Fun Class experiments
We held a science activity using materials commonly found in western households and some Chinese homes. This linked science to our theme of “Around my Home”.
We did 3 visual experiments and then let students try 2 practical experiments.
The components used for the experiment were baking soda, clear vinegar, food colouring, yeast (used in cooking), dish soap, and hydrogen peroxide (used in cleaning).
We used a story concept to explain the reactions to students, creating a monster and explaining that in the ‘reacting agent’ lives tiny monsters who eat the baking soda. This made them thirsty, so they drink some vinegar, which causes them to make bubbles.
Additionally, students were allowed to taste the yeast, baking soda and vinegar. Taking note of the flavours and providing comparisons to where they experienced it before.
First, we experimented with bottles and balloons. We began by adding a small mixture of Baking soda and vinegar. The Balloon was placed on the bottle, and we watched as it expanded.
Our second experiment involved making a Volcano. Again simply mixing baking soda and vinegar creates this reaction. The students learnt Volcano, Lava and watched carefully at the reactions.
We then looked at the amazing foam reaction of “Elephant Toothpaste”,“ a very specific combination of peroxide, soap, and yeast. This reaction causes the peroxide to be eaten by the yeast, releasing oxygen which makes a large amount of foam thanks to the soap. Students had a lot of fun playing with the soapy bubbles!
Finally, we had our 2 practical experiments. The first one we did was called “Coral Reef”, which added the vocabulary of coral. Students were given baking soda and vinegar beakers and then instructed to use pipettes to create coral-like art in the baking soda.
The following day we had all students bring their very own volcano from home. Now that they have a solid understanding of the reaction, it was time to let them experiment independently!
We gave each student 250ml of vinegar (dyed red) and a large bowl of baking soda. The students experimented with the reactions, adding different amounts of soda and vinegar. Even changing the order of which they added! The real fun was watching them compare the reactions to the different shapes and sizes of each other’s volcanoes. All in all, the experiment was an amazing success; students had a lot of fun and felt a strong sense of accomplishment after testing the knowledge they learnt firsthand! Hilariously one of the students who ran out of vinegar grabbed my Vitamin water and tried to use that in their mixture!! It was the same colour, but unfortunately, the reaction was not the same!!
Overall the students came away with wonderful insight into the reactions of vinegar and soda, bubbles and the initial concepts of volcanoes, coral and lava.
It was a messy class, but a happy one!
