1. Make the bubble solution: mix 2 cups of water, 2 tbsp of glycerin, and 4 tbsp of dishwashing liquid and stir until dissolved.

2. Bend a pipe cleaner into any shape you want, leaving a long end to act as the handle for the bubble wand.

3. Dip the bubble wand into the bubble solution and blow!

Why does the shape of the bubble wand not matter?

Bubbles are always round no matter the shape of the bubble wand because a sphere is the smallest shape to enclose a given volume.

1. Pour ½ cup of 3% hydrogen peroxide into an empty bottle.

2. Add a squirt of dish soap into the bottle and swirl gently to mix.

3. Add a few drops of food coloring into the bottle.

4. In a separate container, mix one tbsp of yeast with 3 tbsp of warm water and stir for about 30 seconds.

5. Pour the yeast mixture into the bottle.

How does elephant toothpaste work?

Hydrogen peroxide decomposes into water and oxygen in the presence of yeast. The dish soap traps the oxygen gas bubbles, forming a foam.

1. Fill an empty bottle with 2 parts vegetable oil and 1 part water, leaving space at the top for bubbling.

2. Add a few drops of food coloring to the bottle and swirl to mix.

3. Add an Alka-Seltzer tablet to the bottle.

What causes the lava lamp effect?

Since oil is less dense than water, it floats on top of the water. When the Alka-Seltzer tablet starts to bubble at the bottom of the bottle, it traps water inside of the bubbles, and doesn’t mix with the oil.

1. Cut filter paper into strips roughly 1 inch wide.

2. On each paper strip, make a horizontal line with a different washable black marker roughly ½ inch from the end of the strip.

3. Submerge the end of each paper strip in water and wait for the ink to separate and travel up the paper, making sure that the ink itself doesn’t touch the water.

Why does the black ink separate?

Black ink is made up of several different colors of ink mixed together. When soluble black ink dissolves in water, the different colors of the ink dissolve and travel up the paper at different rates.

1. Pour 5 oz of clear Elmer’s glue into a bowl and add 1 tbsp of baking soda, mixing until combined.

2. Add ½ tsp of thermochromic pigment and mix.

3. Add 2 tsp of contact lens solution (containing boric acid) 1 tsp at a time.

4. Knead the slime for a few minutes until the stickiness fades.

5. Cool down or heat up your slime with ice cubes or hot water to watch the color change.

Why does the slime change color?

The thermochromic pigment in the slime changes color depending on the temperature of its surroundings.

1. Mix 1 tbsp of sugar, ½ cup of milk, and ¼ tsp of vanilla extract into a small sealable bag.

2. Add 4 cups of ice to a large, gallon-sized bag and add ½ cup of salt to the bag.

3. Put the small bag of ice cream into the large bag of ice and seal both bags.

4. Shake the bags for about 5 minutes or until the ice cream solidifies.

How did adding salt to the ice affect the ice cream?

Adding salt made the ice colder, which sped up the ice cream making process.

1. Make the invisible ink: mix 1 tbsp baking soda with ½ cup of water and stir.

2. Make the color-changing solution: mix 1 tsp turmeric with ½ cup of rubbing alcohol and stir.

3. Use a paintbrush to paint the invisible ink onto a piece of paper and wait a few minutes for it to dry.

4. Use another paintbrush to apply the color-changing turmeric solution to the entire paper.

Why does the clear solution change colors?

Turmeric is a natural pH indicator, which means that it changes color depending on the acidity or basicity of the present substance. Turmeric stays yellow in the presence of acids like lemon juice and turns red in the presence of bases like bleach. Since baking soda is basic, the turmeric turns red and reveals our invisible ink!

1. Stack 5 popsicle sticks and bind each end with a rubber band.

2. Stack 2 more popsicle sticks and bind one end with a rubber band.

3. Pry open the stack of 2 popsicle sticks to make a V shape and place the stack of 5 popsicle sticks at the bottom of the V.

4. Secure the V shape with one final rubber band.

5. Tape a small paper cup to the top of the V shape.

6. Put a candy pumpkin in the cup and press down the cup end of the popsicle stick to launch the pumpkin!

How does our catapult work?

Catapults convert energy from one type to another to launch objects. When we pressed down on the popsicle stick, it stored potential energy, and when we released the popsicle stick, this energy was converted to kinetic energy.

1. Sort Sour Patch Kids into red, yellow, green, and blue groups. Each color corresponds to a different DNA nucleotide base: red → adenine (A), yellow → thymine (T), green → guanine (G), and blue → cytosine (C).

2. Pair red and yellow Sour Patch Kids and green and blue Sour Patch Kids, and stick a toothpick through each Sour Patch Kid pair.

3. Stick each toothpick in between two Twizzlers, making a ladder shape.

4. Twist the Twizzler ladder to make the double helix structure of DNA!

What does each part of the candy model represent?

Nucleotides are the building blocks of DNA, which we represented with Sour Patch Kids and toothpicks. In DNA, A nucleotides pair with T nucleotides and G nucleotides pair with C nucleotides (this is why we could only pair certain colors of Sour Patch Kids together!). DNA also has a sugar phosphate backbone, which we represented with Twizzlers.

Cut out the car body out of cardboard

Tape two straws to the bottom of the cardboard

Get 4 bottle caps with a “+” hole cut in the center from a chaperone

Push a wooden skewer through the hole in one of the bottle caps.

Thread the other end of the skewer through one of the straws.

Push a bottle cap onto the other end of the skewer

Repeat steps 4-6 to make the other axle

Make sure the axles can spin and the car can roll smoothly without getting stuck

Insert a wooden skewer upright into the hole to form a mast. Secure it at the base with tape

Cut out a shape for a sail from a piece of paper

Poke the upright skewer through both ends of the sail to hold it in place

Make a paper fan and see how far your car goes!

Fill 1/3 of the jar with water

Add 2 drops of paint in the water and stir

Stretch the cotton ball out and push it down into the water

Layer 1 spoon of glitter in between each cotton ball

Repeat steps 3-4 until the cotton balls don’t sink in the water

Fill the jar 2/3 with water and 2 more drops of different colored paint

Repeat 3-4 until you reach the top of the jar

Cap the jar and you’re done!