The LouFamFun $10 Challenge – February – Kitchen Science Experiments
Most of my $10 ideas involve the great outdoors, but today was bitterly cold. Instead, I decided to do something messy, fun and educational in the comfort of our home. I found some great “kitchen science” ideas online and presented them to my kids, who decided right away that they wanted to make a volcano. I also wanted to attempt to make our own bouncy balls. We headed to Kroger and picked up the materials we needed. This is where I must stop and say that I technically failed the $10 challenge because I went over by 6 cents. To be fair, I had pretty much all of the supplies I needed at home already. It was all pretty basic stuff, but I purchased it all anyway because I wasn’t allowed to just pocket the money, of course.
To form the ‘cone’ of the volcano, we mixed flour, salt and cooking oil and molded it around a plastic bottle from our recycle bin. The kids selected some of their plastic animals and placed them around the volcano just for fun. Then we filled the volcano with water, a bit of food coloring, dish soap and baking soda. Pouring vinegar on top activated the volcano, which bubbled and oozed down the side of the cone. The kids were so delighted that I actually emptied it out a few times and did it over. It was a fun bonding experience as well as a great way to teach them a little bit of chemistry.
The homemade bouncy ball project was a bit tricky. It involved a mix of glue, Borax and cornstarch. We also added food coloring just for fun. My son enjoyed getting the sticky mixture all over his hands, but my daughter opted to let me roll her ball. The end result was lackluster. We made balls, but they were not quite shaped right and didn’t bounce much at all. I think we’ll try this again another day to see if we can master it.
The three of us spent a couple of hours laughing, learning and making a mess in the kitchen, without consuming a single calorie. We’ll definitely do more kitchen science in the future!
By guest contributor: Brandy
