Build Your Own Volcano

Dear friends
I want to share an activity I undertook with my students.

Build Your Own Volcano
Materials
Baking pan or cover of a large bucket

Soda bottle (16 ounce or 20 ounce)
Moist soil or sand
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 cup vinegar
Red food coloring

Procedure
Color the vinegar with red food coloring.

Put the baking pan (or cover) on the ground and place the soda bottle in the middle of it.

Shape the moist soil (or sand) around the bottle to form a mountain. Bring the soil to the bottle's opening, but don't get the soil inside the bottle.

Pour the baking soda into the bottle.

Pour the colored vinegar into the bottle

Watch red foam spray out of the top and down the mountain like lava from a volcano.

Why it happened
The baking soda reacted with the vinegar to produce carbon dioxide gas. The gas built up enough pressure to push the foaming liquid out of the top of the bottle.

I tried this activity with class VI students and they enjoyed it very much.

Savita Dhutti