Lava Lamps

We started class by making lava lamps in the kitchen. Thanks to everyone who sent bottles! In a 20 oz or 1 liter bottle, we added about 1.5 inches of water. We then filled the bottle about 2/3 with vegetable oil and noticed how water and oil don’t mix and how oil stays on top of water due to the densities of each. Everyone added some color to their lava lamp and then two crushed tablets of alka seltzer to cause the reaction. Some of the electrons were interested in adding more alka seltzer at home to see the reaction again. We returned to our room to make a collective list of observations and questions, after which we returned to the kitchen to follow up on a few of our questions (e.g. how does alka seltzer react with only water and only oil?) We had just a bit of time left to play a matching game with the fields of science and their definitions. The electrons found the matching game considerably less exciting than the experiment 😉