MAD SCIENTIST!

Since its Halloween week, we've decided to conjure up a few experiments!

First experiment - Acetic Acid mixed with Sodium Bicarbonate
Our reaction certainly looked like a wizard's potion. We just used 1/2 a cup of vinegar as our acid and 1 teaspoon of baking soda. The result...Carbon Dioxide! The girls loved to see it bubble up. We talked about how the vinegar and baking soda were in a "duel" with one another to try to neutralize each other, resulting in the bubble reaction of carbon dioxide.

Second experiment - Making a Polymer
SLIME! The girls had a great time making this. It was very easy with a borax and water solution mixed with a glue and water solution. The girls have played with it all afternoon. They also love seeing it take shape to anything. They've had fun stretching it and seeing it shape itself. We got our directions from http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemistryactivities/ss/slimerecipe_4.htm.

Now for the SCIENCE part.... This POLYMER is unique because it has qualities of both a solid and a liquid. It can take the shape of its containers like a liquid does, yet you can hold it in your hand and pick it up like a solid. As you might know, solid molecules are tight together, liquid molecules spread out and break apart (drops) POLYMER molecules CHAIN themselves together (they can stretch and bend like chains) and that makes them special. Jell-O, rubber bands, plastic soda bottles, sneaker soles, even gum are all forms of polymers.

Third experiment - Walking Water
Easy as it looks! We added a pigmentation agent to the water - yep that's food coloring, just used fancy names today. ;) And the siphoning begins! It takes a long time, but its really cool to see the water go from one glass to the other.

Our discussion after this ended with a Bible scripture of the day..."Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord; because of these same detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you." There's nothing wrong with having a great time on Halloween and even throwing some science into the mix - but when it comes to witch craft, I wanted to make sure the girls knew its was nothing to dabble in. After all there's a big difference in science and witchcraft. Even if one of our experiments looked close to a wizard potion. ;) Visit last year's October blog post here!