-Water

-Plastic bottle (with a cap)

-Matches (only the teacher can handle this part!)

1. Pour a little bit of water into the plastic bottle.

2. Put the cap back on, but leave it open.

3. Light the match, then immediately blow it out. Hold the match near the opening of the bottle.

4. Suck the smoke into the bottle by squeezing the bottle gently a few times.

5. Close the cap.

6. Squeeze the bottle and then release it.

7. Repeat step 6 several times.

 

The smoke from the match causes the water inside of the bottle to condense and squeezing the bottle makes air pressure drop. This combination is what creates clouds!

-Candle

-Matches

-A few balloons

-Funnel

-Water

1. Blow up a balloon and tie it off.

2. Use a match to light the candle. 

3. Ask students what they think will happen when they touch the balloon to the candle’s flame.

4. Make the balloon touch the flame. (The balloon will pop).

5. Using another balloon, put the small end of the funnel into the opening of the balloon.

6. Pour some water into the balloon using the funnel.

7. Blow up the balloon with the water inside.

8. Repeat the experiment (steps 2-4). This time, the balloon will not pop because the water inside absorbs heat and pulls it away from where the flame is.

 

The balloon doesn’t pop the second time around because the water inside of the balloon soaks up the heat from the flame. The water closest to the flame (the warmest water) begins to rise and the cooler water replaces it. The cooler water then heats up, rises, and the process continues.

-Pipe cleaners (white or colored)

-Wide-mouthed jar

-String

-Food coloring

-Borax

-Boiling water

-Pencil

1. Cut the pipe cleaners into three pieces of equal length.

2. Twist the pieces together so that they resemble a six-sided star.

3. Trim edges to all be the same length. This will be the “snowflake”.

4. Tie a piece of string to the top of one of the pipe cleaners. Tie the opposite end to the pencil (this is what the snowflake will hang on).

5. Fill a jar with boiling water.

6. Add 3 tablespoons of borax for each cup of water used. Stir well.

7. Add some food coloring for color.

8. Place the snowflake in the wide-mouthed jar. The pencil should rest on the edge of the jar and the borax mixture should surround the snowflake.

9. Let sit overnight. The snowflake should be covered in crystals by morning. 

Borax is a white powder that is made up of colorless crystals. These crystals dissolve quickly in water. The borax dissolves in boiling water but when the solution cools, it can’t hold as much borax as it could before. As a result, the borax crystals form on top of each other and cover the pipe cleaner, resembling a snowflake.

-Mason jar (1 per child)

-Plastic cups (4 per pair of children)

-Food coloring

-Eye dropper (1 per child)

-Shaving cream

1. Fill mason jars about 2/3 of the way up with water.

2. Fill plastic cups halfway with water. Add food coloring to make four different colors.

3. Each student should receive a mason jar and an eyedropper. Every pair of students receives 4 cups of colored water.

4. Add a shaving cream “cloud” on the top of the water in each mason jar.

5. Use the eyedroppers to add a few drops of food coloring to the top of each “cloud”.

6. Watch as the food coloring travels through the cloud and drops into the water below.

This experiment demonstrates how cumulus clouds fill up with moisture and that moisture eventually turns into rain and falls to the ground. 

-1 bar Ivory soap

-Microwave

-Microwavable plate

 

1. Spend a minute or two examining and describing the bar of soap.

2. Place soap bar on the plate, and then put into the microwave.

3. Set the microwave for 1-2 minutes. Watch as the soap grows, wiggles, and rolls around!

4. Let soap cool for a few minutes before removing it.

 

Heating up the soap makes it softer. There is air and water inside of the soap bar, so when the bar is heated, the water vaporizes and air expands. As the air expands, it pushes on the softened soap and causes it to turn into a foamy substance. This is an example of a physical change because the only thing that changes is the appearance and texture of the soap.

-Food coloring (red, blue, yellow)

-1 cup milk

-Dish soap

-Shallow bowl

1. Pour a cup of milk into the bowl.

2. Add 3-5 drops of food coloring (of each color) in the center of the bowl. The colors should be close together but should not touch.

3. Add a drop of dish soap into the center of the bowl (between the three colors).

4. Watch as the food coloring expands and spreads away from the center of the bowl.

The dish soap doesn’t mix with the milk. It stays on top of it and spreads out, bringing the food coloring with it.

*BONUS: when the colors spread and touch, they mix to create new colors!

-A clean 16 oz. plastic bottle

-1/2 cup of 20-volume hydrogen peroxide liquid

-1 tablespoon dry yeast

-3 tablespoons warm water

-Liquid dish soap

-Food coloring

-A small cup

-Safety goggles

-A washable surface

-A funnel

-A spoon

1. Put safety goggles on.

2. Carefully pour the hydrogen peroxide into the bottle.

3. Pour 8 drops of food coloring into the bottle. 

4. Add 1 tablespoon of liquid dish soap into the bottle. Swish the bottle around a bit to mix it. 

5. In the small cup, combine water and yeast. Mix together for 30 seconds.

6. Place the funnel on the plastic bottle. Pour the yeast mixture into the bottle. 

7.Watch the foam explode from the bottle!

There are little bubbles of oxygen in the hydrogen peroxide. The yeast helps to remove those oxygen bubbles, and that’s what creates the foam! If you touch the plastic bottle after the experiment, you’ll notice that it is warm. That’s because the reaction also creates heat.

-A clear drinking glass

-1/4 cup vegetable oil

-1 teaspoon salt

-Water

-Food coloring

 

1. Fill the cup ¾ of the way up with water

2. Add 5 drops of food coloring

3. Slowly pour the vegetable oil into the glass. It should float to the top.

4. Sprinkle salt on top of the oil in the glass. It will move around in the glass like lava!

5.Another tablespoon of salt can be added to keep the effect going.

 

Oil floats on top of water because it is lighter than water. Salt is heavier than oil, so it sinks down in the water and takes some oil down with it. When the salt dissolves, the oil that was attached to the salt is free to travel back to the top of the cup.

-Wintergreen Life Savers

-Mirror

1. Turn off all of the lights.

2. Facing a mirror, students should put their Life Savers in their mouths. As the candy breaks down, students will be able to see a reaction taking place in their mouths that looks a lot like lightning!

 

This reaction of light is produced by friction from teeth when they are chomping down on the Life Savers. This reaction is called triboluminescence. 

-Disposable containers

-Water

-Food coloring

-Freezer

-Cookie sheets

-Ladder

-2 liter soda bottles (1 per pair of students)

-6 long pieces of yarn (per pair of students)

-Plastic syringe (1 per pair)

-Broom, stick, or something similar (1 per pair

1. A day or two prior to the experiment, create some colorful ice blocks by filling the containers with water and stir in some food coloring. Put the full containers in the freezer.

2. After the ice blocks are frozen, take them out of the freezer and pop them out of their containers. Spread them out on a cookie sheet. 

3. Set up the ladder outside (on a very cold day – less than 32 degrees (Fahrenheit), and set the cookie sheet full of ice blocks below it.

4. Make a small hole in the bottom of the 2 liter bottle and thread the yarn through it.

5. Soak the threaded yarn, and the 5 other yarn pieces, in water.

6. Go back outside and place the bottle on the highest step of the ladder.

7. Tie the other end of the yarn to the broom handle. Tie the remaining 5 pieces of yarn to the broom handle so all of the yarn pieces are touching.

8. Stick the other ends of the yarn to an ice block. 

9. Fill the syringe with water and use it to help the yarn stick to the ice block. The yarn should be in the shape of a tent.

10. Carefully fill the soda bottle with water and add a few drops of food coloring. Stir. Let the water drain down the yarn.

11. Every 10 minutes, repeat the previous step, adding different colors to the water. The more water that is added, the bigger the icicles will be.

12. Let the icicles freeze. Don’t forget to check on them on the next day! 

The outside temperature is below water’s freezing  point (32 degrees Fahrenheight). As colorful water from the soda bottle drains towards the ice blocks, the cold air freezes the water droplets in place. This is also how actual icicles are formed in real life!