We haven't done much in the way of science over here, unless you count all the baking we do. I discovered Steve Spangler's website a while back which has some great ideas! Most are for older kids, but I thought this one would be fun for the boys to do with me. 
We took a bar of Ivory soap and a bar of Lever 2000 soap to compare and contrast. First, I had the boys feel each bar of soap to make any observations. The different colors was an obvious difference, and then Koen thought the Lever 2000 bar was heavier than the Ivory. So we put them in a bowl with water to see what would happen, and wouldn't you know the heavy one sank and the Ivory floated.  |
| Ivory soap...after being microwaved. |
And then the fun really started! We first put the Lever 2000 soap in a glass bowl and put it in the microwave for 2 minutes. We stopped the microwave before the 2 minutes was up as we just wanted to see what would happen. Any guesses? It melted! Next, we put the Ivory soap on a paper plate (Steve Spangler's website showed it broken into 4 pieces, but I forgot to do that, we just put the whole bar in). I set the timer for 2 minutes and hit "start". Instead of melting, the Ivory soap puffs up! It's really cool to watch, and of course, the boys were extremely excited!!! (It makes the house smell clean, as an added bonus!
The reason for this (in very simple terms) is that Ivory soap is filled with air pockets. In 1890, a Proctor and Gamble employee forgot to turn of his machine during his lunch break. This whipped air into the soap and allowed the soap to float. This mistake was a huge hit with the public population and the floating soap stuck around. These air pockets also contain water. When the water heats up it vaporizes and forms bubbles while the soap itself heats up and becomes pliable, so the whole thing expands. (Thanks to Steve Spangler for explaining this on his website.) While the kids didn't care so much about why this happened, we did talk that this soap had air bubbles in it and that made the difference for why the soap grew bigger rather than melting. Incidentally, the soap may look different, but it still works! Save it for a fun bath time!
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| Microwaved marshmallows. |
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| Koen's s'more. |
Steve Spangler compared the process to what happens when you heat up a marshmallow, so next we put some marshmallows in the microwave for 30 seconds. Sure enough, they expanded to, and when I asked the boys why they thought that happened, Koen surprised me with, "Well, the marshmallows probably have air bubbles, too!" I love those moments! :) After that great connection, how could I deny him when he suggested we make s'mores with the puffy marshmallows!
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