Mad Science

Have you ever wondered why movies are always depicting mad scientists and science experiments gone wrong?  Because science is cool, experiments filled with things that fizz, pop, and explode, explanations on how the world works or how to build amazing things.  I know I have always been enamored of science and all the wonderful things it can teach me.  Kids are no different, they love science experiments even if they just like to blow stuff up.

Today the girls and I decided to become mad scientists ourselves and fill the evening with fun science experiments.  Looking outside there wasn't much else we could do anyway what with rain and thunder just threatening to explode mixed with the kind of horrible humidity that makes you feel as if you just stepped out of the shower.  So we rounded up some material, mostly just water and food coloring and some containers.

First off we decided to make it rain and explore just what does make the rain fall out of the sky.  Here's how:

Step 1:  Fill a jar 1/3rd full of boiling water.  Add some food coloring to make it fun.  Here is a picture of what it looked like when we first added it.

Side Note:  Cool experiment in and of itself, play with adding drops of food coloring one at a time to both cold, room temp, and hot water.  Watch how long it takes the food coloring to disperse throughout the liquid.  What makes the food coloring in one jar disperse faster than that in the other jars?

Science Alert:  The rate of diffusion, how fast one solution mixes in with another solution, depends on the rate of movement of each of the molecules.  When solutions or molecules are heated up, they move faster, hence why solutions such as food coloring will diffuse into a homogenous mixture faster in hot water than in cold water.

Step 2:  Place the lid on the jar or cover with a metal lid or plate.  This will seal in the evaporating water molecules and allow them to collect onto the lid.

Step 3:  Place ice cubes on top of lid. We didn't have ice cubes so we used ice packs instead. 

Step 4:  Watch and wait for the rain to start falling. We waited and waited then decided maybe using a paper plate wasn't the best idea and redid the experiment with a plastic plate. It worked better the second time but we still only got a few drops of rain at a time. Great way to get the kids to be quietly occupied for about ten to fifteen minutes though. 

Next up we made a tornado in a jar. 

Step 1:  Fill a jar almost all the way with water. We also added some food coloring and glitter for fun. Add a dash of dish soap and a teaspoon of vinegar as well. 

Step 3:  replace the lid and shake away. Once you stop swirling the jar a "tornado" will form inside the jar. 

Really cool and it did work although you can't really see it in the picture.

We all had a great time and made some homemade fruit roll-ups too.  They were pretty easy to make as well.

Step 1:  Puree some strawberries (we used frozen but forgot to thaw them first).

 

Step 2:  Add to small saucepan and mix in sugar and lemon juice. The pin didn't state how much of each but we used 1 C of sugar and 2 Tbs of lemon juice. We also added 1 C of water for some extra liquid.   Boil mixture until it thickens up like jam.

Step 3:  Place a large piece of parchment paper onto a cookie sheet. Pour mixture into paper and lightly spread into a thin layer. 

Step 4:  Dehydrate in the oven on the lowest setting for 3-4 hours or until tacky like a fruit roll up. 

Step 5:  Slice into strips and roll up in strips of parchment paper. 

We didn't have time to let ours dehydrate  properly so instead of roll ups we had an ooey gooey mess, but it tasted just like fruit roll ups. Yummy. 

It's off to bed. Wish me luck tomorrow.