1. Build a Volcano. Put a thick pad of newspaper on your kitchen table or counter. Put your pie plate on the newspaper. In
the pie plate, build a big mountain out of clay or play-dough. Volcanoes
are mountains that explode! |
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2. Make Lava. When lava first comes out of a volcano, it's super-hot and almost watery. As it cools, it becomes thicker. Finally, it turns into rock. You'll be making lava that will turn into rock overnight. In a one-cup measuring cup, mix:
Add one tablespoon of water at a time until your mixture is a little thinner than toothpaste. Stir thoroughly. Pour the mixture into your paper cup, leaving about an inch at the top of the cup. |
3. Eruption! Pour about two tablespoons of vinegar into the cup. Stand back and watch! Notice how the lava pours down the ridges you made in the mountainside, and pools around the bottom of the mountain. 4. The Changing Earth. Let your lava dry overnight. Then touch the lava with your finger, and notice how hard it is. The lava has turned into rock! Remove the used cup from the volcano, and replace it with a new one. Make a new mixture of lava, but this time try using blue or yellow food coloring. Explode your volcano again. Let the lava dry, and notice what happens to the different-colored layers of lava. If you like, you can keep making and adding more of the dry mixture to the cup, and adding more vinegar on top. Let the lava dry between each eruption. As the layers of lava dry and harden, they make your mountain bigger. This is very similar to what happens with a real volcano. |