Berry Ice Cream Fountain

(Science)

This experiment is sometimes called “Elephant’s Toothpaste” because it looks like toothpaste coming out of a tube, but no, it’s not edible. It’s not even an ice cream. I had to give that title on because it’s what my daughter said it is when I asked her what it was: “Berry Ice Cream!”

All you need:

-2/3 cup glass jar

-2 2/3 tbsp 6% solution of hydrogen

-1 teaspoon of dry yeast

-1 Tablespoons of warm water

-1 teaspoon liquid dish washing soap

-3 drops of pink food coloring

-a glass jar

-a tray

-containers and spoons for ingredients

-a small cup

NOTE: The foam will overflow from the bottle, so be sure to do this experiment on a washable surface, or place the bottle on a tray.

What to do:

-carefully pour the hydrogen peroxide into the glass jar.

-add favorite food coloring into the bottle.

-add liquid dish soap into the bottle and swish the bottle around a bit to mix it.

-in a separate small cup, combine the warm water and the yeast together and mix for about 30 seconds.

-pour the yeast water mixture into the bottle and watch the foaminess begin.

Hydrogen peroxide can irritate skin and eyes, so I have poured it into the glass jar before serving the tray to my daughter. I deliberately used tablespoons for those small amounts of yeast, soap and food coloring. It’s one of the trick for toddler: use bigger container than its ingredient so that she can learn (and get confident) to pour without any spoil successfully by herself. She could independently pour and mix the remaining to do list herself, just like “cooking” she said.

Foam is awesome! The foam we made here is special because each tiny foam bubble is filled with oxygen. The yeast acted as a helper (a catalyst) to remove the oxygen from the hydrogen peroxide. Since it did this very fast, it created lots and lots of bubbles.

Y was reluctant to touch the ‘ice cream’ (the foam) but she noticed the bottle got warm. This experiment created a reaction called an Exothermic Reaction – that means it not only created foam, it created heat!

The foam produced is just water, soap, and oxygen so we could clean it up with a sponge and pour any extra liquid left in the bottle down the drain.

This is the most amazing scientific experiment we did by far because: the reaction is instantly happening! It fits my curiously impatient toddler so well.

#elephant #toothpaste #toddler