Marshmallow Ghost Peeps ?
One of our themes this Halloween was Materials & change. We decided to use the following liquids as our test solvents to soak the marshmallows and examine any changes over time:
1. water
2. vinegar
3. Lemon juice
4. Cooking oil
5. Coke
We used clear glass jars so we could easily observe & photograph any changes in the Peeps. We added 1 Peep Ghost ? to each jar and filled it with one of the 5 liquids/solvents mentioned above.
After approx. 3 hrs we saw a few changes, mostly in the coloring of the Peeps. All but the one in water had changed coloring somewhat. The most noticeable change was in the Coke !! The students were grossed out by how it looked so brown & shriveled. Perfect opportunity to remind them how bad coke is for them!
We started to see signs of the Peeps actually dissolving in the vinegar!
The Peep in water looked the most intact (see how healthy water is for you!).
The children poked and prodded each one in disgust (over & over again, haha!) and proclaimed the entire thing yuck!! Great fun & lots of learning ??
PUMPKIN VOLCANO SCIENCE ACTIVITY
SUPPLIES
Pumpkin (We used a medium sized pumpkin.)
Baking soda
Vinegar
Washing up liquid
Plastic table cloth (optional to contain the pumpkin and fizz from the chemical reaction)
DIRECTIONS
1. Ahead of time, we cut the top off the pumpkin and cleaned the inside of the pumpkin out like you would do when preparing to crave a pumpkin.
2. We gathered all the supplies and placed them nearby.
3. We dropped a heaped amount of baking soda into the pumpkin. We didn’t really measure the ingredients, but added about a cup of baking soda to our medium sized pumpkin.
4. We added liquid soap to the baking soda. Again we did not measure, just squeezed a good amount into the pumpkin.
5. Next , we added vinegar into the pumpkin until the mixture begins to react. We placed the lid back on the pumpkin at this point to witness the fizz escaping through the gap between the pumpkin and the lid.
THE SCIENCE
When you combine baking soda and vinegar, a chemical reaction occurs that releases carbon dioxide. The baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) is a base while the vinegar (acetic acid) is an acid. When they react together they form carbonic acid, which breaks apart into water and carbon dioxide, and creates fizzing as it escapes.