Cool science

experiments
for kids

By Sacha F.
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 3
Edible crystals ............................................................................................................................................. 4
Can you make homemade rock candy? ................................................................................................ 5
Homemade lava ........................................................................................................................................... 6
Can you make a volcano erupt? ............................................................................................................. 7
Shiny as new ................................................................................................................................................ 8
Can you clean a coin? .............................................................................................................................. 9
Floating water ............................................................................................................................................ 10
Can water stay up in the air? ................................................................................................................. 11
Touchable fire ............................................................................................................................................ 12
Can you touch fire without getting burned? ......................................................................................... 13
Naked egg ................................................................................................................................................... 14
Can you remove the shell of an egg without cooking it? ................................................................... 15
Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................... 16

2
Introduction
What makes a scientist? Skills, practice and curiosity in science.
Chemistry is mixing different substances together to create something new.
Physics explains how the world works: if you throw a ball up in the air, it will always come down
because of gravity.

This is a book about experiments you can easily do at home, and it will teach you about science.
I think all of them are very cool, so I hope you will have fun trying them.

3
Edible crystals
Some substances, such as salt, sugar and washing soda, are made up of tiny pieces all the
same shapes called crystals.

4
 Can you make homemade rock candy?

• 3 cups of sugar
• 1 small glass of sugar
• 1 cup of water
• Food colouring
• 2 big jars or cups
• Clothes pegs

Make a syrup, let it cool. Then put them back in the solution.
The sticks should not touch any sides or the Let them rest for a couple of days and your
bottom of the jar. sugar sticks will grow.
Put the sticks in the solution and then into the When they’re big enough, you put them to dry
sugar. on a plate.

As the water cools, it cannot hold the sugar. So, the sugar starts to form more crystals, which stick
on the sugar which was already around the stick: it’s attracted to the crystals already on the stick,
until a whole cluster forms. At the same time, the water evaporates into the air. As it does, it
leaves the sugar behind which forms into more and more crystals around the stick.

5
Homemade lava
Lava is the magma once it has come to surface of the Earth. It’s a red, hot liquid rock which is
under pressure beneath the Earth’s crust. It finds the weakest place it can and bursts up through a
crack or hole in the Earth’s surface.
If the magma gets blocked on its way out, it may burst out in a violent eruption, often releasing
poisonous gases, like hydrogen sulphide.

But, in this experiment, we aren’t going to make real lava. We will mix baking soda and vinegar.
They will react in a way to make bubbles.

Baking soda is made of sodium, hydrogen, oxygen and carbon.

When you mix it with vinegar, it breaks up/separates: the carbon and oxygen form a gas that
comes out of the container (that’s the bubbles) and takes with it the other things ( the red stuff) :
hydrogen, sodium, food coloring and vinegar.

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 Can you make a volcano erupt?

You will start by making your papier-mâché volcano. Here is a website to help you with your volcano: “How
To Make a Volcano for the Science Fair” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b_gltKtERY)

Newspaper
Plastic bottle
Glue
Carboard board

Then you will make the lava:

Food colouring mixed with some warm water

Vinegar (acid)
2 to 4 Ts of Baking soda to put inside the
bottle

Put the baking soda in the

bottle.

Add the warm water and

the food coloring.

Pour the vinegar in the

bottle.

Step away and your lava

will burst out!

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Shiny as new
Why do coins get dirty?
Because people are using them and they are putting germs, bacteria, sweat and dirt on the coins
But they also get dirty also because of oxydation.

According to Planet Science, “pennies get dull and dirty because the copper in the pennies reacts
with oxygen in the air to form copper oxide.”
Oxidation is a chemical reaction which happens with the oxygen contained in the air.
This is metal gets rusty, like here:

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 Can you clean a coin?

Vinegar
Salt
Copper coins (pennies)
Non-copper coins
A bowl and a spoon

1. Pour the vinegar in a bowl and add the

salt, and then stir.
2. Put 2 to 3 copper coins in the bowl and
slowly count to ten.
3. Take out the coins and dry them.
4. Repeat the operation with non-copper
coins.

Put the two sets of coins together and compare

the brightness.

It turns out, that vinegar is an acid, and the acid in the vinegar reacts with the salt to remove what
chemists call “copper oxide”, which was making your coins look dull.

9
Floating water
Air is all around us. We smell it, feel it, and hear it. We can’t see it, though. And although
air is light and invisible, we can still find ways to weigh and to see it.

The atmosphere is a thick layer of air around the earth. It exerts its pressure on bodies and
objects, but nobody is aware of it. Yet, it is used to operate machines and overcome the force of
gravity, like planes for example

According to NASA Science for Kids, Gravity is a force of attraction that exists between any two
masses, any two bodies, any two particles. Gravity is not just the attraction between objects and
the Earth. It is an attraction that exists between all objects, everywhere in the universe but here we
will use the gravity of the Earth.

Here is an easy magic trick to do that isn’t really magic.

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 Can water stay up in the air?

1 piece of cardboard
1 glass of water

Place the card on the top of Press down on the card as Remove your hand. The
the cup, making sure it you turn the cup upside water will appear to float
covers the entire top. down. inside the cup with nothing
holding it up.

If you turned the glass upside down without

the card, gravity would pull the water down
and it would spill. When you add the card,
you see the effects of air pressure. The air
ld n I ju ut
gra book ber

below the cup pushes up on the card and it is

cou vity? abo
do ot pu t
s
t it
m

enough to cancel the effect of gravity on the

th a e m e

water and keep it “floating” inside the cup.

.
wn
R
t

11
Touchable fire
Fire is a process in which substances combine chemically with oxygen from the air and typically
give out bright light, heat, and smoke.
Normal fire can burn you because it’s hot and it’s hot because the energy stored in fuel is released
suddenly. The energy required to start the chemical reaction is much less than the energy
released.

12
 Can you touch fire without getting burned?
Warning: You need an adult for this experiment

Hand sanitizer (Be sure your hand

sanitizer lists ethyl alcohol or isopropyl
alcohol as the active ingredient. Other
chemicals may not work or may burn
too hot.)
A lighter or matches
A plate

1. On a fire-proof surface, make a pattern

using the gel.
2. Set the edge of the gel on fire. The
flame will spread.

3. If you like, you can touch the flame. Be careful!

Although the hand sanitizer flame is relatively
cool, it's still fire and it can burn you.

Hand sanitizer is very flammable because it’s mostly made of alcohol but this specific kind of
alcohol (ethyl alcohol or isopropyl alcohol) produces a relatively cool flame that is made more
manageable by the high percentage of water in the product.

13
Naked egg
Acid is an important group of chemicals. They are dangerous when they are strong but weaker
sorts are found in lots of everyday things including foods and drinks.
Vinegar is an acid eats away things and make them dissolve. Let’s try it on an egg!

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Can you remove the shell of an egg without
cooking it?

1. A glass of vinegar
2. 1 egg

1. Put the egg in the vinegar.

2. Wait 24 hours
3. Take out the egg and you have a
bouncy egg!

The eggshell slowly disappeared because the eggshell is calcium carbonate and the vinegar “ate”
the calcium. The transparent thing that remained is the membrane that holds the egg inside the
shell.

15
Bibliography
A bibliography is the resources I’ve used to make my book. Have a look if you want more
information. You have resources from the Internet and from the library. You can also ask your
teachers.

Websites:

Cleaning coins
https://sciencebob.com/clean-pennies-with-vinegar/
http://encyclopedia.kids.net.au/page/ac/Acid
https://cleaningoxidatedcoins.weebly.com/background-information.html
http://www.planet-science.com/categories/under-11s/chemistry-chaos/2011/03/chemistry-cleans-
pennies.aspx

Crystals making or rock candy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQdXbf8huuQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdH577EJdtc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcWy3wwHJB4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcWy3wwHJB4

Lava and volcano

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b_gltKtERY

Hand sanitizer experiment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfMfWDqqeVc&has_verified=1
https://www.thoughtco.com/why-is-fire-hot-607320

Gravity.
https://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/questions/question30.html

Books

Earthquakes and volcanoes, fascinating facts, Jenny Slater

Grolier’s wonderful world of science, inventions, Duncan Brewer
The Usborne big book of experiments, Alastair Smith
Science, explore how things work, Ella Fern, Fiona Tummoch and Alex Woolf
The big book of experiments, an encyclopedia of science, Cristina Drago and Antonella Meiani
How hot is lava? And other questions about volcanoes, Kelly Smith
Volcano Rising, Elizabeth Rusch
The periodic table book, a visual encyclopedia of the elements, Tom Jackson
The everything kids’ science experiments book, Tom Robinson

I also found some illustrations there:

https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/3/24/15028396/march-for-science-diversity
https://roundrockgifts.net/shop/product/1pc-natural-fluorite-hexagonal-column-crystal-point-
healing-wand-mineral-crystal-home-decoration-stone-study-room-decoration/

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