STEAM Valentines - Fizzy Heart Science - Red Ted Art

More fun STEAM Valentines Activities for our 31 Days of Love Series. Today’s Valentine’s Day Science Projects are these super fun DIY Fizzy Heart Science from Jacinta from Cinta & Co. (it compliments out Valentines Baking Soda Experiment, Valentines Bubble Painting Project and dissolving Valentines Skittle Project wonderfully – our Valentine’s Day Science Activities !). As this is our 4th year of the 31 Days of Love series, we literally have 100s of fantastic Valentines Activities for Kids for you to browse and have grouped them to make it easier for you to take a peak: Valentine Crafts for Preschoolers, Valentine Day Treats, Valentine Decorations and Valentine Cards for Kids!

I am so excited to be part of the 31 Days of Love Series on Red Ted Art again this year! Thank you Maggy for including me. My name is Jacinta and I am an Australian based Scientist and Mama of three, hoping to inspire creative kids and fun mums, families and educators. I post really easy and fun learning projects on my Instagram page @cintaandco. It’s called Cinta & Co. as my family and friends call me Cinta – short for Jacinta, and my kids are my co. – you will often see their little hands hard at work in the photos that I post. Today, I would like to share a really simple and fun science experiment that you can undertake using everyday ingredients that I am sure you will have in your pantry.

Science experiments are surprisingly easy to undertake at home. You generally do not require any fancy ingredients, they can actually be relatively mess free and you definitely don’t need a PhD to play! Today, we set-up a really fun and engaging fizzy heart experiment, that is a take on classic baking soda and vinegar science.

STEAM Fizzy Science Heart Supplies

Approximately 3/4 cup baking soda (also called bi-carb soda)
1/2 cup water
Food colouring
Small bowl for mixing
Fork or spoon for mixing
Silicone ice cube tray
Plastic pipettes or eye droppers
Vinegar

How to make Fizzy Science Hearts

Pour your baking soda into a bowl. Add water drop by drop to make a liquid the consistency of honey. Once you have achieved your desired consistency, you can add a couple of drops of food dye to colour your fizzy hearts.

Transfer your baking soda mixture to your silicone ice cube tray. Place your tray into the freezer and chill overnight. It’s important to use a silicone tray and not a plastic tray, to ensure that you can easily remove your baking soda shapes from your tray. Ask your child to fill the ice cube tray. Talk about measuring volume, and estimate how much of the mixture you will require to fill each well.

Once frozen, pop your baking soda shapes out of the tray and arrange on a plate or platter. This plate will contain the liquid to be used in subsequent steps. We used a plate with a small lip on it to prevent spills. These are some small heart shapes that we prepared earlier. You may like to encourage your children to remove the shapes from the trays independently. This will help develop their fine motor skills and hand eye coordination, and strengthen their little fingers.

Next, use your plastic pipette to drop vinegar onto the molds. Watch and listen to the fizzing caused by the vinegar reacting with the baking soda in the heart shapes. We have coloured our vinegar blue with food dye. Adding this extra step is not necessary, but does allow you to explore colouring mixing. Remember to talk about all the ways you can observe this experiment – visual, sound, smell, touch (I don’t recommend taste).

Clean up after this experiment is really easy. Just tip the baking soda and vinegar down the sink and wash with plenty of water. Please also ensure that you supervise your children closely while undertaking this experiment. While the materials used are generally harmless, they definitely don’t taste very nice!

I do hope you enjoyed this fabulous Valentines Science Project!!! If you would like more beautiful and wonderful ideas from Jacinta, take a look at these:

Cotton Ball Rainbow Art

Heart Sponge Painting

Chalk Rainbows

We have lots of amazing Valentine Crafts for Preschooler ideas for you to browse here: