Science projects are one my favorite things to work on with my son.  I have found that the secret to getting your child to WANT to do them is to let them pick the subject.  We were asked to create a science project by Elmer’s. The only requirement was that we had to use an Elmer’s Tri-Fold Display Board and Elmer’s X-TREME Glue products information on all these products can be found on the Elmer’s website.  For more photos of our trip to Walmart to pick up supplies check out my google+ album.

The first step was picking a subject. He decided he wanted to see if a combination of baking soda and vinegar could blow up a balloon.   His hypothesis was that when the two ingredients mixed together it would form a gas and a balloon on top of a jar would inflate.  The trick was getting the right of gas to form.   Next, he and his Dad conducted the experiment using different combinations of the two ingredients.  After three or four attempts it worked!  My son was thrilled to see it actually happen.

For the experiment we used the following:

Baking Soda

Vinegar

Glass or plastic jar

Balloons

Measuring spoons

They started by using ¼ teaspoon of baking soda and 1 ml of vinegar.  That didn’t produce enough gas so they increased the proportions until it worked. We documented the process with photo’s.

Now that the experiment had been conducted it was time to put together our science project to show how it worked.

Supplies

Elmer’s Tri Fold Display Board

Elmer’s X-TREME Glue Stick

Various colors of papers

Scissors

Markers

My son came up with the catchy title of INFLATION OBSERVATION and used the Markers to write it on the board.  Then he cut out shapes of the jar he used in green paper. Then using red and yellow paper he cut out pieces of paper to represent the amount of baking soda and vinegar he used in each jar.  After that he added a balloon cut-out to the top of the jar to show how far the balloon inflated each time.  He then typed out the hypothesis and the legend for the board on the computer and glued them in place.

“This project has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for #elmersscienceready #collectivebias #CBias”