Halloween is coming! Families will be carving pumpkins and decorating their houses with them. When Halloween is over, these pumpkins will be thrown away, fed to animals, or tossed into compost piles. But... these pumpkins can be used for something fun and educational before being disposed of... science! Read on to learn more about a fun science experiment you can do with these leftover pumpkins.
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Making an oozing pumpkin is an exciting... and messy... way to teach children about chemical reactions. A chemical reaction occurs when two or more substances are combined together to create something new. In this experiment, you will combine vinegar and baking soda to make a 'foam' that consists of sodium acetate, carbon dioxide, and water.
For this science activity, you will need:
-
a carved pumpkin
-
dish soap
-
baking soda
-
vinegar
-
food coloring (optional)
Directions:
-
In a small bowl, combine some dish soap, food coloring, and baking
soda. Exact amounts aren’t
necessary. The more dish soap,
vinegar and baking soda you use, the larger the chemical reaction will
be! Mix everything
thoroughly.
-
Pour the mixture into the bottom of the pumpkin.
-
Slowly pour some vinegar into the pumpkin.
-
Stand back and observe. You
should see a big, foamy, mess ooze from the pumpkin’s eyes, nose, and
mouth!
This science experiment can be done more than once. Just dump everything
out of the pumpkin and repeat the process. You can experiment with
different amounts of vinegar, baking soda, and dish soap to see what happens.
Important Notes
Do NOT drink the vinegar or sodium acetate. It will make you
sick! Also, if you have a compost pile, do NOT put your oozing
pumpkin into it. Vinegar, baking soda, and sodium acetate will destroy
the beneficial microbes in your compost pile that makes everything decompose.
Did you enjoy reading about this oozing pumpkins STEM experiment? If so, check
out these blog posts for more pumpkins and STEM activities:
- Craft: Pumpkin Balloon Globes
- STEM: Minecraft Math Halloween Pixel Art
- STEM: Pumpkin Life Cycle STEM Activity
- STEM + Printable: Does Halloween Candy Sink or Float?
- Craft: How to Make a Paper Bag Pumpkin
