How to Explode Leftover Easter Eggs - Science Activities

How To Explode the Easter Bounty 


Ahhhh.... Nothing like Spring Break! The kiddies are home, no schools to run to, but plenty to do, and redo, and do over again. Relieve some holiday stress and keep your kids busy with these unorthodox Easter egg experiments.

Death By Vacuum 

Get some oohs, awes, and much needed stress relief with this experiment demonstrating air pressure and vacuums. 

You'll need some peeled hardboiled eggs, birthday candles, fire, and a glass bottle whose top is just the right width to barely hold the egg up top. And if you are an adult, you may choose an additional glass bottle and a corkscrew. 

1. Put two birthday candles side-by-side in the narrow end of a peeled, hard-boiled egg.  

2. Light the candles and sing "Here Comes Peter Cottontail" or other equally Eastery tune.

3. Hold the bottle upside down and carefully place it over the burning candles and egg.

4. Quickly flip the bottle, while holding onto the egg, so the bottle sits right side.

5. Watch as the egg is sucked in and mutilated under the intense pressure of heated molecules. 

6. Whoa - yes, you'll want to do it again and again. 

*To learn more about why this occurs, visit this website: Egg Drop and Air Pressure 

Choke Hold

Take the kids outside for this one! Place a raw egg centered in the palm of your hand. Place even pressure using your fingers and palm around the egg and see if you can break it. It is not as easy as it sounds! Eggs are made to resist even pressure, that is why a hen can lay on them, but when a little chick tries to hatch, its beak can pierce through the egg. 

For the Calmer Crowd

Mystery Egg 

Give your kids a raw egg and a hard boiled egg, but don't tell them which is which! Spin the eggs on their sides and see what happens. Float the eggs in salt water and see which one floats and which one sinks. This activity is quick and easy for all ages, and teaches observation and analytic skills.

Leftover Leftovers

But I still have more darn eggs!  What should I do? Now I don't think using your children for egg target practice is legal, but it sounds like fun! Or consider channeling your inner child and get back at that annoying rude neighbor - just don't forget to change - pastels don't conceal very well in the dark. 

Did You Know That Your Leftover Spaghetti Can Dance?

If you try hard enough, you can teach it the Cat Daddy!

I learned the adhesion properties of spaghetti at a young age, as my little brother and I flung spaghetti onto the stucco ceilings of our home. Really, nobody noticed. Seriously, how often do you stare at the ceiling? Sorry when it finally fell on you, Mom.

Fill a glass with water, and dissolve baking soda in it, little by little, until there is excess on the bottom of the glass. This is called a saturated solution. Break uncooked angel hair pasta into 2-3 inch pieces, and place it in the glass. Breaking is a physical change.  Be a drama queen (or king); add a few drops of that food coloring that has laid on the bottom shelf since last Christmas. You’ve now created a homogeneous saturated solution of water, baking soda, and color.

Now for the not so hard part; pour some vinegar in the glass. Observe what happened. Did your pasta do the Macarena?

Baking Soda (aka sodium bicarbonate) and vinegar (aka acetic acid) chemically react. This means the atoms break bonds, undergo a chemical change, and reform into new types of matter. Sounds kind of like harsh breakup, poor little atoms.

The bubbles that form contain Carbon dioxide, the same stuff we breathe out. The reaction between the chemicals is:

NaHCO₃ (aq) +     HC₂H₃O₂ (aq) ------> CO₂ (g) + H₂O (l) +    NaC₂H₃O₂ (aq)

Baking soda         Vinegar                  Carbon Dioxide          Sodium acetate

What About My Noodle?

When the carbon dioxide bubbles attach to the noodles, the noodles float, since the bubbles are less dense than water. When the bubbles pop, the dense noodles settle back down. Imagine you were a giant noodle in the bottom of a swimming pool – what would happen to you if someone swam you down some water wings? 


Key Words:
chemical reaction
density
physical change
chemical change 
saturated solution 

Assessment Ideas:
Knowledge: Define a chemical reaction.
Comprehension: Summarize what happens during a chemical reaction.
Application: Would a reaction happen without vinegar? Explain.
Analysis:What would happen if less baking soda or vinegar were used? Would the reaction still happen?
Synthesis: Design an experiment with baking soda, vinegar,water, and an object of your choice.
Evaluation: Why did the spaghetti dance?