You always need some new and interesting ideas for your child’s school fair. Learning can be made interesting with experiments. There are quiet a few experiments which you can do on you own at home. Children can try them out to understand various concepts under supervision of parents. You need not go out and buy anything extra for a few experiments that explain the concept of pressure. You just need baking soda and water and vinegar to try some very interesting experiments.
There are quite a few very interesting experiments that can help you show your children and teach them about pressure. A nice experiment is the bubble bomb. You need baking soda, water and vinegar for this experiment. First take one and half tablespoon baking soda in a paper towel. Fold it like a square packet. Now take a zip lock sandwich bag. Add half cup vinegar to it. Then put about a quarter cup of warm water into it. Keep the soda packet in hand but make sure you hold it away from vinegar until you pinch the bag close. Then drop the soda packet into vinegar. When the baking soda comes in contact with vinegar, a reaction takes place and carbon dioxide gas is released. The plastic bag is filled with carbon dioxide gas. Once filled up the gas pops with a bang.
The lemon juice rockets are also good fun. You need a bottle with a cork that fits it. Make some paper strips and attach them to the cork. Make a square packet of baking soda. Take a funnel and put it into the opening of bottle. Pour about half inch of lemon juice into the bottle. Now add some water, maybe about less than half way full. Drop the soda packet into the bottle. Now close it with the cork and shake the bottle. When you shake the bottle the soda reacts with water and lemon juice as it soaks through the toilet paper. This causes carbon dioxide to be release. As the pressure builds up it sends the cork flying.
Another simple but interesting experiment is the baking soda volcano. You need to make a cone using flour, salt, cooking oil and water. Make a smooth and firm mixture. Make a mold from the dough around the bottle. Your cone for the volcano is ready. Now add warm water with a little bit of red food color. Add 6 drops of detergent and 2 tablespoon baking soda to water. Once you have the mixture ready add vinegar into the bottle. In this reaction carbon dioxide is produced. As it is produced the pressure increases inside the bottle. As there is detergent in your mixture the gas bubbles inside the plastic bottle and with increase in pressure erupts as a real volcano does.
These experiments work as baking soda is a base and vinegar an acid. When the reaction takes place carbon dioxide gas is released. As more gas is released pressure increases leading to volcanic eruption, bubble bomb and cork rocket to be launched. Baking soda being non toxic comes handy for simple experiments which you can easily try at your homes and explain various concepts to your children.