The Floor is Lava! Is it one of your kid’s favourite games, right? Sure, this STEAM experiment activity from Science Fun for Everyone, will spark curiosity among young kids. They will learn basic chemistry concepts such as density, solubility, and chemical reactions.
Materials:
· water
· vegetable oil
· clean plastic bottles or glass
· Alka-Seltzer tablets
· food colouring
Instructions:
· Fill up the bottle about ¾ with water.
· Then pour the vegetable oil on top of the water until it is almost full.
· Add a few drops of food colouring (any colour will do) to the mixture.
· Break the fizzy tablet into pieces and drop them into the bottle.
· Shine a flashlight at the bottom of the bottle to see a true lava effect.
· Observe the reaction of the mixture.
photo credit to: https://funlearningforkids.com/super-cool-lava-lamp-experiment
Skills Developed:
· Fine-Motor Skills
Hands-on activities like pouring water into the bottle, breaking and dropping tablets, and handling materials further developed the kid’s hand-motor skills.
· Observation and Critical Thinking Skills
It sparks curiosity and questions among preschoolers and kindergarteners as they watch the interaction between the oil and water and the formation of bubbles. They may ask “What causes the bubbles to form when adding the tablet?
· Patience and Perseverance
Waiting for the bubbles to form and observing the lava effect teaches kids patience and perseverance. The activity will help them understand that the experiment may take time.
Learning Moment:
· Chemistry and MIxtures
Regardless of your children's age, we can always teach fairly advanced concepts that are part of their day-to-day. Mixture is a chemical concept that is everywhere. In children's lives, pretty much everything is a mixture but water. The milk they drink is a mixture of fat, protein and sugars, the soup they eat is a mixture of water and powder, and so on. A Lava Lamp is a mixture of water, oil, food dye and a fizzy tablet. Some of these things mix well (i.e. food colouring and water - called homogeneous). Some do not, like water and oil (heterogeneous).
Wanna know more? Check out this website :D
Written by Jennifer Lee
College of New Caledonia Student
Digital Content Creation Course
Professor Melanie Law
Edited by Nikolas Zetouni