Summer S.T.E.A.M. Activities

Summer S.T.E.A.M!

The Exploding Lunch Bag

Materials

• Zip sandwich bag – zip-lock freezer bags work the best
  • Baking soda
  • Warm water
  • Vinegar
  • Measuring cup
  • Tissue

Procedure

1. Go outside or to the kitchen sink.
2. Put ¼ cup warm water into the sandwich bag.
3. Add ½ cup of vinegar to the water in the sandwich bag.
4. Put 3 teaspoons of baking soda in the tissue then fold it up.
5. Work fast now- zip the sandwich bag close but leave a corner open, enough to fit the tissue full of baking soda in.
6. Slip the tissue in and step back
7. Watch the bag slowly expand then explode!

Rainbow Bubble Snakes

 Materials
 empty water bottle
 duct tape
a sock
dish soap
food coloring.

Procedure
Pour some dish soap into a shallow container with a little bit of water and gently mix.
 Dip the sock covered bubble blower into the solution and gently blow.

Pop Rocks Soda Experiment

Materials

• Pop Rocks (1 envelope per bottle of soda + 1 for placebo + one for the kids to taste) Note: We found it easier just to buy them from Amazon as many stores don’t have pop rocks in stock any more.
• Balloons (1 balloon for each bottle of soda)
• Soda (1 liter bottle – you may want to try several different ones and have kids hypothesize which one will work best)

Procedure

• , First you need to pour an entire envelope of pop rocks into each balloon being used. (We used 4 bottles, so 4 balloons). 
  We did this easily by having me spread the balloon open and my 9 year old pouring them in. For younger children you can use a funnel.

We carefully removed the lids from our four soda bottles and put the balloon over the opening being careful not to pour the pop rocks in until all the bottles were ready.

We then had the kids hypothesize which soda they thought would inflate the balloon the biggest, fastest, etc. 

Pour in the Pop Rocks

Record your observations on the sheet

Sunscreen Painting

Materials 

• Sunscreen
• Paint Brush
• Black Construction Paper (or other dark colored paper)

Procedure

Set this up just like a regular painting activity, only instead of paint put sunscreen out. You can squeeze a bit onto a paper plate, into a cup, or on your paint palate.

This activity does need a dark-colored piece of paper to be most effective. If you have black construction paper, use that. But blue, purple, brown, etc all work too.

Once your child has completed their painting take it outside. Place it in the sun, using rocks at the corners to make sure it doesn’t blow away.

Leave your picture in the sun for a bit. This is best in direct sunlight for a couple of hours. We left ours out for 2 hours. However, it works to put it out and leave it until our child remembers it is out there a few hours later.

After you have left your painting out to dry in the sun for a few hours, go and check it.

You will see that the paper that was covered in the sunscreen ‘paint’ is the same color it used to be, while the rest of the page has faded!

If sunscreen can protect the paper that well, do you think it can protect their skin?

Click here for the printable instructions