carefully swirl the cup around to further mix the yeast and water. *It should be the consistency of melted ice cream. Allow about 30 seconds. Add a bit more warm water, if needed.
  7. Dribble several stripes of food coloring down the inside of the soda bottle. This should produce stripes, just like you might see in real toothpaste.
  8. Pour the yeast solution into the soda bottle … and stand back! Watch the mixture expand and foam up.

*Once the chemical reaction is complete, you should have (mostly) just soapy water and yeast. However, if you used the Volume 40 product, and some of the peroxide was unreached in the experiment, it could irritate skin and eyes. For that reason, it’s
recommended that you don’t play with the foam! And DON’T BRUSH ANY TEETH WITH THIS FOAM!

How It Works …

Each tiny foam bubble in this chemical reaction is filled with oxygen. The yeast is a catalyst, a substance that speeds up a reaction. It quickly broke apart the oxygen from the hydrogen peroxide … and that created lots and lots of bubbles! Your experiment not only created bubbles, but also heat … that makes it an EXOTHERMIC reaction.

Clean Up …

It’s safe to use a sponge to wipe up foam from your table surface, and just wash the remaining liquid and foam from the bottle and tray down the sink drain.

Watch this project at: https://youtu.be/N91i9ih62ZM?list=PLMEg2Dd0dSFctLfDQxsL5SmuE8zkwQFmu