Final Science Experiments for 1st visit September 19, 2015

1. Cornstarch Suspension
Materials:
Cornstarch
Water
Bowl
Spoon
Procedure:
Empty 1 cup of cornstarch into a large bowl.
Stir while you add water SLOWLY -- don't add all of it if you don't need to.
You need the consistency of thick pancake batter. It's better to add too little water
than too much.
Add a few drops of food coloring.
Stick your hands in the mixture or smack the table where set up is placed and
observe the suspension
Explanation:
The cornstarch and water mixture acts like a solid sometimes and a liquid at other
times. This concoction is an example of a suspension - a mixture of two substances, one
of which is finely divided and dispersed in the other. In the case of the cornstarch
quicksand, it's a solid dispersed in a liquid.
Quicksand is nothing more than a soupy mixture of sand and water, where the
sand is literally floating on water. Scientifically speaking, quicksand is actually a
substance that behaves like a solid and a liquid at the same time. This is the interesting
sensation you experienced with the cornstarch and water mixture. Quicksand is just solid
ground that has been liquefied by too much water, and the term "quick" refers to how
easily the sand shifts when in this solid-liquid state.
2. Egg in a Bottle
Materials :

Hard-boiled egg w/o shell

Glass bottle
Newspaper
Matchbox

Procedure:

Place the eggs in a saucepan and add enough water so that the eggs are covered by
about an inch. Let the water boil for 5 minutes, then remove the pan from the heat
and cover it. Let it sit for 25 minutes, then remove the eggs and dip them in cold
water.

Use a paper towel to coat the inside edge of the bottle mouth with a little bit of
vegetable oil for lubrication.
Peel one of the eggs, then dip it in water and set it with the small end down in the
mouth of the glass bottle. It should be slightly larger than the mouth of the bottle,
so it doesn't fit inside.
Use a match to light the end of a strip of paper on fire. Lift the egg off the bottle,
drop the paper inside with the flame down, and quickly replace the egg. Watch the
egg wiggle a little in the bottle mouth, and then get sucked inside!

Explanation:
So how does this squishy-but-solid egg get mysteriously pushed inside the bottle?
The answer is all about air pressure. When you first set the egg on the bottle, the air
pressure inside the bottle matched the air pressure outside, so nothing happened. When
you dropped the burning paper into the bottle, it caused the air inside to heat up and
expand rapidly. That expanding air pushed the egg aside and escaped from the bottle;
that's why you saw the egg vibrating. When the fire consumed all the oxygen inside the
bottle, the flame went out and the remaining air in the bottle cooled down. Cool air takes
up less space, exerting less pressure inside the bottle. (The egg acted as a seal to prevent
outside air from getting in to fill the extra space.) The result was an unbalanced force
the force of the air pushing on the egg from outside the bottle was greater than the force
of the air pushing up on it from inside the bottle. Voila - the egg was pushed into the
bottle!
How do you get the egg out again? You need to increase the pressure inside the
bottle. Turn the bottle upside down and tilt it until the small end of the egg is sitting in the
mouth. Now put your mouth close to the bottle and blow, forcing more air into the bottle
and raising the pressure inside. When you take your mouth away, the egg should pop out.
http://www.hometrainingtools.com/a/egg-in-bottle-project
http://www.schoolofdragons.com/resources/egg-in-a-bottle-view
3. Filling-Up a Balloon with a Chemical Reaction
Materials:
Baking Soda
Vinegar
Balloons
Used Bottles
Funnel
Procedure:
Take a used water bottle and pour vinegar inside
Pour in some baking soda inside the balloon using the funnel.
Stretch the neck of the balloon over the opening of the bottle.
Tip the balloon the pour the baking soda into the bottle with vinegar. This
procedure produces CO2, and this gas inflates the balloon.

Explanation:
Self-Inflating Balloons contain two chemicals that are kept from reacting until the
balloon is activated by hitting it. One of these chemicals is baking soda. In some
cases the baking soda is mixed with a binder to form a small pellet. The other
chemical is citric acid that is dissolved in water and stored in its own plastic bag.
Hitting the balloon bursts the bag of liquid, allowing the citric acid to react with the
baking soda to form the carbon dioxide gas that accounts for the fizzing, popping, and
expanding of the balloon. Interestingly, the balloon also cools as a result of an
endothermic process that results when the baking soda dissolves in the liquid water
from the inner plastic bag.

4. Volcano
Materials:
Homemade volcano
Container
Red and yellow food coloring
Vinegar
Dishwashing liquid
Baking soda
Procedure:
Put the container into the volcano at the top
Add two spoonfuls of baking soda
Add about a spoonful of dish soap
Add about 5 drops each of the red and yellow food coloring
Add about an ounce of the vinegar into the container and watch what your
volcano come alive.
Explanation:
The red lava is the result of a chemical reaction between the baking soda and
vinegar. In this reaction, the carbon dioxide gas is produced, pressure builds up
inside the plastic bottle until the gas bubbles out of the volcano.
5. Magic Ink
Materials:

Lemon
Water
Small plate
Toothpick

White paper
Lamp

Procedure:

Squeeze the lemon juice into a small plate with a few drops of water
and mix with a spoon.
Dip the toothpick into the lemon juice mix and write a message on the
white sheet of paper.
When it dries the writing will be invisible.
Heat the paper by holding it over a lamp with the writing side down.
The invisable ink writing will slowly turn brown and appear on the
page!

Explanation:
This is an example of the chemical reaction know as the IODINECLOCK
REACTION. It is called a clock reaction because you can change the amount if time it
takes for the liquids to turn blue. (see experiments below) The chemistry of the
demonstration gets a bit complicated, but basically it is a battle of chemistry between the
starch which is trying to turn the iodine blue, and the Vitamin C which is keeping it from
turning blue. Eventually the Vitamin C loses and, bam! you get instant blueness.
6. Mentos Diet Coke Geyser
Materials:

Mentos
Coke
Paper

Procedure:

This activity is probably best done outside in the middle of an

abandoned field, or better yet, on a huge lawn.
Carefully open the bottle of soda. Position the bottle on the ground so
that it will not tip over.
Unwrap the whole roll of Mentos. The goal is to drop all of the Mentos
into the bottle of soda at the same time (which is trickier than it looks).
One method for doing this is to roll a piece of paper into a tube just big
enough to hold the loose Mentos. You'll want to be able to position the
tube directly over the mouth of the bottle so that all of the candies
drop into the bottle at the same time.

Drop the Mentos in the bottle.

Explanation:
Water molecules strongly attract each other, linking together to form a tight
mesh around each bubble of carbon dioxide gas in the soda. In order to form a new

bubble, or even to expand a bubble that has already formed, water molecules must push
away from each other. It takes extra energy to break this "surface tension." In other
words, water "resists" the expansion of bubbles in the soda.
When you drop the Mentos into the soda, the gelatin and gum arabic from the
dissolving candy break the surface tension. This disrupts the water mesh, so that it takes
less work to expand and form new bubbles. Each Mentos candy has thousands of tiny pits
all over the surface. These tiny pits are called nucleation sites - perfect places for carbon
dioxide bubbles to form. As soon as the Mentos hit the soda, bubbles form all over the
surface of the candy. Couple this with the fact that the Mentos candies are heavy and sink
to the bottom of the bottle and you've got a double-whammy. When all this gas is
released, it literally pushes all of the liquid up and out of the bottle in an incredible soda
blast.

7. Turn Milk into Plastic

Materials
Needed for preparing ahead:

Measuring cup (1)

Milk (1 cup per demo or small group)
Stovetop oven and pan (1) or microwave and microwaveable container (1)
Thermos (1)
Mug or other heat-resistant cup (1 per demo or small group)
Set of measuring spoons (1)
White vinegar (4 tsp. per demo or small group)

Needed for each demo or small group at the time of the science activity:

Hot milk (1 cup)

Mug or other heat-resistant cup with 4 tsp. of vinegar (1)
Paper towels (6)
Spoon for stirring (1)
Optional: Cookie cutters, glitter, food coloring, markers

Procedure:
Prepare Ahead (< 10 minutes)

Heat 1 cup of milk for each classroom demo or small group. Heat the
milk in a pan on a stovetop until the milk is steaming. Alternatively,
you can microwave the milk in a microwaveable container by warming
it at 50% power for 5 minutes and watching to make sure it does not
overflow. It should be about the same temperature as you would want
milk to be for making hot cocoa. If it is not heated enough, microwave
it for 2 minutes at 50% power and repeat this until the milk is hot.

Store the hot milk in a thermos until it is needed.

Right before doing the classroom demo or small group exploration, add
4 teaspoons (tsp.) of white vinegar to a mug. Each demo or group
should have one mug with vinegar.

Science Activity (10-20 minutes)

Each classroom demo or small group should have 1 cup of hot milk,
one mug with vinegar, paper towels, and a stirring spoon.
Help students measure out 1 cup of hot milk from the thermos and add
the hot milk to the mug or other heat-resistant cup with vinegar. When
the hot milk is added to the vinegar, the milk should form white clumps
(curds). Have students mix the mug of hot milk and vinegar slowly with
a spoon for a few seconds. Ask them to write down their observations.
Stack four layers of paper towels on a surface that is safe to get damp.
Once the milk and vinegar mixture has cooled a bit, have students use
a spoon to scoop out the curds. Direct them to tilt the spoon against
the inside of the mug to let excess liquid drain out while retaining the
curds in the spoon. Have them collect as many curds as they can in
this way and put the curds on top of the paper towel stack.
Direct students to fold the edges of the paper towel stack over the
curds and press down on them to absorb excess liquid from the curds.
Two more paper towels can be pressed down on top of the curds to
soak up the rest of the extra liquid.
Have students knead all of the curds together in a ball of dough. This is
the casein plastic.
If students want to make the casein plastic into something, they can
color, shape, or mold it now (within an hour of making the plastic
dough) and leave it to dry on paper towels for at least 48 hours. To
shape the plastic, students must knead the dough well before shaping
it. Molds and cooking cutters work well, or, with more patience, the
dough can be sculpted. Food coloring, glitter, or other decorative bits
can be added to the wet casein plastic dough, and dried casein plastic
can be painted or colored with markers. Once it has dried, the casein
plastic will be hard. Drying time varies depending on the thickness of
the final item (thicker pieces take longer), but plan on at least two
days.

Explanation:

When you add the hot milk to the vinegar, small, white chunks should
become visible in the mixture. This is because adding an acid, such as vinegar, to the
milk changes the pH of the milk and makes the casein molecules unfold and reorganize
into a long chain, curdling the milk. The white chunks are curds. Students should be able
to use a spoon to separate the curds from most of the liquid, and additional drying of the
curds with the paper towels should make the curds ready to knead into a ball and use as
casein plastic. The casein plastic can be molded and decorated.
http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fairprojects/Classroom_Activity_Teacher_MilkPlastic.shtml

Overall Materials

Cornstarch

500g

Egg

Newspaper
Lighter

Baking Soda

1 box

Vinegar

1L

Balloons

1 pack

Dishwashing Liquid

Food coloring
Lemon

Red-1 Yellow-1
Green 1
1

Toothpick

1 pack

Bond Paper

Mentos

1 pack

Coke

(2) 1.5 L

Milk

2 cartons

Paper Towels

1 roll

Apparatus
Bowl

Spoon

Glass bottle

Plastic bottles

Funnel

Small container

Small plate

Measuring cup

Mug