Science with Lia-- Alka-Seltzer lava lamp

I am in no way a creative mom, but I LOVE to learn new things and science is particularly interesting. I stumbled across a blogger who home schools her children, and she is always doing amazingly fun experiments and projects. It really inspired me to find more resources, blogs, websites, books on experiments that I can do at home.

We did some salt experiments a few days ago. CLICK HERE to read that post.They were easy, fast to do, and a perfect introduction to the world of home learning. 

Tonight we did another experiment. Here's how it went.

We started by pouring oil into a bottle about 2/3's full. (it would look cooler if we had more oil and less water. more like 3/4 oil to 1/4 water. Incase you want to try it at home)

Then we filled it the rest of the way with water and observed how the oil and water don't mix. We also noted that the water sank to the bottom and the oil floated on top. (water is more dense than oil)

Then Lia put food coloring, drop by drop, and noticed how each drop sank to the bottom.

The food coloring didn't mix with the oil, but once it reached the water at the bottom, the color mixed pretty quickly.

Then came the fun part. We broke apart a couple of alka-seltzer tablets and dropped them in. (The tablets released carbon dioxide gas and sent blue bubbles into the oil) Click play on the video to see our lava lamp in action!!

 Last we screwed on the top tightly and made waves! FUN :)