FUTURE IN YOUR HANDS: Our Projects

Make a Big Dry Ice Bubble

Have fun making a dry ice bubble that will grow and grow as it fills with fog. This experiment is a great one for adults to do with kids. Add water to the dry ice, cover it with a layer of soapy water and watch your bubble grow, how big will it get before it bursts? Give it a try and find out!

What you'll need:

Water
A large bowl with a lip around the top (a smaller bowl or cup will work too)
A strip of material or cloth
Soapy mixture for making bubbles (water and some dishwashing liquid should do the trick)
Dry ice - one piece for a cup, more for a bowl. Places where adults can buy dry ice include large grocery stores and Walmart. Butchers and ice cream stores might have some too.

Safety first! Be careful with dry ice as it can cause skin damage if not used safely. Adults should handle dry ice with gloves and avoid directly breathing in the vapor.

Instructions:

Place your dry ice in the bowl and add some water (it should start looking like a spooky cauldron).
Soak the material in your soapy mixture and run it around the lip of the bowl before dragging it across the top of the bowl to form a bubble layer over the dry ice.
Stand back and watch your bubble grow!

What's happening?

Dry ice is carbon dioxide (CO₂) in its solid form. At temperatures above -56.4 °C (-69.5 °F), dry ice changes directly from a solid to a gas, without ever being a liquid. This process is called sublimation. When dry ice is put in water it accelerates the sublimation process, creating clouds of fog that fill up your dry ice bubble until the pressure becomes too much and the bubble explodes, spilling fog over the edge of the bowl. Dry ice is sometimes used as part of theater productions and performances to create a dense foggy effect. It is also used to preserve food, freeze lab samples and even to make ice cream!

Make Your Own Rainbow

Learn how to make a rainbow with this fun science experiment for kids. Using just a few simple everyday items you can find out how rainbows work while enjoying an interactive, hands on activity that’s perfect for kids.

What you'll need:

A glass of water (about three quarters full)
White paper
A sunny day

Instructions:

Take the glass of water and paper to a part of the room with sunlight (near a window is good).
Hold the glass of water (being careful not to spill it) above the paper and watch as sunlight passes through the glass of water, refracts (bends) and forms a rainbow of colors on your sheet of paper.
Try holding the glass of water at different heights and angles to see if it has a different effect.

What's happening?

While you normally see a rainbow as an arc of color in the sky, they can also form in other situations. You may have seen a rainbow in a water fountain or in the mist of a waterfall and you can even make your own such as you did in this experiment.

Rainbows form in the sky when sunlight refracts (bends) as it passes through raindrops, it acts in the same way when it passes through your glass of water. The sunlight refracts, separating it into the colors red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

Making Music with Water

Have you ever tried making music with glasses or bottles filled with water? I bet you favourite band hasn't. Experiment with your own special sounds by turning glasses of water into instruments, make some cool music and find out how it works.

What you'll need:

5 or more drinking glasses or glass bottles
Water
Wooden stick such as a pencil

Instructions:

Line the glasses up next to each other and fill them with different amounts of water. The first should have just a little water while the last should almost full, the ones in between should have slightly more than the last.
Hit the glass with the least amount of water and observe the sound, then hit the glass with the most water, which makes the higher sound?
Hit the other glasses and see what noise they make, see if you can get a tune going by hitting the glasses in a certain order.

What's happening?

Each of the glasses will have a different tone when hit with the pencil, the glass with the most water will have the lowest tone while the glass with the least water will have the highest. Small vibrations are made when you hit the glass, this creates sound waves which travel through the water. More water means slower vibrations and a deeper tone.

Make Glowing Water

Make glowing water with the help of a black light in this fun science experiment for kids.

Tonic water doesn't look very strange under normal light but what happens when you look at it under a black light? Does the dye from a highlighter pen do the same thing? Find out what happens and why it happens with this cool experiment that you can do at home.

What you'll need:

A black light (you can find them at places like Walmart and hardware stores, as well as online stores like Amazon).
Tonic water or a highlighter pen.
A dark room to do the experiment.

Instructions:

If you are using a highlighter pen carefully break it open, remove the felt and soak it in a small amount of water for a few minutes.
Find a dark room.
Turn on the black light near your water, how does it look?

What's happening?

Simple explanation:

The ultra violet (UV) light coming from your black light lamp excites things called phosphors. Tonic water and the dye from highlighter pens contain phosphors that turn UV light (light we can’t see) into visible light (light we can see). That’s why your water glows in the dark when you shine a black light on it.

Black lights are used in forensic science, artistic performances, photography, authentication of banknotes and antiques, and in many other areas.

Detailed explanation:

Black light (also known as UV or ultra violet light) is a part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The electromagnetic spectrum also includes infrared, X-rays, visible light (what the human eye can see) and other types of electromagnetic radiation. A black light lamp such as the one you used emits a UV light that can illuminate objects and materials that contain phosphors. Phosphors are special substances that emit light (luminescence) when excited by radiation. Your water glowed under the black light because it contained phosphors. If you used a highlighter pen then the UV light reacted with phosphors in the dye. If you used tonic water then the UV light reacted with phosphors in a chemical used in tonic water called quinine.

There are different types of luminescence, they include fluorescence (used in this experiment, it glows only when the black light is on), phosphorescence (similar to fluorescence but with a glow that can last even after the black light is turned off), chemiluminescence (used to create glow sticks), bioluminescence (from living organisms) and many others.

Make a Tornado in a Bottle

Learn how to make a tornado in a bottle with this fun science experiment for kids. Using easy to find items such as dish washing liquid, water, glitter and a bottle you can make your own mini tornado that’s a lot safer than one you might see on the weather channel. Follow the instructions and enjoy the cool water vortex you create!

What you'll need:

Water
A clear plastic bottle with a cap (that won't leak)
Glitter
Dish washing liquid

Instructions:

Fill the plastic bottle with water until it reaches around three quarters full.
Add a few drops of dish washing liquid.
Sprinkle in a few pinches of glitter (this will make your tornado easier to see).
Put the cap on tightly.
Turn the bottle upside down and hold it by the neck. Quickly spin the bottle in a circular motion for a few seconds, stop and look inside to see if you can see a mini tornado forming in the water. You might need to try it a few times before you get it working properly.

What's happening?

Spinning the bottle in a circular motion creates a water vortex that looks like a mini tornado. The water is rapidly spinning around the center of the vortex due to centripetal force (an inward force directing an object or fluid such as water towards the center of its circular path). Vortexes found in nature include tornadoes, hurricanes and waterspouts (a tornado that forms over water).

Raw or Boiled Egg?

Surprise your friends and family with an easy science experiment that answers an otherwise tricky question. Two eggs look and feel the same but there is a big difference, one is raw and the other hard boiled, find out which is which with this fun experiment.

What you'll need:

Two eggs, one hard boiled and one raw. Make sure the hard boiled egg has been in the fridge long enough to be the same temperature as the raw egg.

Instructions:

Spin the eggs and watch what happens, one egg should spin while the other wobbles.
You can also lightly touch each of the eggs while they are spinning, one should stop quickly while the other keeps moving after you have touched it.

What's happening?

The raw egg's centre of gravity changes as the white and yolk move around inside the shell, causing the wobbling motion. Even after you touch the shell it continues moving. This is because of inertia, the same type of force you feel when you change direction or stop suddenly in a car, your body wants to move one way while the car wants to do something different. Inertia causes the raw egg to spin even after you have stopped it, this contrasts with the solid white and yolk of the hard boiled egg, it responds much quicker if you touch it.

This is a good experiment to test a friend or someone in your family with, see if they can figure out how to tell the difference between the eggs (without smashing them of course) before showing them your nifty trick.

Baking Soda & Vinegar Volcano

Use baking soda and vinegar to create an awesome chemical reaction! Watch as it rapidly fizzes over the container and make sure you've got some towels ready to clean up.

What you'll need:

Baking Soda (make sure it's not baking powder)
Vinegar
A container to hold everything and avoid a big mess!
Paper towels or a cloth (just in case)

Instructions:

Place some of the baking soda into your container.
Pour in some of the vinegar
Watch as the reaction takes place!

What's happening?

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 is very unstable, it instantly breaks apart into water and carbon dioxide, which creates all the fizzing as it escapes the solution.

For extra effect you can make a realistic looking volcano. It takes some craft skills but it will make your vinegar and baking soda eruptions will look even more impressive!