I am so thankful for the “mom tribe” in my life and the ladies who are in the virtual learning trenches with me right now! These are the ladies who feel my pain when Eli and Ava are spinning in their desk chairs…because their kids are doing the same thing! Well, one of these fabulous ladies hosted us for a science afternoon at her house. Woohoo! Away from the computer screens and enjoying the outdoors doing actual experiments. There were 3 awesome experiments that are really easy to do at home and I wanted to share them with you so that your mom tribe can also take this whole virtual learning thing to a manageable level of sanity!! That’s truly where my “school bar” is set every day ~ keep the tiny humans alive and me sane! I give credit to my dear friend for coming up with these!

Color Changing Pennies

• New pennies
• Small bowl
• Paper towel
• Vinegar

1. Fold the paper towel so that it fits inside the bowl, but is large enough to hold the pennies.
2. Place pennies on paper towel and cover with vinegar.
3. Pour vinegar over the pennies, allowing the paper towel to soak up the vinegar until saturated. Pour off the excess vinegar.
4. Observe the oxidation process of turning the pennies green (this may take around 24 hours, so be patient and keep checking on the progress!)

**Did you know the Statue of Liberty is coated in a thin layer of copper and was a shiny copper red color when given to the USA?? Over time, the exposure to oxygen in the atmosphere and the slight acidity of rain, caused it to turn brown and then green!

Mentos and Pop Challenge

• Roll of mint Mentos
• 2 liter bottle of pop
• Optional: kit sold here on Amazon (we used this, so I’m going to describe the steps for it, but you can simply drop the Mentos in the pop without this kit and your experiment will work)

1. Open the bottle of pop and attach the Mentos dispenser (from the kit above). Load with 5-6 Mentos.
2. Choose a nozzle and attach to the Mentos dispenser on the pop bottle.
3. In a field away from anything that you don’t want to get covered in sticky pop, release the Mentos into the bottle and RUN!!!
4. Repeat as many times as you like with a NEW bottle of pop each time.

**Talk about the carbon dioxide reaction caused by the tiny pores on the Mentos mints and the CO2 in the pop. Make predictions on which nozzle will achieve the longest geyser, tallest, etc. Does the type of pop affect the geyser spray as well??

Exploding Sandwich Baggies

• 1/2 cup vinegar
• 1/4 cup water
• food coloring (optional)
• Ziplock sandwich bag
• 1 tissue
• 3 Tablespoons baking soda

1. Pour vinegar and water into a sandwich baggie. Add food coloring if desired.
2. Lay the tissue flat and in the middle, dump 3 Tablespoons baking soda. Fold the tissue around the baking soda so it’s wrapped up like a little package.
3. Have an adult hold the baggie open while your child drops in the tissue bundle of baking soda (yes, add the tissue too!)
4. QUICKLY close the baggie and set on the ground. Watch the carbon dioxide build up in the baggie until it explodes!

**This was a brand new experiment for me and was so cool to watch the baggie expand! If you get the ziplock opening tightly secured, the bag will actually explode out one of the seams. Of the 4 baggies we did, 3 exploded from the seams while 1 kept popping open the ziplock edge.