More Science Experiments:

No doubt like many of you, last week I became a work-from-home parent whose kid is out of school! It’s “the new normal.”

So I’ve been trying to figure out a balance between working and entertaining Joss. To be honest, not a day has gone by that he hasn’t said, “Mom, you don’t love me.” At least once. This is when I know it’s time for me to stop, grab a bite to eat, then head outside!

One fun activity we’ve been doing that checks both the “get outside” and “do a fun activity” boxes is making science experiment videos! I’m trying to add them to TulsaKids Magazine’s YouTube channel (if you didn’t know we have one, that’s because we haven’t added much to it previously). So keep an eye out over there for some new content!

Experiment #1: SLIME!

Ingredients: 

• Equal parts water and Elmer’s glue (We used 1/4 cup of each because we didn’t have much glue)
• Food coloring (optional, but fun!)
• A half-part liquid starch (If you use 1/4 c. of glue and water, this would be 2 Tbsp.)

Method:

Mix water and glue together in a bowl. Add a few drops of food coloring, and mix till the color is evenly distributed. Add the liquid starch. Continue to mix until it loses most of its stickiness and becomes the perfect slime texture! If it’s too sticky, go ahead and add another splash of cornstarch. Want to make it even more fun? Add some glitter!

Want to talk science? Find the explanation behind why slime works here, as well as ways to turn this from a simple fun activity into an actual experiment. 

Experiment #2: Make a Volcano!

What’s not shown in the video is the process for making the salt dough volcano base. You can skip this step if you want, but once we watched a video using this method, Joss was adamant that that is what we needed to do. Other options include paper mache, skipping the outer layer altogether and just doing the experiment in a small container/plastic cup, or building a small mound out of dirt/pebbles around the container.

Salt Dough Recipe

• 1/2 c. flour (we used bread flour because ours is out-of-date and I want to conserve our all-purpose flour!)
• 1/4 c. salt
• 1/4 c. water

Mix flour and salt together. Stir in water and mix thoroughly, adding more flour or water if needed until it forms a dough-like texture. Form this around a small container such as a pill bottle or small cup. Do this over a baking sheet because this is one messy experiment!

Volcano

Ingredients:

• Baking Soda
• A couple drops of liquid dish soap
• A couple drops of red and yellow food Coloring
• Vinegar
• You also need a container to mix everything in. We used a plastic cup that was could hold about 3/4 c. of liquid. The larger your container, the more baking soda and vinegar you will need.

Method: 

Add baking soda, soap and food coloring to your container. Then, add vinegar. It’s a VOLCANO ERUPTION!

Experiment #3: Rainbow Lemonade

While volcanoes are a tried-and-true experiment, this is one I’d never heard of before. Better yet, you can drink the finished product! Although to be honest, it made for a pretty watery lemonade.

Ingredients:

• Lemon juice
• Simple Syrup (to make this, simply add equal parts sugar and water to a small saucepan. Heat to a boil, making sure the sugar has dissolved. Let cool before using)
• Water
• Food coloring (we used 5 colors. Obviously, if you want a full rainbow, you’ll need 7)
• You will also need five plastic cups and at least one tall glass filled with ice.

Method: 

Start by making your five mixtures.

• Into your first cup, add 3 tsp. lemon juice, 5 tsp. simple syrup, 1/2 c. of water and a couple drops of red food coloring.
• Into your second cup, add 2 tsp. lemon juice, 3 tsp. simple syrup, 1/2. c. water and a couple drops of yellow food coloring.
• Into the third cup, add 1 tsp. lemon juice, 2 tsp. simple syrup, 1/2 c. water and a couple drops of green food coloring.
• Into the fourth cup, add 1 tsp. lemon juice and 1 tsp. simple syrup, 1/2 c. water and a couple drops of blue food coloring.
• In the final cup, add 1 tsp. simple syrup, 1/2 c. water and a red and blue food coloring to make purple.

Fill your tall glass with ice. The first mixture is your heaviest mixture, so you are going to start by slowly pouring that one into the glass. Try to pour directly onto an ice cube because the ice should help slow the liquid down so it doesn’t mix together too much (this isn’t so important for the first color, but it’s good practice.)

Repeat with remaining solutions, working your way up to the final, purple solution.

The science: This post has a detailed explanation about how this works. They do a full seven-mixture drink that has to do with the Fibonacci sequence, and I couldn’t even begin to explain it. But definitely give it a read if you’re interested!

Sharing is Caring!

If you make any of these experiments after reading this, please tag @tulsakids if you share photos to Instagram. We’d love to share them to our Story!

TulsaKids Activity of the Day

Finally, TulsaKids is looking for fun activities to feature on our social media channels! Tag @tulsakids on Instagram or @tulsakidsmagazine on Facebook if you’d be willing to have us share your family’s activity. We will be sharing a new one each morning! You can also participate by using the hashtag #tkdailyfun.