Volcano: Science Experiment for Kids

by Holly Homer on April 24th, 2011 | No Comments »

My boys have been obsessed with volcanoes for awhile. I think it all started on our road trips between Dallas and Colorado several times a year. Just off the highway in Capulin, NM is a volcano.

Yep, in the middle of nowhere in the middle of a field is an actual volcano that hasn't erupted in thousands of years...58,000 to be exact.

I have fielded many volcano questions and calmed my youngest son who was pretty convinced that we should never go to visit Hawaii because of the volcanic activity. Obviously never going to Hawaii is not an option so undertaking an extensive volcano education program at my house is my best bet.

To assure Hawaii is in my future, today's experiment is from Oh, Yuck! by Joy Masoff. This experiment is called The Amazing Exploding Zit. Since my youngest is five and thankfully not dealing with acne, we are modifying it and re-naming it The Gross Volcano.

Science Experiment Using Whipping Cream, Baking Soda, and Vinegar

Materials

Toothpick or plastic utensil
Green and yellow food coloring
Paper cup
Funnel
Empty plastic bottle
Baking soda
Squirt of whipping cream
Sand/dirt
Vinegar

Directions:

Fill 1/2 of your plastic bottle up with baking soda. Next, put a few squirts of whipping cream on top of the baking soda. Finally, mix up the food coloring in the paper cup with the toothpick/plastic utensil and add it to the top of the bottle.

The directions for this experiment suggests using a baking sheet to construct a mound of dirt/sand around the bottle, but I think that might be a bit messy...so outside we go!

Rhett (age 5) created a volcanic mountain of dirt burying the bottle. If your helper is a small child, I suggest replacing the bottle cap during this process so that dirt doesn't become part of your eventual lava.

Once you have created your mountain with just the bottle top showing, fill the bottle up with vinegar.

There she blows!

I like how the addition of whipping cream makes this a less violent explosion. The green and yellow food coloring do add to the gross appearance of the lava.

The entire directions for The Amazing Exploding Zit are available on Scrib.d along with a bonus experiment called The Mound of Make-Believe Mucus...fabulous!

This is the seventh and final fun and easy science experiment you can do with your kids at home. Here are a few of my favorites from the series:

The entire series was inspired by the people at Workman. They publish an array of crazy cool children’s science resources. What I love about this series of science books for children is that they are extremely accessible. The directions are simple and most of the supplies you probably already have at home. It is pretty awesome to discover what happens when vinegar and baking soda hang out together...and add a little whipping cream and it can get fabulously gross.

When Holly isn't creating a home school curriculum to educate her children into traveling to lovely locations, she writes. As a Dallas blogger she explores things to do in DFW with her three boys ages 5, 7 and 10. She can also be found on Twitter and FB while instagramming her way through life.