I hope everyone is having an amazing week. We just started August, and with that a new monthly topic for our science class. Or rather than a topic to follow through the month, something even better!
Since we are in summer vacation, on thursdays we are going to be doing fun science experiments for the kids to watch and also learn about.
Today’s experiment involved 2 things that we use in our daily lives: soap and a microwave.
Do you know that there are different kinds of soap? Not only liquid or bar, also the soap that we use to clean our bodies is different from the soap we use to wash the dishes, but at the end the base for every soap is the same: fats/oils.
By adding different chemicals we can give it different aromas and properties, which is also why you can’t use any soap for this experiment, we need “Ivory Soap”. Ivory Soap is 99% pure, which is why on the contrary to other soap bars, Ivory Soap floats on water. It is almost pure oil.
There are many things that are not safe to put inside a microwave, like steel or many kinds of plastic, but oil is microwave safe!
What do you think will happen if you put the Ivory Soap inside the microwave? Will it melt and boil?
It expands! Now we have a fluffy soap cloud.
Once it cooled down, the kids could touch it and play a little bit with it. The peculiar texture makes it amazing for sensory play.
Once the kids crumbled all the soap, it was time to put it back together. Adding a little bit of water, we can knead it easily and make little soap balls or whatever form we want to make.
-Anabel.
