Science Saturday #2

If your kiddo is anything like mine, you are bombarded daily with questions ranging from the mundane (“Are we there yet?”) to the profound (“What happens when you die?”).  Children are natural-born scientists; their zeal for questions and thirst for answers drive their most authentic learning. 

So, with this in mind, we’ve started a science club!  Wanna be in it?  Good! Let’s get started.  Each week we’ll post a new experiment, tell you how it worked (or didn’t), and share great resources for exploring more on your own.  Then, you try the experiments at home and tell us how it went!   If you haven’t already, check out our first experiment in making rain here.

This week’s experiment: Kindergarten Chemistry

The purpose of this experiment is to predict at which temperature an Alka-Seltzer tablet will dissolve the fastest.  The underlying chemical principal demonstrated by this experiment is that all chemical reactions accelerate with heat.

Stuff you need:

Alka-Seltzer tablets (at least 3)

3 see-through containers – one of which can withstand high temperatures

Water at three temperatures: Boiling, room, and ice cold

Ice


Extra Credit:

• A candy thermometer – or a similar thermometer that can measure high temperatures
• A regular thermometer
• A notebook to record your findings

(Side Note: This experiment is a cheap thrill - assuming you already have the thermometers, you're only out $3.50 for the Alka-Seltzer.)

Once you have all your supplies laid out, give your kiddo the safety talk – no touching the boiling water, no putting the Alka-Seltzer in your mouth.  Now for the good stuff.

Fill  the first container with boiling water.  Make sure the kiddos don’t touch the container.

Fill the second container with room temperature water. 

Fill the third container with icy cold water.  Place this in a bowl of ice cubes to stay cold. 

Pause.  Explain to your kiddo that Alka-Seltzer dissolves (melts) in water.  Ask your kiddo to predict (guess) which container will melt the Alka-Seltzer fastest.

If you are using the thermometers, help your kiddo measure the temperature of each water sample now...

...then record it in the notebook.

Kindergarten Kiddo wrote down each temperature in her notebook, and then put a star next to the temperature that she predicted would dissolve the tablet the fastest.  Of course, she then went on to add stars and smiley faces next to all of the temperatures.

Now… Plop!

Plop!

Fizz, Fizz!

It happens pretty fast, doesn’t it?  To take this experiment to the next level, time each reaction and have your kiddo predict the number of seconds it will take for the tablet to dissolve. 

We were lucky enough to have our friends Momma J and Kiddo K join us for this science club project.  Momma J explained that the molecules in the Alka-Seltzer do a dance when they meet the molecules of water; the warmer the water, the faster the dance.  Here she is demonstrating this phenomena:

Thank you to my friend and colleague Jerry Kuykendall - science teacher extraordinaire- for this fun, kid friendly, works-every-time experiment.