Homeschool: Soapy Science

We got this great idea over at Latter-day Homeschooling blog. She found it in a book called Blast Lab or under a second title Super Science Lab by Richard Hammond.



Soap Monsters


Basically you need:
bar soap (no strong scents) We used Lever 2000 because we had it on hand
knife
plate
paint
paint brushes


Cut the soap into a chunk. Place on plate and microwave for up to 2 min on High. Let dry for 30 min to an hour. Add details to your monster with paint to make it come alive.


Some tips we learned when doing this project

• use smaller pieces of soap (you could quarter one fullsize bar and get good sized monsters)
•  No need to microwave for a full 2 minutes just stop the microwave when you are happy with your monsters look, if you do for full time you risk burning the soap and it smells REALLY bad
• Place outside to dry ( it was cool here so they set up faster)
• Use dry brushes with the paint, the water makes the soap dissolve

This was a great project for learning about the nature of water molecules. We watched this little video over at TeacherTube before we started to review. Then I wouldn't let the boys paint the monsters until they told me why the soap turned into a monster. They were all able to tell me. I think this is much more graphic way to show that water molecules expand when heated then other experiments we have done.