What to do? Wednesday
Posted By Melissa on June 24, 2009
Earlier this year, I found a cool book at the library called Science Through Children’s Literature by J. W. Butzow. I think it’s a great way to explore science and it gave me the backbone for a couple of our summer science projects. Last week, we explored volcanoes. The book we read was the Magic School Bus Blows Its Top. I also checked out a bunch of books from our library’s juvenile non-fiction section (call number J 551.21, if you were wondering). Then we did the following project…
1. Depending on your child’s age, either help or have your child use playdoh or clay to decorate an upside-down funnel. We also put clay on the bottom as shown below so it wouldn’t slide around in our bowl later.
2. Fill a little bowl with about 1/3 cup of baking soda and set inside a larger bowl. Like this. (You’ll have to use your imagination to see the baking soda in the blue bowl.)
3. Set your “volcano” inside the big bowl so it covers the smaller bowl.
4. Pour about 2 cups of vinegar into a container that your child can easily pour (we used a pyrex measuring cup). You can also add food coloring for a colorful eruption.
5. Pour the vinegar slowly into the top of your volcano and watch the eruption! You can repeat this step as long as there is still baking soda left in the bottom.
6. If you’re so inclined, you can also explain to your children why baking soda and vinegar react that way. You can also explain how when an acid and base react, they create a salt water. Go ahead, have them taste it.
Do you have a great idea or activity to share? Read the rules here, and link away…
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