When I was a child, I hated the science fair at school. I always did whatever I could to get out of it, by any means necessary. If a kid had a communicable disease the week before the project was due, I was doing everything but licking him in the hopes that a sudden illness would spare me. If that failed, I would lie through my teeth, and when that too failed me, I steadfastly demanded the "D" that was always threatened to those who did not bend to the requirements of the dreaded science fair. I spent all year keeping my gradepoint at an A+ so I would survive the sudden plummet and squeak by with a C on the final report card. Stupid? Yes, I know, but I loathed the science fair.
The funny thing is, it wasn't the science project itself that I hated. It was the prep work that was involved that changed the joy of a fun experiment into the drudgery of a school project. I hated the display board, I hated the report, in the requisite clear plastic report cover, I hated the demands and limitations on the way you presented your project. The whole thing turned me off and had me planning my avoidance stratagy nine months in advance.
On my own, I loved to experiment with all sorts of scientific principles. My absolute favorite of all time was the baking soda and vinegar volcano. My mother could not keep baking soda or vinegar in the house, as soon as she brought home a new box or bottle, I stole it and was out in the yard gleefully watching that glorious chemcial eruption bubbling over the dirt mound I lovingly built around the Coke bottle core. When I used up all the red food coloring then alien green or oceanic blue "lava" spilled over the rim and flooded the plastic dinosaurs that dotted the base of the volcano. The fun only ended when the supplies ran out or my mother came to collect her ingredients. She still to this day grumbles about my theivery and how she could never keep red food coloring in the house long enough to tint anything.
As a parent and homeschooler I passed this joy of fun experimentation on to my children. We mixed slime, stirred up goo, discovered all sorts of interesting properties of materials around us, and of course giggled and gazed at our own share of bubbling volcanos fizzing away in the yard. Anytime I found a new experiment that seemed fun or interesing (which for us usually means messy and/or explosive), I had to run out and get the ingredients and demonstrate it as soon as posible. So of course when I came across the instructions for the following experiments, I knew that #920 "Melt Ivory soap in the microwave" and #922 "Do the Mentos and Diet Coke eruption" had to be added to the list of goals to share with my children. On July 11th, we got experimental.
Melting Ivory Soap in the microwave is really a fun and interesting experiment, as the bar will grow into a mountain of foam. First off it HAS to be Ivory soap, other soaps do not have the same amount of air whipped into them and they will just melt. Second, I would NOT recommend microwaving a full bar. We nuked half a bar and it overflowed the plate and left some on the floor of the microwave oven to be cleaned off. It wasn't hard to clean up, but had it been the whole bar, the whole microwave probably would have filled with foam. My children especially loved using the soap after it had turned to foam. Allow it to cool as it's very hot to the touch at first, but when it cools it will harden again and can be used just like regular soap. My children both were really excited by this and can't wait to nuke the other half of the bar of Ivory.
The Mentos and Diet Coke eruption is another wonderful experiment, and fans of the old volcano will really enjoy this one. Any kind of soda will work as long as it's carbonated, but diet soda won't be sticky and we found the 2 liter bottles worked best. You need something to line the Mentos up into a stack so you can load them into the bottle in one shot. We used a test tube we had lying around from a bath confetti set, but any skinny cylynder or tube should work. You might want to wait to do this one when soda is on sale because the kids want to do it again and again. Also definately do it outside and far from anything you don't want soda on, the fountain shoots pretty high.
Two great experiements that were a blast to do and the kids can't wait to repeat them over and over. My son even got a little scientific and brought out the paper and pencil to log the differences as we used different sizes of soda and different flavors of Mentos. He might just enjoy the science fair when it comes around, but he's going to have to get his dad to help him with it, I'll be down with a virus.
As a tail note, #141 "Create a Blog for Cranes Project" was completed on July 13th, and although I expect to fiddle with the settings a little more before I'm totally happy, as of this posting I have now updated all the cranes completed so far. Now to get back to work and finish some more goals!
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