Baking Soda Volcano Science Project

Lately, my kiddos have been showing interest in science experiments. Being summer, we have lots of extra time on our hands, so what better way to spend it? We are going to be trying out quite a few over the next month or so. The first one they chose was the classic baking soda (erupting) volcano. You can pretty much find the instructions via the internet easily. There are hundreds of them and many different ways to do it. We chose to try a  2 liter soda bottle, also added food coloring to our water (which is optional) and the kids also wanted to paint their volcanoes before trying the experiment. The experiment turned out well, but I think they were looking for a little more "wow" than they got! Below is a list of what is needed for the experiment we chose, but as previously stated-you can find hundreds of results via your search engine.

~What you will need~ 

• 6 cups flour
• 2 cups salt
• 4 tablespoons cooking oil
• warm water
• plastic soda bottle
• dishwashing detergent
• food coloring
• vinegar
• baking dish or other pan
• 2 T baking soda

~Instructions~

1. First make the 'cone' of the baking soda volcano. Mix 6 cups flour, 2 cups salt, 4 tablespoons cooking oil, and 2 cups of water. ( we ended up having to add a little more water)
2. Stand the soda bottle in the baking pan and mold the dough around it into a volcano shape. Don't cover the hole with dough or drop dough into it. (we plugged the hole with a paper towel on our bottle until the dough part was finished)
3. Fill the bottle most of the way full with warm water and a bit of red food color (you can actually use any color you like)
4. Add 6 drops of detergent to the bottle contents. The detergent helps trap the bubbles produced by the reaction so you get better lava.
5. Add 2 tablespoons baking soda to the liquid.






6. Slowly pour vinegar into the bottle. Watch it erupt!