EXPERIMENT 1

LET’S BLOW UP A BALLOON USING BAKING SODA AND VINEGAR!

What are the goals?

The goal is for the balloon to be blown up by the gas created (when baking soda and vinegar are mixed).

What materials are required?

• 1 Balloon
• 1 Small bottle
• 1 Small funnel
• Baking soda (2 tablespoons)
• Vinegar (4 ounces)

Procedure

1. Using the funnel, add the baking soda to each balloon (two people may be needed for this; one person to hold the balloon open and the other person to put the baking soda inside of the balloon).
2. Pour the vinegar into the bottle.
3. Carefully fit the balloon over the bottle opening (be careful not to drop the baking soda into the vinegar yet).
4. Once the balloon is fitted snugly on the nozzle, hold up the balloon and allow the baking soda to fall into the vinegar.
5. Observe the chemical reaction and effect on the balloon.

EXPERIMENT 2

MILK PAINTING

What materials are required?

• Milk (full-cream milk)
• Dish soap
• Cotton buds
• Food colouring
• Shallow plate or wide bowls

Procedure

1. Fill a plate or bowl with milk.
2. Drop in at least 2 drops of each of four colours of food colouring. The more variety of colours the cooler the painting.
3. Generously dip the end of a cotton bud in dish soap.
4. Now dip the cotton bud into the milk next to a drop of colour.

The first thing that will happen is the colour will burst as soon as the dish soap hits it. It’s a great effect but very short lived. Once there is a little dish soap in the milk it no longer “bursts”.

5. Gently swirl the cotton bud through the different colours and you’ll see little rivers of colour start to form.
6. Continue until the colours begin to mix and become brown. Empty your plate/bowl and repeat.

For a variation we premixed the milk and dish soap. You won’t have the colour burst effect but it does seem to keep the colours separate a little longer.

EXPERIMENT 3

SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANT SIMULATION

What are the goals?

Invent a filter to clean dirty water simulating the way how sewage treatment plants clean dirty water. The goal is to get high-quality water.

What materials are required?

• 2-litre bottle cut in half
• Napkins or paper towels
• Gravel, sand and cotton balls for your filter
• Activated carbon
• Food colouring or cocoa

Procedure

1. Cut the plastic bottle in half.

Put the top half of the soda bottle upside-down (like a funnel) inside the bottom half. The top half will be where you build your filter; the bottom half will hold the filtered water.

Make a hole in the centre of the cap.

2. Put the filter materials inside the bottle; firstly: cotton, secondly: activated carbon, thirdly: sand.

3. Pour the dirty water through the filter. What does the filtered water look like?

4. Take the filter apart and look at the different layers. Can you tell what each material removed from the water?

EXPERIMENT 4

WALKING WATER!

What are the goals?

Demonstrate how the paper towel absorbs the water.

What materials are required?

• Glasses or jars of the same size
• Kitchen roll
• Water
• Food colouring

Procedure

1. Place coloured water into the glasses on the outside, leaving the middle one empty.
2. Cut a piece of kitchen roll in half and fold up each.
3. Place a piece of kitchen roll so it runs from the glasses with water into the empty one.
4. Sit back and watch.

EXPERIMENT 5

LET’S MAKE SNOW!

What materials are required?

• 1 nappy
• Container
• Colouring
• Water

Procedure

1. At the bottom of the nappy, there is a part where there is a packet of a white powder sewn in. Cut open the diaper and pour this material into a container.
2. Add some water with colouring, mix the gel. Add more water until you have the desired amount of wetness. The stuff will not dissolve.