Mentos & coke

Organized by: Shayni Saftler, Natt Supab, Trang Pham, Henry Lew, Stacy Sun

Ideas and notes:

external link: http://eepybird.com/science.html

external link: http://eepybird.com/How%20To%20Do%20It%20Yourself!.pdf

external link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diet_Coke_and_Mentos_eruption (see explanation)

--Darryl's comment: my two concerns here are (1) the messiness, and (2) what are we going to do for the "experiment part"? how to fill the time?

Shayni says: I think the experimenting will be trying different liquids and candies. Does it have to be a carbonated drink? What types of candies work and what do they have in common? As for the messiness… I think we'll have to do this one outdoors, perhaps in a parking lot?

Shayni says again: Ooh. This could be a fun way to get the kids thinking about scientific hypotheses. We could show the video, do our own demonstration of the mentos and coke, and do a quick analysis of what is actually happening. Then we could have everyone hypothesize about what other sorts of mixtures will do the same thing. We could put them into groups and have them brainstorm, and then have them present their ideas to the larger group. Then, we would go back outside and try the several different combinations. I think just having one demonstration area is sufficient (i.e. everyone watches just one bottle), we don't need to have 20 kids each making their own explosions.

Trang Pham asks: So we'll just have one of us do the experiment part? Do you think this will keep the students engaged?

Shayni replies: Well… it just seems like it would be too messy to have so many bottles going off. I think the engaging part would be the working in groups and hypothesizing. The demonstration part only needs to be 15-20 minutes.

Supplies needed:

  • Diet soda (Coke, Mountain Dew, Dr. Pepper, etc.)
  • non-carbonated liquids (milk, fruit juice)
  • Mentos, Skittles, M&Ms, Runts
  • rock salt
  • baking soda
  • pennies
  • string
  • goggles
  • lots of big garbage bags (to cover an explosion area)

Outline of the activity:

timewhat's happening
3:00-3:15show video and/or demonstration
3:15-3:35let them hypothesize
3:35-3:55demonstration of other combos
3:55-4:00clean up