Skip to main content

5 Fun Baking Soda Vinegar Reaction Experiments

Baking soda vinegar reactions are always a favorite in our house. My kids never get tired of watching these bubbly acid-base reactions. In this post I share a few fun variations of the basic baking soda vinegar experiment. 

#thebarefootmom



The Science Behind Baking Soda Vinegar Experiments:

Baking soda and vinegar reactions are classic acid base reactions. Vinegar is acetic acid in water and baking soda is a base known as sodium bicarbonate. Initially the reaction yields carbonic acid, but it is unstable and quickly breaks down into carbon dioxide and water. The carbon dioxide gas bubbles are what what makes the bubbly foam in these reactions.

NaHCO3 + CH3COOH = CO2 + H2O + Na + CH3COO-


Basic Baking Soda And Vinegar Reaction:

You will need:
-baking soda
-vinegar
-a cup or bowl

Add a couple tablespoons of baking soda to a cup or bowl. Add a half a cup of vinegar and watch it foam!

Now try these fun variations:


Sudsy Reaction:

For an extra foamy reaction add a small amount of dish soap to the baking soda before you add the vinegar.







Color Changing Reaction:

To make a color changing potion, add some red food coloring to the baking soda and some blue food coloring to the vinegar before mixing them together. The result will be a purple bubbly reaction! You can also try it with the following food coloring combinations: yellow & red, yellow & blue.




Frozen Reaction:


Dissolve a couple tablespoons of baking soda in a couple cups of warm water. Pour into ice cube trays and add a drop of food coloring to each ice cube. Then put the ice cube trays in the freezer and let freeze.

Pop the cubes out of the ice cube trays and set in a shallow dish. Using a dropper or a spray bottle, drop or spray vinegar onto the baking soda ice cubes and watch them foam!




Blow Up A Balloon With Baking Soda And Vinegar:

Pour a couple tablespoons of baking soda into a balloon using a funnel. Put about a cup of vinegar in a plastic drink bottle. Stretch the opening of the balloon over the top of the bottle, and hold the balloon upright so that the baking soda falls into the bottle. 

Watch as the balloon inflates from the carbon dioxide bubbles released by the reaction!





Make a Volcano:

Take the fun outside and build a "volcano" out of mud or sand!

Place a few tablespoons of baking soda in an empty water bottle (or we used a yogurt container), you may want to use a small plastic or paper funnel to do this. Then place the bottle on the ground or in the bottom of a sand box. Build a mound around the bottle, leaving the opening sticking out of the top just slightly.



Add 5-10 drops of red food coloring  and a couple drops of yellow food coloring to a cup of white vinegar. Stir the vinegar for a few seconds to distribute the color. Then slowly pour the vinegar into the top of the water bottle and enjoy watching your volcano erupt!





If you enjoyed this post, check out:
-Rainbow Science
-Make A Cloud In A Jar





Follow me on:
Facebook
Instagram
Pinterest

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Water Relay Races For Kids

I don't know about your kids, but mine absolutely love games involving water and getting wet in the summer time. In  this post I share 5 of our favorite water relay races to play with friends. These are perfect for birthday parties, homeschool get togethers, and other group events. Sponge Relay: For this relay you will need: - 2 teams of several kids each -2 large sponges -4 small buckets or containers of some sort Divide your participants into 2 teams and have each team line up single file at a predetermined starting place.  Hand out a sponge to the first participant in each line. Set a bucket of water by each team. Set an empty bucket about 20 ft away from each team.  The two empty buckets should be the same size and should have a "fill line" marked half way up. On a count of 3 (or ready set go) the first participant in each line should dip their sponge in the bucket of water, run to the empty bucket, squeeze the water from their spo

STEM Art: 21 STEAM Project Ideas

My kids love STEM projects and we're always looking for ways to add more art to our homeschool days, so I decided I am going to try to dedicate one morning a week this year to STEM art activities. In this post I share some of the ideas we're planning to try, plus a few favorites we've done in the past. What is STEM Education? STEM education is a blended and often hands on approach to teaching science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, which are some of today's fastest growing industries. STEM education offers students the opportunity to problem solve and work on real world problems and questions. Sometimes the acronym STEAM is used, to include the arts. Adding art to STEM education encourages creative thinking and problem solving skills. It can also help make the other included subjects more appealing to some students. STEM Art Projects  Penny Spinners-   Learn about centrifugal force and make your own spinning tops with this fun post from Teach Beside Me. Explo

Make Your Own Mineral Identification Kit

One of my family's favorite hobbies is rock hounding. We love collecting and trying to identify neat rock and mineral specimens that we come across. You can put together your own simple kit for identifying rocks and minerals with materials you likely already have around your home. In this post I will explain how to put together your own mineral identification kit and how to use it to identify rocks and minerals you find on your adventures. Making a Rock and Mineral ID Kit Grab yourself a printable Rock and Mineral Journal for recording your observations here:  Printable Rock and Mineral Journal ,  and then gather the following supplies: -A pencil -A coin -An iron nail -A piece of glass (an old pocket mirror works well) -A ceramic tile -A small watertight bottle or container -Some vinegar -A magnet  -A magnifying glass -A dropper (optional)  -Rock and mineral guide (optional)  -A small container or bag to keep it all in Fill the small watertight

Learning About Thailand: Activities and Resources

Thailand ended up being a really fun country to study. There are so many amazing Thai recipes to try and lots of neat buildings and monuments to learn about. My family's favorite part of this unit study was learning about Asian elephants, they are such interesting and intelligent animals!  Basic Information  Thailand is a country in southern Asia. It is boarderd by Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and the Andaman Sea. The northern region is mountainous while the southern region is hilly and forested. Capital- Bangkok Population- 69.6 million Size- 198,115 square miles Currency- Baht   Type of Government- Constitutional Monarchy National Anthem-  Phleng Chat Thai National Animal- elephant Flag Famous Places The Grand Palace- The Grand Palace in Bangkok was used as the official royal residence of Thailand from 1782 to 1925. It is still used today for ceremonies and state functions. The palace sits on the banks of the Chao Phraya River. It consists of many buildings and pavilions set around a

Learning About The Human Body Part 1: The Skeletal And Muscular Systems

At the end of each school year, I sit down with my daughter to discuss what topics she wants to learn about the next year. One of her science topics she picked to study this year was the human body. Instead of ordering a boxed curriculum set, I decided to put together my own human body unit. In this post I share some of the resources we used for learning about the human skeletal and muscular systems, plus instructions for a couple hands on learning activities. You can find my post about the human respiratory and circulatory systems  here , and my post about the human digestive and nervous systems  here . The Human Skeletal System Our skeletons are the frame of our body. They give us structure, without them our bodies would be limp like noodles. They also provide places for muscles to attach so our bodies can move. Why Does Your Body Need Calcium? Experiment: This is a simple experiment you can do to explore why calcium is important for our bones. You will need: -several clean