This morning we have been chatting about all the snow that fell over the weekend and how much we had fun playing in it…

“I made a snowman, he was giant!”

“I threw snowballs at my Nana.”

“I walked to nursery in the snow, it was crunchy.”

Continuing on our snowy theme we decided to make a snowstorm in a jar in our STEM area. We started by putting oil in a jar then poured in water mixed with white paint and looked at what happened.

We noticed that the painty water fell to the bottom and the oil stayed on top. Then we added some blue food colouring and glitter and mixed it up to see what difference that would make.

Now we had glitter on the bottom , blue water in the middle and oil still on top. One of the boys suggested they weren’t mixing because “they just don’t want to!” I explained that because the oil is less dense it will sit on top of the water, pushing the water down.

Next we added the magic ingredient to create the snowstorm, we put an alka seltzer tablet in the mix!

It fizzed and it bubbled and it swirled the mixture all around!

“It’s going to bubble over!”

“The bubbles are going up and down.”

The alka seltzer when mixed with the water creates carbon dioxide and pushes the water up in the form of a bubble but the less dense oil pushes it back down creating the repetitive motion of the bubbles going up and down. The boys and girls had a great time watching the reaction!

To extend this experiment further we have popped the mixture outside in the snow and we will find out tomorrow if each of the layers will freeze… 🥶

Article 13- you have the right to find out things and share what you think with others.