Homeschool Science – Dancing Raisins

This homeschool science project is not only easy to do, and fairly clean, but it helps you to understand just how powerful carbon dioxide can be. Understanding how gasses work can help you to understand the interaction between gasses, solids, and liquids as well. So, if you’re ready to get started with this fun homeschool science project, you’ll need to start by gathering a few necessary materials.

Materials you’ll need:
    •    1 can of clear soda (such as Sprite)
    •    A clear glass or cup. Must be tall.
    •    A handful of fresh raisins

Procedure
    •    To get started with this project, pour the soda into the glass. You will immediately notice that bubbles will rise to the top of the glass from the bottom. These bubbles are actually the carbon dioxide being released from the liquid soda.

    •    Drop about 6 raisins into the glass. Observe what happens to the raisins. Record your immediate observations, then keep waiting. After a few minutes, record your second set of observations.  

    •    Examine your results to draw your own conclusions.

Understanding Your Results
You have probably noticed that the raisins sink to the bottom of the glass when you first place them into the glass. The longer you watched the raisins, you probably noticed that they started to have bubbles actually sticking to them. After a few minutes, you probably saw the raisins begin to rise to the top of the glass and move about.

When the raisins were first dropped into the glass, they were denser than the liquid, so they sank. However, as the carbon dioxide bubbles started to attach to the raisins, the raisins started to become buoyant. However, the bubbles popped when they reached the surface of the liquid, releasing the carbon dioxide. When the bubbles popped, the raisins to fall back to the bottom of the glass. The process repeated over and over.

However, if you observed the process in this homeschool science project for long enough, you probably noticed that the raisins stopped rising and falling like they had in the beginning. This is because the carbon dioxide was gradually released from the soda until there was no more carbon dioxide left. Without carbon dioxide bubbles to lift the raisins, the raisins fell back to the bottom of the glass where they stayed, right?

By the way, check out this website for great homeschool science resources.  It’s definitely one worth bookmarking. I love this experiment because it helps to demonstrate how different elements, such as gasses, work together to make something happen – and helps to show what happens when one of those elements (gas) is removed from the equation. As you learn more about the role of solids, liquids, and gasses, think about this experiment and about how all elements had to work together to create one result. Without one of those elements, a very different result is created.

After this experiment, you’ll have a better understanding of the interconnectivity between different states of matter. What other things may change when one element is taken away? For example, what happens to a glass of ice water when the water melts? What happens to vinegar when you add baking soda to it? Remember: the chemical and physical interactions between different elements can change a great deal with very small alterations, such as carbon dioxide bubbles evaporating!