This fizzy flower experiment is a fun way to learn about the baking soda and vinegar reaction. Kids will love makingtheir flower erupt too!
RELATED: Baking Soda & Vinegar Experiment
Fizzy Flower Experiment for Kids
Kids love doing this easy science experiment. Not only is it a fun activity but it’s a great learning exercise too.
You can also do this experiment with just one cup and learn about color mixing by following our baking soda volcano tutorial.
The Science
What happens when you mix vinegar and baking soda?
You see the bubbling and foaming but what is causing this reaction? The baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) is a base while the vinegar (acetic acid) is an acid and what you are seeing is an acid/base reaction. Initially, the reaction makes carbonic acid which is unstable and breaks down into carbon dioxide (CO2) and water which is what creates all of the fizzing and bubbles as the gas leaves the water.
Supplies Needed to do a Baking Soda Fizzy Flower Experiment
– Baking Soda – we like this large 5 lb bag for activities since it’s more economical
– Small Cups or Silicone Baking Cups (check the quantities of each color in the set if you want to match the colors, you may need 2 sets).
– Concentrated Food Coloring – We used pink and purple for the petals and yellow for the center of the flower. We like to use this liquid food coloring gel since it’s concentrated and makes the colors really vibrant
– Water
– Vinegar
– Dish Soap – any kind should work
– A Tray – we like these plastic white serving trays for messy experiments or sensory play
Watch the Video Tutorial Here
How to Make a Fizzing Flower
1. Arrange the cupcake liners in the shape of a flower. Do purple around the outside for the petals and yellow inside.
Then you can repeat the experiment with a different color a second time!
2. Put 1 tablespoon of baking soda into each cupcake liner.
3. Add in a drop of concentrated food coloring into each cupcake liner. Add your flower color (we did pink and purple) to the outside cupcake liners and yellow to the inside cupcake liner.
4. Add 1 tablespoon of water into each cupcake liner and mix with the baking soda.
5. Add a small drop of dish soap to each cupcake liner. The dish soap is optional but helps to make it erupt more out of the cups.
6. Add half of the squeeze bottle with vinegar and half with water (shake to mix). This is just to dilute the vinegar so you can use less and save on the vinegar quantity needed.
7. Squeeze the vinegar into each cupcake liner until it starts to expand out.
Keep adding more of the vinegar and water mixture in as needed until it looks like a flower.
Kids can continue to squeeze more of the vinegar and water mixture until it no longer erupts.
If it stops erupting, you can add a little more baking soda in.
You should now be able to see your full fizzy flower in action!
Once you’re done with one color, you can repeat the experiment again with a different color!
More Science Experiments
Try this fun and easy Grow a Rainbow Experiment. You only need washable markers and paper towel!
For another fun experiment, make some oobleck!Â
Try a rainbow rain cloud in the jar experiment!
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