Free Homeschooling – Freezing Bubbles
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Getting Started
Have you ever wanted to freeze bubbles so that you can study them, draw them, observe them, or just keep them around for a little bit longer? If so, then this free homeschooling experiment is just the one for you. There are plenty of things you can learn about physics, color, and temperature with this free homeschooling experiment. Plus, everyone loves bubbles, right?
To get started, you’ll need to gather the following materials:
• Dry ice (be sure to ask a parent for help handling dry ice)
• Bubble solution (can be dishwashing soap or a bubble kit)
• A wok or old fish tank
Once you have gathered all of these materials together, you’re ready to get started.
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Free Homeschool Science activities and experiments. Complete science kits and programs include all materials, step-by-step videos and unlimited support.
Procedure
Follow these simple steps:
• Place your dry ice into the base of the wok or the fish tank. Keep in mind that you should never touch dry ice with your bare hands. Make sure an adult is watching you whenever you work with dry ice.
• Allow the dry ice to sit for about 15 minutes in the tank or wok.
• After 15 minutes, blow bubbles gently across the top of the dry ice.
• Observe what happens to the bubbles. Take notes – and photographs, if you want to!
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What You Learned
What did you learn from this experiment?
When you blew the bubbles across the dry ice, some of the bubble probably fell onto the dry ice. Other bubbles probably floated around the wok or fish tank. Some bubbles, if you’re lucky, may have even frozen mid-pop.
Here’s the Scientific Explanation Behind What You Saw:
Dry ice is carbon dioxide in solid form. As the dry ice thaws, it forms a carbon dioxide gas. As you may have learned, gas is heavier than air. Therefore, the heavier gas will stay in the bottom of the tank or wok. This is a cool free homeschooling experiment so far, right? Keep learning…
When you blow the bubbles over the dry ice (carbon dioxide), those bubbles tend to float on the gas because the gas holds them up. However, while most of the bubbles will float on the gas, some of the bubbles will fall through the gas to the solid dry ice.
When the bubbles fall to the dry ice, the bubbles often freeze just as they are. Sometimes, they will even freeze as they are in the middle of popping – and that’s very cool to see!
For those bubbles that continued to float, you’ll notice that they will start to expand. This expansion happens because the carbon dioxide is entering the bubbles through a process of osmosis. After awhile, all of the bubbles will expand to the point where they will pop because the bubble wall simply cannot hold up any longer.
Make Comparisons
Review Your Notes and Compare the Scientific Explanation with Your Observations
Make sure that you review your observation notes so that you completely understand how and why this experiment works – it’s one of the best free homeschooling experiments I’ve found so far to demonstrate how air and gas work together.
