Learning Activities  

» Self Inflating Balloon Experiment

SELF INFLATING BALLOON EXPERIMENT

My kids were a little skeptical when I told they we were going to be inflating a balloon without
blowing into it or using helium. Here is what we used to make it happen:

 a balloon

 1 liter plastic bottle

 funnel

 1 teaspoon baking soda

 3 tablespoons of vinegar
Clean a 1 liter bottle and let dry. Using a funnel, add 1 teaspoon of baking soda to the bottle.

Place the small end of the funnel into the opening of the balloon. Hold carefully and pour the
vinegar into the balloon.
Carefully stretch out the open end of the balloon and place over the mouth of the bottle, while
leaving the rest of the balloon hanging. This part was a little tricky for my kids, so I helped.

Hold on to the balloon at the point where it is attached to the bottle. Lift up the rest of the balloon
to pour the vinegar inside the bottle, while continuing to hold the balloon at the seal. When the
vinegar interacts with the baking soda on the bottom of the bottom, it will start to bubble and
inflate the balloon.
How did this happen? When the vinegar and baking soda mix together, carbon dioxide gas is
produced and this gas causes the balloon to inflate.

This self inflating balloon experiment takes just a few minutes to do and uses lots of supplies you
probably already have at home. Learning has never been so much fun!
Magic Tea Bag Rocket
*make sure this is supervised by an adult at all times, is done in an area with
no wind & that you have a fire extinguisher on hand.

Check out the easy video tutorial below:

To do this yourself you will need:
Tea bag
Scissors
Lighter or matches
Plate

Step 1

Take your Tea bag and snip off the top with the scissors, empty out the tea
leaves into the bin or a separate container

Step 2

Unfold the tea bag and hollow it out using your finger

Step 3
Stand your tea bag upright onto the plate and light both sides with the
lighter/matches

Step 4

Stand back and watch the magic begin!

Homemade Lava Lamp

prep time:  15 minutes
 
active time:  30 minutes
 
total time:  45 minutes
How to make the perfect lava lamp? We experimented with a few different ways and will show

Materials
 water
 oil (we used baby oil and vegetable oil)
 food coloring
 Alka-seltzer effervescent antacid tablets

Tools
 tall glass or bottle
 adult supervision

Instructions
1. Fill the glass with 1 to 2 inches of water.
2. Add your favorite food coloring.
3. Fill the rest of the glass with oil but stop at about 1 inch from the top so that it won't bubble over.
4. Drop an antacid tablet into the mixture and watch.
Notes
 Try using different sizes of alka-seltzer tablet.
 Try using different types of oil.
 Try mixing the different types of oil to get your favorite "lava" flow.

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

Baby Oil

Alka Seltzer tablets contain 3 ingredients: aspirin (pain killer), sodium

bicarbonate and citric acid.

When dropped into water, sodium bicarbonate and citric acid combine
to form sodium citrate, carbon dioxide, and water.
This sodium citrate can neutralize stomach acid and this is why alka-
seltzer is an antacid medicine.
During this process, carbon dioxide is created.
Because carbon dioxide has a lower density than water, it forms
bubbles and flows to the top taking some dyed water along with it.
When the bubbles burst, the blobs of colored water sinks back to the
bottom because it has a higher density than oil.
This goes on until all the ingredients in the tablet are used up.
Which oil is the best?
We started out using baby oil because it was clear and colorless.
It smelled nice and looked less oil-like.

However, the bubbles were plenty and very tiny.

They clouded up the solution very quickly and you could hardly see
the big blobs of color characteristics in lava lamps (the picture below
is exceptional among many many cloudy pictures).

The bubbles also felt very quickly through the oil back into the water.
You could miss them easily if you blinked.

Then we tried the traditional vegetable oil. It worked very well.

Big bubbles of colored water falling gracefully thorough the vegetable
oil.
But the oil was yellowish although also clear.

Because we really liked the colorless look, we tried the third time by
mixing small amount of vegetable oil with baby oil.
This time, the bubbles were a little smaller than using the vegetable oil
alone, but they still looked amazing.
Making Ice Cream
 ou don't need a fancy ice cream maker to make ice cream at home. All you need is a
plastic baggie and 15 minutes. Top with any of your favorite topping and enjoy
homemade ice cream instantly! 

YIELDS:1 SERVING
PREP TIME:0 HOURS 5 MINS
TOTAL TIME:0 HOURS 15 MINS
INGREDIENTS
1 c. 
half-and-half
2 tbsp. 
granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. 
pure vanilla extract
3 c. 
ice
1/3 c. 
kosher salt
Toppings of your choice
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DIRECTIONS

1. In a small resealable plastic bag, combine half-and-half, sugar, and vanilla. Push
out excess air and seal.
2. Into a large resealable plastic bag, combine ice and salt. Place small bag inside
the bigger bag and shake vigorously, 7 to 10 minutes, until ice cream has hardened.
3. Remove from bag and enjoy with your favorite ice cream toppings.

Egg in the bottle

Materials : Bottle and egg

Take 1 bottle

Prepare hard boiled egg

Roll paper and put to the bottle

Now egg can pass

his is a classic science experiment that demonstrates the power of pressure. It looks
like the egg is getting sucked into the bottle. But, as my 9th grade science teacher Mrs.
Grimm drilled into our heads,  there’s actually no such thing as suction. It’s just high
pressure winning over low pressure. And air pressure follows something called the Ideal
Gas Law.

Balloon-Powered Car
This project focuses mostly on the engineering side of STEM. You need some
household items (toothpicks, bottle caps, coins) and an empty juicebox to construct the
car — and then you can inflate the balloon through the straw and watch it go!

 Empty Juice Box – like Juicy Juice!

 (1) Balloon
 (1) Bendy Plastic Straw
 (1) Rubber Band
 (2) Round Toothpicks
 (4) Disposable Water Bottle Caps, same size and shape
 Washi Tape (Sticky but not too sticky. This is important!)
 Coins – just in case you need for weight