Science Experiments

Elephant Toothpaste

This experiment just looked too good to pass up, when I saw it on Pinterest in March of 2012.  My oldest daughter, Reese, then 7, loves to get her hands dirty and this seemed to have her name written all over it!  She wants something wet, squishy, soapy, muddy, somehow messy in a way that will be time consuming to clean up!  I love Reese's sense of adventure, and the analytical way she goes about checking out projects like this.

SO, we got to work!  The Pinspiration for this project can be found here.

Nolan, 3, stirred 1 tsp. of yeast into 2 tbsp. warm water.

Reese was not a fan of the smell of warm yeast fermenting.  Baked bread anyone?  (She didn't get that connection.)

I added 1/2 cup of Hydrogen Peroxide 3% to the empty plastic bottle.  The instructions in the link very specifically say to use Hydrogen Peroxide 6%, or your results won't be the same as theirs!!  Well, I knew that, but when I thought about doing this project with my kids I was in Super Target, and not wanting to make a separate trip just for higher concentration H2O2, I decided to roll the dice!  I guess that's my variable in this experiment??  Anyway, Ava, 5, added a squirt of dish soap. Baby Luke, 10 months, in the corner there took this experiment like a champ!  He just watched with a kind of timid amusement, while the older kids shrieked, oohed, and aahed!

Reese added a drop of blue food coloring...and then a few more....

I added yeast/water combination to the H202/soap combination, and....

The activated yeast denatures the H202, so 

2 H2O2 --> 2 H2O + 02.

The biproducts are water and oxygen!  Can't get much safer than that!

 Here, we're starting again.  This time with orange food coloring!  All the big kids went crazy for this experiment, and still ask to do it again!  I definitely recommend you try this with your kiddos!  Maybe best of all, clean up is super easy!  Rinse the cookie sheet, wash the bowl with yeast, and toss the rest!  You're done!

I should say, as you can see the elephant "toothpaste" turns out more like elephant soup with the Hydrogen Peroxide 3%.  That didn't bother my kids one bit, so you can decide: extra trip and thicker foam, or convenience and a little more water.  When we do this again, I think I'll opt for the higher concentration, but again both work just fine!

Snow Paint

Equal parts shaving cream and Elmer's Glue.  Paint (ideally with a paint brush), and when this dries it stays puffed and feels silky soft.  Make your own snow scene.  That's it!  Go nuts!

You can tell Ava (5), in the black and white stripes doesn't like to get her hands messy.  She made the most careful snow painting you'd ever want to see!