Christmas is a time for giving, loving and appreciating. It's also a time for fun! And what's more fun than "playing" around with science! This science experiment can be done as a class activity that accompanies some theory, or it can be done at home with the kids during the school holidays.
This nifty "trick" is is best suited for kids older than 6 years of age, but can be enjoyed by a toddler to with the help of an adult. It's one of those double-whammy activities, since it not only get's the kids absorbed with science, but it keeps them busy for hours on end too!
** NB. This is not suitable for ingesting, the objective is to create a toothpaste-like substance.
REINDEER TOOTHPASTE
Whipping up an batch of this festive reindeer toothpaste is likely to get any little mastermind excited about about chemistry. This activity requires just a few ingredients but the final result is oh so awesome!
Here's what you will need:
- A clear and clean 1 liter plastic bottle
- 125 ml of 20-volume (6%) hydrogen peroxide liquid (this can be found at most beauty stores).
- A tablespoon of dish soap
- Food coloring (optional)
- Plastic glitter
- A bottle of Peppermint essential oil, or peppermint flavoring.
- A table spoon of active dry yeast
- Luke warm water
- A basin
- Safety goggles
- An assortment of cups and bowls
- A funnel (optional)
Instructions:
- Mix one tablespoon of yeast with four tablespoons of warm water. There should be no lumps.
- Add your dish soap to your bottle.
- Add food coloring, glitter and a few drops of peppermint essential oil (optional).
- At this point your yeast will have started bubbling, you can add this to the bottle too.
- Put on your safety goggles.
- Place bottle in your basin.
- Finally, add the hydrogen peroxide and swirl your bottle briefly. The reaction is almost instant and before you know it the sparkly, foamy and toothpaste-like substance will "volcano" out of the bottle.
This makes for an ideal sensory play activity. The kids can touch the foamy mixture, spot the sparkles and smell the fresh Christmas minty aroma of the peppermint oil. Use different food coloring to learn about colors too!
The Science/Chemistry Bit
The yeast we added to the hydrogen peroxide acted as a catalyst, a helper, that sped up the breaking down of the hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen. The oxygen gas became trapped by the soap and made the massive amount of bubbly foam that oozed out the top of the bottle. The bottle felt warm because the breaking down of hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen is an exothermic reaction. It produces heat. The specific enzyme that acts a a catalyst in yeast is called catalase, a common enzyme found in almost all living organisms exposed to oxygen including people. So what do you think will happen when you pour hydrogen peroxide on a cut? It reacts with the catalase enzyme in your body and the hydrogen peroxide breaks down forming oxygen bubbles on your skin!
Source Link: https://www.playdoughtoplato.com/minty-reindeer-toothpaste/
A great idea to make this activity more Christmassy would be to make a batch of white and a batch of red Reindeer Toothpaste, Twirl them together to make a Candy-cane effect. This is also a perfect project for kids to do as school projects or to be performed at a science fair. What ever your reasoning is for this little bit of science fun, ENJOY!