Happy fall y’all! If you’re looking for an easy and exciting experiment that ties perfectly to your study of apples – look no further. I love this experiment because it requires just a few ingredients, and has a nice “wow factor.
Here’s what you’ll need:
- 2 apples – more to increase the fun!
- vinegar
- baking soda
Additional optional supplies:
- a tray to help contain your explosion
- Scooping spoons
- Science observation journal
- Red or green food coloring as desired
In your child’s observation journal, have them ask and answer the question “Which do you think will cause a larger explosion: Adding vinegar to baking soda or baking soda to vinegar?”.
It will be fun to discuss their predictions and why they believe what they do.
Here’s what you do:
Hollow out your apples into a bowl shape since they’ll be the containers for your volcanos.
In the first apple, add the baking soda and in the second, add the vinegar.
If you are using food coloring, now is the time to add it. Add the green food coloring to one apple and the red food coloring to the other.
(NOTE: Do this last step at the same time.) At the same time – add the second ingredient to each apple (vinegar to the first apple and baking soda to the second) and then watch out for that explosion!
Repeat as many times as you like. Try mixing the colors for added fun.
Ask your children to write in their journals – describing and drawing pictures of what they observed and answering the questions: “Did what I predicted happen?” “What was different about what happened?”
Here’s the science behind it:
The baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) best acts as a base while the vinegar is an acid in this acid-based-reaction. As they react together they create carbonic acid which is very unstable. It instantly breaks apart into water and carbon dioxide. This is what creates all of the fizzling as it escapes.
Enjoy!
