Have fun with your kids and seize the teachable moment with these fabulous science experiments you can do at home
Build a Fizz-Inflator
What you need:
one small empty plastic soda or water bottle
½ cup of vinegar
small balloon
baking soda
funnel or piece of paper
What to do:
Carefully pour the vinegar into the bottle
Loosen up the balloon by stretching it a few times and then use the funnel to fill it a bit more than half way with baking soda – if you don't have a funnel you can make one using the paper and some tape
Now carefully put the neck of the balloon all the way over the neck of the bottle without letting any baking soda into the bottle.
Lift the balloon up so that the baking soda falls from the balloon into the bottle and mixes with the vinegar and watch the fizz-inflator at work
Why it works:
The baking soda and the vinegar create an acid-base reaction and the two chemicals work together to create a gas called carbon dioxide. Gasses need a lot of room to spread out and the carbon dioxide starts to fill the bottle and then moves into the balloon to inflate it.
Make your own lava lamp
What you need:
clean 1 litre clear soda bottle
¾ cup of water
vegetable Oil
fizzing tablets (such as Alka Seltzer)
food colouring
What to do:
Pour the water into the bottle
Use a measuring cup or funnel to slowly pour the vegetable oil into the bottle until it's almost full – you may have to wait a few minutes for the oil and water separate
Add 10 drops of food colouring to the bottle – the drops will pass through the oil and then mix with the water below
Break a seltzer tablet in half and drop the half tablet into the bottle. Watch it sink to the bottom and let the blobby greatness begin!
Why it works:
The oil stays on top of the water because oil is lighter (or less dense) than the water. The oil and water do not mix because of something called "intermolecular polarity” which means that water molecules are attracted to other water molecules and oil molecules are attracted to other oil molecules, but the two can’t mix together.
When you added the seltzer tablet, it sank to the bottom and started dissolving, creating a gas. As the gas bubbles rose, they took some of the coloured water with them. When the blob of water reached the top, the gas escaped and down went the water. You can store your Blobs in a Bottle with the cap on – anytime you want to bring it back to life, just add another tablet piece.
Make your own volcano
What you need:
a volcano – you can get all arty and make one out of paper mache or plaster, but a mound of dirt works just as well
a baby food jar or other small container
red and yellow food colouring (optional)
vinegar
liquid dish washing soap
baking soda
What to do:
Put the container into the volcano at the top (be prepared – this will get messy)
Add two spoonfuls of baking soda
Add about a spoonful of dish soap
Add about 5 drops each of the red and yellow food colouring
For the eruption, add about an ounce of the vinegar into the container and watch your volcano come alive
Why it works:
An actual volcano is produced over thousands of years as heat a pressure build up – this experiment uses a chemical reaction to give you an idea of what it might look like when a volcano erupts flowing lava.
Laura Fulton
Looking for other great hands-on activities to do with your kids? Check out Magrudy’s in Al Wahda Mall for a wide selection of activity books and games such as 501 TV-Free Activities for Kids. The internet is also chock-a-block with great ideas, but we particularly love www.sciencebob.com where we found these experiments.
Want to really stimulate your little scientists? The wacky team at Mad Science is holding weekly summer camps until 1st September at various locations around the capital. Kids as young as four years old can learn all about the way the world works. Visit www.madscience.org/uae or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for more information.
