A Science & Art Project

When I was a kid, before my parents divorced, my dad taught us kids about the sciences. This must have been part of his role in the whole homeschooling thing, but really, he was a science nerd and loved experimenting specifically with physics and chemistry. We did solar energy projects and various experiments with gravity, fire, magnets, light, electricity, etc. We also would combine different things to discover what kind of chemical reactions would occur. I was young when my parents split, so I probably have fewer memories of these times than some of my older siblings might. I do have several treasured memories though, along with a book that my dad used for some of the projects.

One of things he taught me was the chemical reaction vinegar and baking soda have when they were combined. I used this idea to create my very own science fair project in school and made an erupting volcano (pretty sure it was 5th grade). Before last week, that was the last time I made a volcano.

Last week while my sister was visiting, she had the idea to make the vinegar and baking soda erupting volcano. I think when I was a kid I made the volcano out of paper mache. We used play-doh. When we told Esperanza what we were going to do, she had kind of a blank stare. At 3 1/2 years old, there's still SOOooo so very much to learn (shoot, at thirty-something there's still so much for myself to learn). She had yet to learn about volcanoes so we gave her a quick Volcano 101 course, complete with a few YouTube videos showing volcanic eruptions. And then we set off to make one. While my dad carried the science gene, my mom has the art gene. I'm not real amazing in either area, yet Mary's idea turned into a very artsy, colorful and creative science project.

First we had to make an extra batch of play-doh.

Mary got the rolling pin and all kinds of kitchen utensils to cut and mold the clay to make a scenic volcano and surrounding area. Esperanza helped.

Ezra wanted to help but mostly just ate play-doh

And here's the scenic, colorful volcano and surrounding area. They were going to name the volcano Esperanza but went with her middle name Flower (her middle name is Flor, which is Flower in English) instead so that the letters would fit around the mountain. We added palm trees, a little heart shaped lake with a frog sitting on a lily pad, a girl standing under a sun umbrella and lots of pink glitter all over the mountain.

Fill the mountain with baking soda...

Add vinegar with red food coloring in it...and WOW!

The scene was quickly covered in red hot lava (oh, we added a few animals at some point too - a duck and a bear)

Esperanza thought this was sooooo cool! We did it again and again and again...

and again, and again, and again, and again...

...until finally the play-doh became more doh and less play.