Stay Curious and Keep Exploring: 50 Amazing, Bubbly, and Creative Science Experiments to Do with the Whole Family

Introduction

Hello, little scientists! Emily here. Welcome to Stay Curious and Keep Exploring, my book of experiments that are fun for the whole family. This book contains 50 of my favorite science experiments that you can all do together, usually with materials you already have at home!

Some of these experiments will POP, some will bubble over, some will GLOW in the dark, and some may be a little spooky! For each experiment, I’ll tell you exactly what you need, and my little scientists and I will walk you through it step by step. You may need an official Lab Assistant (an adult) for some of them, so make sure you have one handy. Any experiment that requires adult supervision will say Lab Assistant (an Adult!) Required at the top.

As you flip through the pages, you’ll find that this book is filled with more than just science experiments. You’ll learn answers to questions like, Why is ketchup so hard to get out of the bottle? and Why do my ears pop sometimes? You’ll read about important women in science who changed the course of history, and you’ll be asked to create your own hypotheses about the experiments—what do YOU think will happen? Look out for the words highlighted in yellow on each page. These are my favorite science words that I’ve included in the Science Glossary in the back of the book. And, of course, I’ll share some fun stories from my time on Emily’s Wonder Lab!

I want this book to encourage you to stay curious about the world around you. I want you to ask questions, make hypotheses, and test your ideas in the real world. Keep exploring anything and everything around you. Science is so fun and exciting because it’s all about learning how the world works. What may seem like magic is actually science. And YOU can learn it all! This book will help you become a little scientist yourself. So, what do you say? Should we dive into the experiments? Let’s go!

Space Slime

Since meteorites fall to Earth all the time, how do I know if a rock in my backyard is from outer space?

ABOUT THE EXPERIMENT

Meteorites do fall to Earth, but it is rare to find them in your backyard. However, if you do find a rock that you think might be a meteorite, you should grab a magnet to see if it’s attracted to it. Many meteorites come from asteroids, and many asteroids have a high percentage of iron in them. Iron in meteorites is attracted to magnets. So, if the magnet test works, you should contact your local museum and see if they might be able to verify whether or not you found a rock … from space!

This experiment will show you how to make your very own slime … from space! Well, it won’t actually be from space, but it will be attracted to a magnet just like meteorites—and we can pretend, right?

⅓ cup (80 ml) white glue

2 tablespoons water

¼ teaspoon baking soda

Bowl

Spoon

2 tablespoons iron oxide powder

(you can buy this online)

¾ tablespoon eye contact solution

(must contain boric acid and sodium borate)

A strong magnet

INSTRUCTIONS

Pour the glue, water, and baking soda into your bowl and mix them together with a spoon.

Use your spoon to mix in the iron oxide powder.

Add the contact solution and stir again.

Take your magnet and bring it close to your slime. Try to get within 1 inch (~2 cm), and then ½ inch (~1 cm), and see if you can make your slime move to follow the magnet. Be careful not to get the slime on the magnet. It’s not a big deal if you do, but it is a little hard to get off.

As you bring your magnet really close to your slime, you should see small parts of the slime move toward the magnet (not a lot of the slime, but a small amount right on the surface).

THE SCIENCE

Whoa, this thing looks like an alien! It’s aliveeeeee!

It certainly looks that way, doesn’t it?

What is making it move around?

The iron oxide we added to the slime is the secret ingredient. Iron is attracted to magnets. This is because when iron is in the presence of a magnetic field, the atoms start to align their electrons in the direction of that magnetic field—this temporarily makes the iron a magnet too. Then those two magnets (your iron and your other magnet) become attracted to each other.

The best way to hunt for meteorites is looking in places where a dark piece of rock would really stand out. If you go to an icy place like Antarctica or the middle of a light-colored, sandy desert and you see a dark, black rock just sitting on top of the land, chances are that rock came from space!

Most meteorites found on Earth come from the asteroid belt, but sometimes you can find one that came all the way from the Moon or Mars. How did a rock from the Moon or Mars get here? Well, a big asteroid had to slam into the Moon or Mars, kick up a bunch of rocks, and send them flying into the solar system. Some of that debris landed right here on Earth, although those types of meteorites are much more rare.

What’s the difference between a meteoroid, a meteor, and a meteorite? A meteoroid is a rock flying through space, a meteor is a space rock flying through Earth’s atmosphere, and a meteorite is a space rock that’s landed on the ground.

Fizzy Rocket

What makes a rocket move upward?

ABOUT THE EXPERIMENT

Arocket moves upward because it creates an explosion downward. That’s Newton’s Third Law of Motion: For every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction. This is the same reason why blowing up a balloon and letting it go (before tying it off) will make the balloon fly in the opposite direction the air moves in. With this experiment, we’ll see Newton’s Third Law in action. It is so exciting, and I scream every time a film canister launches! You can certainly do this one indoors, but it might be more fun to launch them outside. The canister will get about a tablespoon of water and fizz wherever it launches, so make sure it’s on something you can easily wipe off.

Goggles or protective eyewear

(to protect your eyes when launching a film canister)

Film canister rocket

(these can be purchased online; search for this term)

1 spoonful water

Antacid tablets

INSTRUCTIONS

Put on your goggles.

Open your film canister and add the water.

Place one antacid tablet inside.

Quickly place the lid on and then flip your canister over on a flat surface so that the lid is facing downward.

When you flip over your closed film canister, you will need to wait for 5 to 15 seconds and then all of a sudden—POP! The larger part of your cannister will shoot straight up into the air. It may even hit the ceiling!

!

Warning:

Be sure to wear safety goggles and don’t stand directly over your film canister because it will launch straight upward!

Make a Hypothesis

What would happen if you added less water in your film canister?

What about more water?

(Make your own guess, then flip upside down to read!)

When you add less water, the canister will take longer to pop (because there’s more volume for bubbles to fill), but it will launch higher than before. This is because there’s now more air in the container shooting downward. When you add more water, your canister will pop faster but there will be less air moving downward (and more friction between the canister and the water), so your rocket won’t launch as high.

THE SCIENCE

That went so high! What made that launch?

When you add an antacid tablet to water, it starts to fizz and bubble. All of those bubbles build and build and increase the air pressure inside your canister. At some point the pressure becomes so great that the lid simply can’t hold on anymore and your canister shoots upward. For every action—the rush of air DOWNward—there’s an equal and opposite reaction—the canister moves UPward!

Cool! But why does water make antacid fizz?

It’s a chemical reaction! Inside antacid is baking soda and citric acid. Baking soda is a base, and citric acid, which is the same stuff that’s in lemon juice, is an acid. But of course! It’s in the name! Check out the pH scale in the back of the book to learn about other acids and bases! Without water, the tablet doesn’t fizz because all of the molecules are mostly standing still and not interacting. But as soon as you add water, they start partying together and it kick-starts an acid-base chemical reaction that creates a lot of carbon dioxide bubbles. Perfect for launching rockets! Well, small ones, anyway.

Mae Jemison was the first African American