100 Days of Science #44-- Oozing Pumpkins

With Halloween less than two short weeks away my boys and I just had to come up with a fun science project for us to do together and when I saw these oozing pumpkins by Steve Spangler science I just knew I had found it!!  

My boys and I had made elephant toothpaste together before but the younger two boys barely remembered it.  I still had the peroxide needed to make the toothpaste so we settled around the table and got to work. 

My boys wanted to try without carving the pumpkin at all first.  We cut a hole in the top, scooped out the guts and started mixing the ingredients together. 

First we poured 2 tablespoons of our peroxide (this concentrated hair kind; not the regular household kind!), a few drops of dish soap, and a few drops of liquid watercolors into our container and gave it a good stir.

We carefully placed it in the bottom of the pumpkin and then began mixing our yeast mixture.

I mixed 1 tablespoon of yeast with 3 tablespoons hot tap water.

I forgot to clean my fork in between and you can already see it reacting.

 We poured the yeast into the peroxide solution and then put the lid back on our pumpkin.

In no time we had an oozing pumpkin!

Once we were sure it was finished; we cleaned everything up.  Rinsed off the pumpkin and the tray and carved a face in our pumpkin.

We then mixed up a second cup of peroxide, soap and paint (this time using green and yellow) and put it in our pumpkin.

I used a larger cup this time and made sure to really mix the yeast well as I had had a lot of yeast left over in the first cup.

We added the yeast to the peroxide mixture and put the top back on.. within moments we had a foaming, frothing pumpkin! 

Such a fun reaction to see! We could feel a bit of heat coming off  it too and we talked about the fact that it's an exothermic reaction.  

Others in this series:

1. Bernoulli's Principle
2. Ecotarium Trip 
3. Air Molecule Experiment
4. Kitchen Science
5. Corn Maze Field Trip 
6. Birds of Florida 
7. Making Static Music
8. Un-Make It Monday
9. Wind Tunnel Experiment
10. Biomes Field Trip
11. Disappearing Coin Trip
12. Snuffing out a Candle With Baking Soda
13. Making Plastic from Milk
14. Friction Experiment 
15. & 16. Snow Experiments
17. Making an Iceberg
18. Floating Eggs
19. Pond Water Under a Microscope 
20. Planting Eco Plant Pals
21. & 22. Cotton Candy Experiments
23. Springfield Science Museum Trip
24. Signs of Spring
25. Color Changing Slime
26. Growing Our Own Tickle Plants
27. Learning About Soil Sampling
28. Making Bouncy Balls
29. Exploring the Shoreline
30. Color Changing Flowers
31. Roger Williams Zoo Trip
32. Edible Silly Putty 
33. Raising Tadpoles
34. More Microscope Fun 
35.  Homemade Ice Cream
36. How Plants Breathe Experiment 
37. Save The Bay Exploration Center Trip
38. Making Fresh Peach Preserves 
39. Making Solar S'mores
40. Growing a Crystal Garden
41. & 42. Making Jolly Rancher Candy Apples & Lollipops 
43. Volcanic Lemons

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