The school-age children have been discussing big reactions. Connor started a discussion with his peers about volcanoes and how they explode. We decided to do build own our snow volcanoes.
As we walked out to the field, the children discussed how they would like to organize the activity. They all decided it was best to engage in little groups and make it into a contest to see who could have the biggest explosion. The children split up in three groups and started to dig holes, pack and gather snow. All of the groups wanted to add the baking soda, vinegar, and food colouring in different ways to erupt their volcano.
The first group added the baking soda in a cup with some red and yellow food colouring. Then they tossed the baking soda in the little hole they made on top of the volcano. Gunner said, “Oh no the baking soda is frozen.” They added the vinegar next and it made a little reaction. The second group wanted to try something different. They wanted to place the baking soda, yellow and red food colouring right in the little hole they had in their volcano then add the vinegar. The children worked together to place their ingredients together. The second volcano had a bit bigger reaction. “It is so fluffy and bubbly!” said Ethan. Rylea said, “It is going down the volcano.” Once the reaction was complete, it was time for the last group. The children discussed what would happen if we added all the rest of the vinegar and baking soda in the last volcano. They thought it would make a huge reaction. We all worked together to add the ingredients in; but the last group wanted to do something different. They wanted to add the cup in the middle of the volcano and add baking soda with food colouring, and dump all the vinegar in the cup. Once some of the vinegar was dumped in, they wanted to add more baking soda to the middle to see what would happened. The very last volcano made the same reaction as the middle. The children concluded together that no matter how much vinegar and baking soda we use it will be almost the same reaction. During this activity, the children learned about chemical reactions, how to communicate with each and how to execute a plan. This activity was explosive and created wonderful colours in the snow.
