Fantastic Foamy Fountain

You will need:

• A clean 16 ounce plastic soda bottle
• 1/2 cup 20-volume hydrogen peroxide liquid (20-volume is a 6% solution, ask an adult to get this from a beauty supply store or hair salon)
• 1 Tablespoon (one packet) of dry yeast
• 3 Tablespoons of warm water
• Liquid dish washing soap
• Food coloring
• Small cup
• Safety goggles

NOTE: Foam will overflow from the bottle, so be sure to do this experiment on a washable surface, or place the bottle on a tray.

1. Hydrogen peroxide can irritate skin and eyes, so put on those safety goggles and ask an adult to carefully pour the hydrogen peroxide into the bottle.

2. Add 8 drops of your favorite food coloring into the bottle.

3. Add about 1 tablespoon of liquid dish soap into the bottle and swish the bottle around a bit to mix it.

4. In a separate small cup, combine the warm water and the yeast together and mix for about 30 seconds.

5. Now the adventure starts! Pour the yeast water mixture into the bottle (a funnel helps here) and watch the foaminess begin!

Foam is awesome! The foam you made is special because each tiny foam bubble is filled with oxygen. The yeast acted as a catalyst (a helper) to remove the oxygen from the hydrogen peroxide. Since it did this very fast, it created lots and lots of bubbles. Did you notice the bottle got warm. Your experiment created a reaction called an Exothermic Reaction - that means it not only created foam, it created heat! The foam produced is just water, soap, and oxygen so you can clean it up with a sponge and pour any extra liquid left in the bottle down the drain.

Lava Lamp

You will need:
Vegetable oil
Food colouring
Artist's oil paint (optional)
Glitter (optional)
Salt
Spoon

Choose a clear plastic or glass container and fill it two thirds full with water add a layer of vegetable oil to about a third the depth of the water. Add food colouring, glitter and oil paints to taste (oil paints should colour the oil layer only and food colouring the water layer only). Add spoons full of salt to the top of the mixture and watch the bubbles of oil fall to the bottom and then slowly rise up again. Keep adding salt to see the lava lamp effect.

Pretty Potions

You will need:
Red cabbage
Saucepan
Lots of glasses or clear plastic beakers
Red cabbage is not available all year round though red onions can be used as an alternative.

Chop up the red cabbage and add to a saucepan of water (half a red cabbage, or three medium red onions, to approximately 1l of water) and boil for 20-30 minutes. Let the mixture cool before separating the cabbage from the now purple water. The red cabbage water can be diluted to about 2l and stored indefinitely in a freezer.

Half fill a glass with the purple water (you should be able to see through it if not dilute with more water). Adding just a few drops of things like coke or vinegar will dramatically change the colour of the solution. You can try adding anything you can find in the kitchen cupboards but some of the best to try are vinegar, coke, lemon juice (or the juice of any citrus fruit) and bicarbonate of soda. Try comparing still water with sparkling water.

Volcano

You will need
Bicarbonate of soda
Vinegar
Red food colouring
Yellow food colouring (optional)
Liquid soap or washing up liquid
Small container (film case or similar)

Combine a level teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda with the same of liquid soap. Add a drop or two of red food colouring and mix it all into a paste. Place the mixture into the bottom of the container. Add a few drops of red food colouring to a tablespoon of vinegar and pour into the container on top of the bicarbonate of soda. The reaction should be messy and instantaneous! You can build your own volcano base out of soil or papier-mâché depending on how much time you have and how artistic you are feeling. All you need to leave is a small hole at the top to place your container. Again the more creative you are the better the overall effect. Yellow food colouring can be added to give a more orange colour to the lava.

Solid Liquid

You will need
Corn Starch
Water
Space to get a bit messy!

Mix 1 part corn starch to 1.5-2 parts water. Start with the starch and slowly add water. Once mixed try: Poking the surface hard with your finger, now slowly dip your finger in. Tip into table top and push around. Roll into a ball and bounce it off the wall. See what else you can do with it (you could walk on it if you filled a paddling pool!).

What you have made is a non Newtonian fluid. Sometimes it has the properties of a solid and sometimes a liquid.

Goo

You will need
Borax (a saturated solution, make by tipping borax crystals into warm water until they stop dissolving)
PVA glue
Zip-lock plastic bag (bank bags or small sandwich bags will do)
Food dye
Plastic pipette

Place a squirt of PVA glue into the bag. Place a few drops of food dye in the bag. Squirt a full pipette of borax solution into the bag. Close the bag, mix using your hands from outside – CAREFULLY. You will start to feel the PVA glue changing, eventually you can take the resulting goo out of the bag and bounce it like a ball.

What you have seen is the cross-linking of a polymer – the small borax molecules have zipped together the long PVA chains, resulting in a change of the properties of the polymer. This is what polymer scientists do all the time to make new materials.