Science Experiment - Volcano!

We used to do a lot of science experiments when we were studying Chemistry with Real Science for Kids. In fact, each chapter had an experiment. And it was great! We loved it. This semester we started the Great Science Adventures book and Emily chose Discovering Earth's Landforms and Surface Features. We have learned about Earth's location in space, plate tectonics, earthquakes, mountains and finally volcanoes this week. While each chapter has a variety of suggested activities, it isn't as "exciting" as chemistry was. However, when I announced we would make our very own volcano... the kids were very excited.

As you can see, they are ready to go. We filled our jar with vinegar and dyed it red. At this point, we could have just added the baking soda and watched it 'erupt' but the kids wanted to make the volcano look more realistic with some real dirt. Now mind you, it was very cold outside or we would have done this outdoors... so I was contemplating how I was going to make this work when I remembered I had some potting soil in the garage. Excellent. I had to grit my teeth and let them play with dirt inside my house... and watch them put dirt in my clean pyrex baking dish... but I did it!

After one failed attempt... we used a too tall jar and didn't use enough vinegar and folded up the papertowel holding the baking soda instead of pinching it... we got it right the second time! Look at that!

The coolest homemade volcano ever. And yes, it all cleaned up fairly easily. Thank goodness!