Experiment Night

Have a little bit of fun with the beavers by running 2 experiments that are easy enough to do over Zoom!

1. Skittles

All you need are three things:

Skittles

Water

Plates

Procedure:

Setting up this skittles experiment is a cinch. We decided to get a little creative and add an artistic element to our skittles science experiment.

STEP 1 :  You want to empty out your skittles and check out the colors.

STEP 2:  Next, lay out your plates in an are where they won’t be disturbed.

STEP 3: Now’s the fun part, make patterns! It’s up to you on how you want to place your colors. Make a rainbow or any sort of pattern that interests you. You can experiment with placing different colors next to each other.

STEP 4: Once you have your patterns placed, gently begin pouring water in the middle of the plate until it reaches all the candies and just barely covers them.

OBSERVATIONS: 

Wait and watch to see what happens!

Give your kids a chance to ask questions, make observations, and explore. Why not test the 5 senses and encourage them to look, listen, feel, taste, and maybe hear what’s happening.

Ask open-ended questions to get kids thinking! What changes could they make to this experiment?

Could this skittles science experiment work with another type of candy?

What would happen if you tried a different liquid and compared the results?

Learning how to be a scientist is all about asking questions, testing ideas, and finding solutions!

2. Pepper & Handwash

For this You’ll need:

Liquid dish washer gel

Water

Bowl

Grounded black pepper

Procedure:

Take the bowl and fill it with water

Sprinkle some pepper over the water

Dip your finger into it and observe. Nothing will happen to the pepper present in the bowl.

Now, put some liquid dish washer gel on to your finger

Now slowly dip the finger with the gel into the bowl in the center

You’ll notice that the pepper which is sprinkled over the water moves away from the finger and rushes back to the outer edge of the bowl.

Explanation:

The pepper floats on the top of water due to surface tension of the water. The surface tension pulls the top of the water together like a skin, so the water bulges up a bit. Surface tension is the result of the strong attraction between molecules in a liquid. Water has an unusually high surface tension compared with most other liquids because water molecules are very strongly attracted to each other. This strong attraction allows the water to bulge up a bit and makes some insects to skate on its surface.

When the dish washer gel is put into water the surface tension of the water gets ruptured and the bulged part of the water spreads out. So water molecules on the surface are pulled towards the ends of the bowl when the detergent comes in contact with water. When the surface tension of water breaks, the top most molecules of water spread out and in the process they take the pepper particles away thus making it look as if they are running away from the liquid soap.

Age Range:                     Beavers

Time to Complete:         20-25 minutes. 

Badge Requirements:   Experiment Activity Badge x2