Kickbutt's Crazy Lapbooks: experiments

Experiment 12: Erupting Volcano

I know, most of us have done this a million times, but it is soooo much fun! My kids love erupting volcanos so much that we finally made a permanent volcano so they can erupt it over and over!

Supplies: (most of these measurements are rough)
6 cups flour
2 cups salt
4 tbs cooking oil
2 cups water
Empty soda bottle (16 oz)
Warm water
Red food coloring
6 drops dish detergent
2 tbs baking soda
Vinegar about 1 Tbs
Baking dish
Large bowl

Process:

Stand bottle up in the baking dish
In large bowl, mix flour and salt.
Add the water (from the 2 cups) at cup at a time. More might be needed. Mix until you result in a smooth & firm mixture.
Use mixture to make the sides of the volcano, smoothing from the neck out and down to the baking dish, trying to make the sides sloping and smooth.Be careful not to cover the opening or drop dough into it!
Let your volcano dry, you could even paint it if you want!
Fill the bottle about 3/4 of the way with warm water.
Add a few drops of red food coloring to the water
Add the few drops of dish detergent.
Add baking soda to water
Slowly add the vinegar and watch the eruption!

What's Happening?
Chemistry (for older kids).
In this experiment you have several chemical reactions that happen in rapid succession. First, the acidic acid in vinegar (the stuff that makes it sour) reacts to the Sodium Bicarbonate in the baking soda, the result is Carbonic acid. But carbonic acid is very unstable, and it rapidly decomposes (an immediate reaction) into carbon dioxide and water. The bubbles in this experiment are from the carbon dioxide. The bubbles flow down the sides of e 'volcano' because carbon dioxide is heavier than oxygen. In this experiment you get even more bubbles because of the dish soap.

Volcanoes:
Why do volcanoes erupt? There are several different types of volcanoes and therefore there are several different types of volcano eruptions. In this experiment we are simulating a Strato-Volcano - this is the type of volcano that has steep sides reaching up toward the sky. The eruption of these volcanos usually occurs in stages. These stages can happen in rapid succession or each stage can last days, months, even years!

The inside of a volcano is like a bowl with a bunch of straws sticking out of it. Most of the straws go off in different directions. The 'bowl' is the magma chamber. Magma is liquified rock from deep within the earth. There are cracks, or weak spots in e crust that allow the magma to travel closer to the surface. These tunnels (like the straws in the above analogy) are vents. Usually there is one main vent, and many secondary vents.

Did you know it's called Magma when it's underground, but Lava when it's above ground?

The closer the magma gets to the surface, the more ground water is boiled into water vapor. If the vents are open, there might be a constant stream of steam that escapes the vent. This stage usually lasts the longest. Water vapor below ground build pressure. If the vent is open enough, it could release this pressure enough to prevent an eruption from happening for years!

But, if the vent isn't open enough, then the pressure with build and build. This is like shaking a closed soda bottle. Eventually the volcano will blow apart in a violent release of pressure. The first part of this kind of volcanic eruption is made up of rock and super heated gas, the rock and dust is usually what remained of the part of the volcano above the blocked vent. (look at videos of Mt St Helen's erupting, where 1/3 of the volcano was blown away!) this bstage of the eruption is called the Pyroclastic Flow - believe it or not, this type of eruption is more deadly than any other stage. Because it is so explosive, it can happen with little to no warning. And the super heated gases and rocks can be thousands of degrees in temp and travel hundreds of miles an hour! This doesn't give people much time to get out of the way. The next stage of the explosion is the ash cloud. When the volcano violently erupts, the stuff too heavy to fly flows down the side of the volcano in the Pyroclastic flow, but dust and ash is very light, most often it is made up of pumice which is very light, and this ash can be blown miles into the atmosphere, but eventually it will come back to earth. Feet upon feet of ash can fall for days, eve, weeks, after the initial eruption.

If this initial explosion destroys enough of the volcano the magma can leak out. In the final stage of an eruption. This stage isn't very often. Most often the pressure is released in the early stages. But if the magma chamber is high enough, or if enough of the vent is blown open, then the magma will spill outward, flowing downhill, much like water. As soon as this super heated rock touches surface air it immediately cools back into solid rock. Eventually this rock will again plug the hole in the end of the vent, and the process begins all over again.

To Make a More Permanent Volvano:

Supplies:
1 Empty Toilet Paper Roll
10 lengths of string about 18-24 inches in length each
1 large paper plate
Plaster of Paris
2-4 Roll of Gause
Warm Water
Tape
Paints
1 mini plastic bowl (I used a washed out cup from the cinnamon rolls, the one the frosting comes in) < br/> Spray Sealant (optional)

Process:

Cut 4 small slits on the bottom of the tp roll, very small ones, then bend the pieces out until you have 4 'feet'
Tape these feet to the middle of your paper plate
Cut about 12 evenly spaced tiny cuts along the top edge of the tp roll.
Tape one end of one piece of string to the bottom edge of the plate, wrap the middle of the string between 2 slits on the top of the roll, then tape the other end under the edge of the plate. Try to make the string go to a slight diagonal.
Repeat step 4 until you have a nice structure for a Strato-volcano. (you'll use all if not most of your string.
Cut a roll of Gause into roughly 8 inch strips.
Mix some of your plaster with water. I do this in small sections because plaster dries crazy fast, and you need to move fairly quickly.
Dip a section of Gause into the plaster and lay it over your structure, making sure not to seal off the top hole, until the whole thing (even bottom edge) is covered in a nice thick layer.
Allow it to dry completely. You can do a couple of layers until you have a solid volcano
Allow it to dry, then paint as desired
You can chose to seal it with a spray sealer if you think the kids will want to cause repeated eruptions (sealer will prevent the sides from getting sticky once the 'lava' starts flowing).
Fit tiny cup into the top of your volcano, this is where you'll put your chemical mixture.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Experiment 11: Floating Water

Experiment 11: Water Pressure vs. Air
This is another experiment that doubles as a magic tric. Amaze your family and friends with this experiment!

Supplies:

1 plastic bottle with a top (it can be a 16 oz-2 liter)
Water
Sharp knife or drill (CAUTION!!)
Sink or bucket

Process:

1) have an adult use the sharp knife or drill to make tiny holes along the bottom underside of the bottle. If using a bottle that has 4 little feet (small protrusions) then put one hole in the bottom of each; if your bottle is flat edged n the bottom, then just make 4 equally spaced holes
2) fill the bottle about 3/4 of the way full with water.
3) secret cap on tightly
4) Lift up bottle and be amazed that none of the water leaks out of the holes.
5) holding bottle over sink or bucket tips slightly and watch the water come out of the holes.

Explanation:

Water can only leak out of the holes when air can pass into the bottle via the holes. See inside every object is a constant # of molecules. I an empty bottle the bottle is actually filled with air. If the bottle is filled with water the air is pushed out through the 'mouth' of the bottle. When holding a bottle upright, the air in the bottle goes toward the top the water, toward the bottom. In effect, the water prevents more air from entering the bottle through the small holes - so the water is acting as a plug! When you tip the bottle even slightly, some of the water molecules shifty off of the openings, ever so briefly. This allows some air to enter the bottle and some water to exit the bottle. But it looks like magic to have the water not fall down out of the holes!

Experiments 8-10: Playing with Gas Pressure

The next 3 experiments all deal with gas pressure. They are among my kids favorite experiments - but, as boys, anything exploding or seeming like magic will always be a hit!

Experiment 8: Exploding Soda

CAUTION: you'll want to do this outside away from your house, as it makes a fantastic mess.

Supplies:
2 liter bottle of soda unopened 1 package of mint mentos

Process:

1) set the soda bottle in a wide open space and carefully open the top. (don't shake up the soda as you want as much of hte carbon dioxide to remain in the bottle as possible)
2) this is the tricky party. You'll want to drop at least 5 mentos into the soda at the same time. I stacked the mentos carefully so they could drop, one right after the other into the bottle.
3) duck and run! The soda will shoot up about 15 feet into the air!

Explanation:

Soda is backed with carbon dioxide, that's what all the fizz is about. A mento may seem smooth on the surface, but in actuality the entire surface is pitted with hundreds of microscopic holes. When they are dropped into the soca much of the carbon zooms through these holes, building up the gas pressure to explosive levels, as the pressure inside the bottle becomes greater than the air pressure outside, the liquid seeks to go where there is less pressure, outside the bottle. This is a similar concept to releasing a blown up balloon - it will zoom around as the pressure within the balloon is rapidly released.

Experiment 9: the Coin Launcher

Supplies:

1 small bottle of soda, empty (16 oz is a good size)
1 pieces of tissue paper
1 quarters
Freezer
Safety glasses

Process:

1) put the top on tightly on the empty bottle, also place it in the freezer
2) let sit for About 30 minutes
3) observe what changes to the bottle, but leave it in the freezer so it doesn't warm
4) wrap the quarter in the tissue paper
5) get the paper wet
6) with the bottle still in the freezer, remove the top and place the tissue wrapped quarter over the opening.
7) allow to sit in freezer until tissue is frozen
8) take bottle out of the freezer. Wear the safety glasses!
9) gently warm the bottle in your hands pointing away from you. Watch what happens!

Explanation:

When the bottle is frozen it shrinks as the air molecules pull toward the middle of the boodle. When the frozen tissue is in place of the top, it should maintain this vacuum. (if he coin doesnt shoot off, then the tissue dint form a good enough seal). When the bottle is then warmed the air molecules push back away from the center. This causes a change in pressure that pushes the coin away.

Experiment 10: Magic Card Trick

We actually first did this trick last spring for a local science fair. My youngest did the next two experiments as a part of his display on the awesome capabilities of air & water pressure!

Supplies

Small glass or plastic cup (it must have a rather sharp or flat rim with no bends)
Water
1 index card

Process:

1) fill the glass about 3/4 of the way full of water
2) lay the index card flat across the open end of the glass.
3) support the card with the flat of your hand as you quickly turn the cup upside down
4) remove your hand, amaze your family & friends with the fact that the card stays in place and doesn't fall!! (don't leave it too long upside down though, once the water soaks into the card enough it will destroy the seal and the water will go everywhere!)

Explanation:

The reason the card stays in place is based on 2 laws. First Newtons second law of motion: "every action has an equal and opposite reaction" and air pressure vs water pressure. (or more specifically air pressure vs the force of gravity)

Essentially the water in the cup is pushing down with the force of gravity (9.8 meters/second squared). While this force is pointing toward the ground, the air outside the cup of pushing upwards on the card. For a period of time this creates a seal between the card and the edge of the cup. Furthermore there are way more air molecules outside of the cup than there are water molecules inside the cup. This is the true reason for the 'magic'. All air molecules are trying to raise up. This means there is a pressure imbalance. It's like having a car hit a brick wall. If it is a small wall the wall will be destroyed by the car - because there are too many molecules in the car acting against the fewer molecules in the wall. But if it is a gigantic stone wall (like a concrete bridge support) then the car is the one with more damage - as there are more molecules in the wall than there are in the car.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Crazy Science Bday

Awwww my baby boy is now 6 years old! Xman turned 6 this past Thursday and yesturday we had his party. He requested a Mad Science party - he had seen a flyer of a company that has an employee dress as a character and conduct funny experiments...I thought, sure, but why pay them to do it? So we researched some fun, easy experiments and made our own crazy science party.

Each child got a Science Kit goody bag:

Safety Goggles
Plastic Gloves
Ruller
Compass
Lifesaver Wintergreen Mints
Mentos
Rock Candy wooden stick & clothes pin
Lab Notebook (with each of our experiments explained in each one)
2 unblownup balloons

The Experiments:

Sparking Candy (and other electricity experiments like with balloons)
Planting Fun (learning about plants and soil)
Rock Candy (learning about sedimentary rocks)
Fantastic Foamy Fountain (we compared 6% & 3% solution hydrogen peroxide, and leared about exothermic reactions)
Color Explosion (we compared the grease breakdown strengths between Joy & Palmolive dish detergent).
Exploding Soda (we learned about gas pressure)

To see the printout for the Lab Notebooks and the descriptions/explinations of the experiments view Birthday Experiments {username: kickbutttidbits password: kickbuttmama }

{Bday Scientist!}

Lil' Scientists!

Planting Fun

Soda Explosion (it was pouring rain...so I got toally soaked! The kids stood on our awning covered porch screaming a countdown to me then cheering wildly as the soda exploded!)

Fantastic Foamy Fountain

Color Explosion

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Science Experiments For 2009-2010

We're doing at least one experiment per week. While many will coincide with our Combo-books/lapbooks, not necessarily. Most of the time we'll just be progressing through common types of science (earth studies, physics, astronomy, etc.) This will teach the kids to study, collect and report findings as well as understanding the scientific process.

Now, as a former scientist myself, I can tell you adults in the field use a 13 step scientific process -

Observe
Classify
Measure
Sequence Order
Infer
Predict
Communicate
Investigate
Control
Hypotheses
Interpreting
Defining
Formulating

For kids we shorten the process to only 5 steps:

Ask Questions
Observe
Compare
Contrast
Estimate

Using this process we'll perform the following experiments this coming year

Astronomy:

The Sun and Us
How Radar Works: Seeing inside a closed box
Day & Night Part 1: Simulating Day and Night
Day & Night Part 2: The differences between Day and Night
The Shape of the Earth
The Tides
Creating an Eclipse
Shadow Lines
Equinox
Star Tracker
Shrinking Sun
Sun Spots
Sunset in a box
Solar Oven
Different Moons (2 parts understand the moon's phases and observing them)
Your Weight On The Moon
Reflective & Refractive Telescope
Making a Parallax
Mapping the Night Sky
Your Age on Other Planets
Green House Effect
Rocket Launch
Satellites Part 1: Simulating Satellites
Satellites Part 2:Orbiting Satellites
Satellites Part 3: Signals & Satellites

Forces & Waves:

Splitting Light
Angled Light
Centrifugal Force
The Sun's Gravity Part 1: Demonstrating the pull of gravity
The Sun's Gravit Part 2: How a spacecraft can escape gravity to fly in space
Escaping Gravity
Watch Inertia
A Pendulum
Pull It Up: Using Levers
Turn It Up: Sound Amplification
Tinkling: See how sound vibrates
Echo, Echo
Water & Light Waves
Shadow Drawing
Rainbow Light
Refraction & Reflection
Turning to White - see how many colors make up white
Falling Over: Energy Transference
Bounce: Energy Transference part 2
The Swing of Things: Every Action has a Equal Reaction
Lifting Higher: Sideways Force
Jumping Up: Static Electricity
Ions in Action
Lemon Batteries
Magnetic Field
Double Magnetism
The Amazing Jumping Man: Relationship between electricity and magnets
Jar Magnet

Earth Science:

Salinity of the Oceans
Classifying Living Things
Breathing Plants: How plants obtain nutrients from the soil
Nocturnal Plants
Mini Greenhouse
Classifying Fruits & Vegetables
When is a Fruit a Berry
Making a Compost Bin
Tree & Plant Encyclopedia
Bird Encyclopedia
How does a Boat Float (It's full of air) Using a jar cap to show how a submarine floats or sinks.
High Tides: Water Volume

Anatomy & Physiology:

Balloon Lungs
At Home Stethoscope

Kickbutt's Crazy Lapbooks

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Awesome Science Websites

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Experiment 12: Erupting Volcano