Monday, March 28, 2011

volcanic eruptions

I found a book called 365 Experiments the other day and picked it up because I thought it would be fun to do with the kids. It felt like I was pulling teeth for them to do just one of the experiments in there (and I let Jake pick). He's doing his best to look like I abuse him here in this picture.
The first experiment the boys did was a volcano. The book called for:
play-dough (I used modeling clay)
film canisters -- you know how hard those are to find these days? I just used up two glass spice jars so I washed and used those.
1 tbs baking soda
1 tbs vinegar
(we used a lot more, because we wanted to see some real action)

We pretty much just stopped measuring and poured the vinegar right in. You can see Jake here with a hint of a smile.
I forgot to mention nails...they weren't part of the original list, but the kids wanted something to represent all the people that get fried with hot lava....how did I raise such blood-thirsty beings?

I also made them look up what actually causes volcanos to erupt and why vinegar and baking soda have such a reaction and made them write it in their own words, because I'm a mean horrible mommy (at least that's the impression I got with all the eye rolling -- they'll thank me later -- right?).

Next week it's how to make limestone....Isaac's choice. It calls for shoeboxes and I have none, I do believe that's a reason to go shoe shopping. I love science.

3 comments:

Rock Chef said...

Great stuff - this is the way to get the kids to engage with science! I remember doing this as a kid, watching plastic army men get "fried".

Jessie Saxton said...

You are braver than I;)

Amanda said...

I love how they get these "looks" that say "I am SO tormented!!!" My elder pulls the same thing. Heh.

Looks like they had some fun in spite of being dragged into it ;)