Lava in a Cup

First, add 3 inches of water to a cup. Next, pour 1/3 cup oil on top. Then, squirt 1 drop of food coloring. What happened?! The food coloring drop will sit on top of the oil. Grab a salt shaker and start sprinkling to get a reaction! Magically, "lava" will drizzle down and fill the cup! Watch closely and blobs will appear and shoot up to the top of the glass (salt dissolves and heads back to the surface). For the scientific explanation, check out Exploratorium Salt Volcano! For more blob activity pour a tsp of salt in (Science Bob).

Candy Exploration Lab

Don't eat all of your Halloween candy! Instead, create a candy exploration lab!

Featured Above:
1. Steve Spangler - Skittles Chromatography, Floating M's, Gobstopper Color Separation, and more candy chemistry!

2. Science Matters - Candybar Density - Do nuts make a difference?

3. Classroom Magic - Volume of funsize candybars, plus free printable for the activity!

4. What are we doing today Mom? - SweetTart Weathering and Erosion

For more candy exploration visit CandyExperiments.com and Science Gal

Colorful Convection Currents

Convection is the transfer of heat by the movement or flow of a substance from one position to another.

"Convection currents in the atmosphere are responsible for the formation of thunderstorms as the warm and cold air masses collide. They are also responsible for warm water currents that occur in oceans." With this experiment, you are going to show what happens when warm and cold water collide!" -  Steve Spangler

explanation: Warm water is lighter and less dense than cold water. 

Below is another take on the convection current experiment.
Red water = warm air mass.
Blue water = cold air mass.

"A thunderstorm is caused by unstable air. A body of warm air is forced to rise by an approaching cold front. A strong, persistent updraft of warm moist air is formed. The approaching cold front helps build the updraft into a cumulus cloud. When the warm air rises and meets the cold air, it condenses. The heat helps fuel the thunderstorm. The next stage is when the cumulus cloud has grown into a cumulonimbus cloud rising above 30,000 feet. Then a downdraft forms, bringing cold air and precipitation down to the Earth's surface." - Web Weather for Kids (Click here for written instructions from Web Weather for Kids!)

Density Towers

Explore solids and liquids with the classic density tower. After discovering the density of liquids, kids can test how dense certain solids are. Which solids sink? Which ones float? Click here for the explanation. If you want to make a smaller tower, you can experiment with the 7-layer density column here. You can adjust the colors of your 7-layer density column and make a rainbow tower! 

You can also integrate math with this activity and practice fractions!

For younger kids, you can concoct Science Bob's drinkable density juice tower! Yum! Visit his site for the full tutorial!

Diving Ketchup! Experiment

This experiment shows kids that gas can be compressed!

Note: If the ketchup packet won't float, add 3 tbsp of salt and shake bottle. Continue to add salt, until the ketchup just floats towards the top. "Adding salt with adjust the density of the water." -  Science Bob

Soap Souffle!

Ivory Soap is the soap that floats! It contains air pockets. The microwave heats the air and water inside of it. The water vaporizes and the air expands, changing its physical state. You can conduct an experiment with Ivory Soap and another bar brand. Ivory puffs due to the air inside, while others will simply melt. (Microwave for 90 seconds to 2 minutes on a plate). Another experiment you can try is testing Ivory soap against another bar brand in a bowl of water. Ivory will float, while others will sink. You'll need 2 fresh bars of soap. Legend behind floating soap @ Ivory. For more science behind the experiment visit Steve Spangler!

Lava Lamp!

materials:

soda bottle

3/4 cup of water

vegetable oil

Alka Seltzer

food coloring

instructions:

1. Pour water into the bottle.

2. Add vegetable oil into the bottle until it's almost full. Let the oil and water separate.4. Add 10 drops of food coloring.
3. Break the tablet in half and drop the half tablet into the bottle. To keep the effect going, just add another tablet piece. Shine a flashlight through the bottom of the bottle and turn off the lights!