Science Experiment for Kids: Dancing Craisins

by Holly Homer on March 6th, 2011 | 2 Comments »

Exposing children to science concepts can help encourage their curiosity. I find if you can create a situation where they ask WHY? and you can actually answer it with something coherent and educational, it is a bonus! Often my children ask questions that are difficult to answer at their level of understanding. This is one of the reasons I really like doing science experiments with them at home. It creates a natural setting for them to ask WHY? and since I have read ahead in the book, I can answer with something satisfying.

Today's experiment is from Pop Bottle Science by Lynn Brunelle.

Science Experiment Using Craisins

I am substituting Craisins...because they are much better dancers? Honestly, I only had Craisins in my pantry.

Materials

bowl of water
vinegar
baking soda
10 raisins or Craisins

Add 4 Tablespoons of vinegar, 3 Tablespoons of baking soda & the 10 raisin/Craisins to the bowl of water.

Wait a moment or two and watch the bubbles cause the dancing dried fruit.

I ended up adding a little extra baking soda to make my Craisins more animated.

They were more of the slow dancing kinda fruit. Why? The vinegar and baking soda create carbon dioxide bubbles, the same gas that carbonates soda pop. Bubbles will gather under the raisins until there's enough fizz to raise the raisins to the surface. When the bubbles pop it causes the Craisins to fall.

Here are the full experiment instructions: Publicity-Mad Science Club Experiments 2
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This is the second fun and easy science experiment for kids that we are featuring on Mom It Forward. The first one was also from Pop Bottle Science, Magic Finger.

The entire series was inspired by the people at Workman. They publish an array of crazy cool children's science resources. I have used several of them in homeschooling and when hosting homeschool co-op...it can make you look really smart to the other homeschool moms.

Holly is a mad scientist at home. Pretty much everything she cooks in the kitchen turns out to be some sort of science experiment…and not in a good way. She is the stay at home mom of three boys. She is a Dallas Area Blogger who writes June Cleaver Nirvana and is the editor of She is Dallas. She can be found on Facebook and Twitter.