Praxis: Exploding a baggie snowman

By Patty Rooks on November 16, 2019.

praxis@praxismh.ca@PraxisMedHat

It is hard to believe we are halfway through November already. Driving around this week, I saw that there are already holiday decorations up! I love it, but this can also cause a bit of a slump in the classroom. As the holiday season fast approaches, it may be difficult to keep the attention of all the students. It is my hope that over the next couple of weeks, I can provide you with some fun and exciting experiments with a holiday theme! Let’s get started!

*Remember to ask an adult before doing this experiment.

Materials

– black sharpie (or marker that will not rub off)

– orange sharpie (for the snowman nose, of course)

– small plastic zipper bag (sandwich size)

– snow

– Alka-Seltzer tablets

Procedure

1. Draw a fun snowman face on the zipper baggie using the markers.

2. Fill the zipper baggie full of snow (make sure you can still close it tightly). If you have too much, just dump some out.

3. Add three Alka-Seltzer tablets to the baggie.

4. Zip the baggie up tight!

5. Set the snowman in a warm location but one you do not mind if it gets a bit dirty. You may even want to place the snowman in a bowl…

6. Observe.

What is going on?

In this experiment you should have observed that as the snow melted, it turned to a liquid. Water is truly an amazing substance. It can be in gaseous form (steam), solid (ice), or liquid (water). When the snow begins to melt, it turns to a liquid. As this liquid begins to mix with the Alka-Seltzer tablets, you should have observed the baggie beginning to grow, and grow, and grow until there was no more room for it to grow and it exploded! Why did it explode? Well, the Alka-Seltzer tablet is made up of citric acid and sodium bicarbonate (baking soda). The citric acid, is an acid, and the sodium bicarbonate is a base. As these two powders mix with water, they react and form a gas called carbon dioxide. This is a chemical reaction that actually fills up the baggie because it has nowhere to go!

Patty Rooks, Senior Scientific Consultant PRAXIS, “Connecting Science To The Community”. Contact Praxis at praxis@praxismh.ca, http://www.praxismh.ca, Tweet or follow us @PraxisMedHat, or friend us on Facebook. NOTE our NEW address: #12 826 11 Street S. E., Medicine Hat, Alberta, T1A 1T7 Phone: 403.527.5365, email: praxis@praxismh.ca.

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