Do Try this at home – a project tested by The Works
Bubbling Volcano, tested by Sarah, marketing manager for The Works and mom of two.

I’ll admit it. When I joined The Works as marketing manager, I was intimidated by the idea of engineering.  “Engineering” sounded technical, difficult, and downright scary. Now that I’ve had the opportunity to try hands-on engineering with my kids, I have a completely different impression. Engineering involves creating, building, designing, using imagination and inventing. As it turns out, my children engineer nearly every day in their play at home – building Lego cities, designing elaborate forts, inventing light sabers from tubes and sticks and anything else not glued down, and much more.

With this in mind, I’m embarking on my own engineering challenge – to be an at-home activity tester for The Works. Yes, I’ll roll up my sleeves and dig into the good, the bad, and the messy.

For the first activity, Alex (6) and I selected the BUBBLING VOLCANO, a project that looks impressive (and impressively messy). Read on for the details of the project.

WHAT YOU NEED:
-Tape
-Paper snack cup
-Paper plate
-Aluminum foil
-Scissors
-Cookie sheet (with raised lip)
-2 tablespoons (30 mL) water
-Red food coloring (although we did it a second time with green for fun)
-1 tablespoon (15 mL) of baking soda
-2 tablespoons (30 mL) of white vinegar

STEPS:
1. Tape the bottom of the paper cup to the center of the paper plate
2. Cover the cup and plate with a long piece of foil. Make it long enough to wrap completely around the edges of the plate. When completed, the shape of your “volcano” should be evident.
3. Use scissors to poke a hole in the foil where it covers the center of the cup. Cut four slits from the hole to the edges of the cup to create tabs. Fold the tabs down and tape them inside the cup (we skipped the tape and just folded them down).
4. Set your volcano on a large cookie sheet (make sure it has a lip to catch the mess!). Pour the water into the cone of the volcano. Then add several drops of red food coloring and the baking soda.
5. Pour in the vinegar and watch your volcano erupt!

HOW IT WORKS:
The volcano erupts because the vinegar and the baking soda have a chemical reaction. The vinegar is an acid that reacts with the baking soda to make a froth.

WOULD I RECOMMEND THIS PROJECT?
Absolutely. It’s quick and easy to do, the mess is contained, and it was impressive to watch the explosion. Plus, we could test various iterations by dropping in a fresh cup into the cone to try it again and again with different colors of food coloring (we made a nice “alien” green) and ratios of soda and vinegar.

Project from The Kids’ Guide to Building Cool Stuff by Sheri Bell-Rehwoldt.