I wanted to do a simple fall experiment with my three year old so I grabbed an apple, an Alka-Seltzer (from our Dollar Store Science kit), and a cup of water. We found that you could do 2 experiments with 1 apple!
Experiment #1: Apple Volcano
- Cut a lid in your apple and a small hole about 2-3 inches deep
- Fill the hole with water
- Drop broken up pieces of Alka-Seltzer
- Put lid back on top of apple
- Watch your very own Apple Volcano!
What’s the science: Alka-Seltzer is made of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and citric acid. When you toss it into water the tablet dissolves and mixes the acid and base together and releases carbon dioxide. This is a similar reaction to mixing baking soda and vinegar (your typical volcano reaction).
Experiment #2: Dancing Appleseeds
- When you’ve had all you can take of watching your apple bubble over, take the seeds out of your Apple Volcano
- Toss them in a glass of water
- Then toss in small pieces of Alka-Seltzer
What’s the science: The carbon dioxide bubbles attached to the appleseeds creating little “life-jackets”. These little bubble “life-jackets” make the seeds more buoyant until they came to the surface and popped. Then the seeds would sink back to the bottom.
(Note: We chunked the apple after our experiments. It didn’t look edible but I thought I should at least mention it!)
When you give your three year old kid the power to make things bubble over and fizz then you will have one happy three year old!
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