GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Our final experiment we shared with the kids at Plainfield Child Care was a chemical reaction between baking soda and vinegar. It sort of illustrates a volcanic eruption, although we kept the ingredients limited to preclude a major explosion of lava (insert laughing emoji here). There are a few different ways to conduct this experiment, such as in a bottle, and perhaps adding more baking soda and vinegar, but we didn't want to overdue the chemical reaction, so we kept it simple.
We took normal, everyday household baking soda (bicarbonate of soda or sodium bicarbonate) and placed a few tablespoons in a bowl. We mixed some food coloring (the actual color itself does not matter) in with some white vinegar, and we added this quickly to the baking soda. What happens? Well, there is an instant chemical reaction where the two fizz and create carbon dioxide. This fizz tends to "boil over" (although it's not hot) the top of the bowl and acts almost like lava spewing from a volcano. The kids enjoy it!
Try this using different colors...the kids will get a kick out of it. Click here https://www.fox17online.com/weather-kidsto see other experiments our team of Meteorologists have done.