Lesson objective:
The children will understand that some things in our world work in a predictable way. They will learn that mixing baking soda and vinegar will always have the same result.

In these three experiments your children will observe the chemical reaction of baking soda and vinegar and predict an outcome.

Play and Experiment – The Introduction
Blow it Up
Bake It

This experiment will introduce your children to the chemical reaction between baking soda and vinegar. They may not be able to completely understand what a chemical reaction is, but they will come to learn that this experiment will produce the same outcome each and every time it is performed.

Vocabulary:

Chemical reaction
Baking soda
Vinegar
Mix
Bubbles

Materials: One small cup per child, spoons, droppers, baking soda, vinegar

Procedure:

1. Introduce this experiment by reading Gus and Grandpa and Show-and-Tell or The Magic School Bus Gets Baked in a Cake.

2. At a table, give each child a small cup containing baking soda. Have the children use their dropper or spoon to pour vinegar into the cup.

Questions to ask:

• What happened when you mixed the baking soda and vinegar?
• Did everyone create the same amount of bubbles?
• How do you think you can make more bubbles?

3. Rinse out the cups and allow the children to try the experiment again, this time testing their ideas on how they can create more bubbles.

More questions:

• Were you able to create more bubbles?
• What did you do to create more bubbles?
  

4. Close this activity by asking the children what they think will happen if they mixed baking soda and vinegar again. Do they think they will always get the same result, will there always be bubbles.

The children will come to understand that this is a predictable outcome. Every time they mix baking soda and vinegar they will get the same result.

Extension:

You can expand upon this lesson by repeating the experiment with baking soda and water. First, question the children about what they think the outcome will be. Allow them to test their hypotheses and discuss the difference in the outcomes.

Vocabulary:

Chemical reaction
Baking soda
Carbon dioxide
Vinegar
Mix
Bubbles

Materials: Soda bottle or other bottle with a small mouth, balloon, baking soda, vinegar, funnel

Procedure:

1. Talk to the children about what they observed in their previous experiment with baking soda and vinegar. Be sure to talk about the bubbles that formed when the two items were mixed and ask them to remember if they were able to make a lot of bubbles.

2. Explain to the children that today you are going to use baking soda and vinegar to blow up a balloon.

Questions to ask:

• What happened when you mixed the baking soda and vinegar?
• How do you think we can use baking soda, vinegar and a soda bottle to fill a balloon?

3. Time to demonstrate.

• 1. Pour about one inch of vinegar into the bottle.
  2. Stretch the balloon a little and put about 1 tablespoon of baking soda into the balloon using the funnel.
  3. Place the balloon openeing over the mouth of the bottle, being careful not to get the baking soda into the bottle.
  4. Gently lift the balloon so that the baking soda drops into the bottle.
  5. The balloon should inflate from the carbon dioxide being given off from the chemical reaction.

4. Close this activity with discussion and questioning.

• What happened when you mixed the baking soda and vinegar?
• Why do you think the balloon blew up?
  • This is a good time to discuss the chemical reaction between baking soda and vinegar creating carbon dioxide.
• How do you think we could have made the balloon bigger?
• If we did this experiment again, what would happen?
  • The children will learn that every time they mix baking soda and vinegar they get the same reaction. If the experiment was performed again you would experience the same result.

Note: This is the second activity in a series of experiments on the chemical reaction of baking soda and vinegar. This series begins here: Baking Soda and Vinegar Science Unit

Vocabulary:

Chemical reaction
Baking soda
Vinegar
Mix
Bubbles

Materials/Ingredients:

Bowl, cup, mixing spoons, round baking pan (greased)

1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vinegar
2 cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda

Making Irish Soda Bread

Procedure:

1. In this experiment you are going to make Irish Soda Bread with the children. Before you start baking, show them the ingredients.

Question to ask:

• Why do you think there is baking soda and vinegar in this recipe?
• What effect will these two ingredients have on the bread?

2. Start baking process

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Mix milk and vinegar in cup and set aside for about 10 minutes. This will curdle the milk.
• In the bowl, stir together the flour, salt and baking soda.
• Stir the milk mixture into the flour mixture until smooth.
• Scrape the dough out of the bowl onto a floured surface.
• Form dough into disk shape and put into pan.
• Bake for approximately 15 minutes.

3. When the bread is baked and cooled slice a piece for each child.

Have the children observe the air pockets in the bread. Discuss that, just like in their previous experiments, the mixing of the baking soda and vinegar created bubbles. The bubbles in the bread just happened to become stuck in the dough.

Note: This is the final activity in a series of experiments on the chemical reaction of baking soda and vinegar. This series begins here: Baking Soda and Vinegar Science Unit