Tahuna has been hosting a group of Year 6's from a number of schools around Dunedin for extension science.

Science with the Year 6's has been filled with fun, hands-on activities!

Our first session we made Elephant Toothpaste. This is an experiment that focuses on chemical changes.

Microsoft Word - 9 Elephant Toothpaste

In this experiment we used Hydrogen Peroxide (made up of hyrdogen and oxygen), yeast, dish-washing liquid, water and food colouring.

The Hydrogen Peroxide was poured into a conical flask with the dish-washing liquid and food colouring and the yeast was dissolved in a beaker separately.

When the two combined the chemical reaction was awesome! The yeast acted as a catalyst (sped up the reaction), which made the Hydrogen Peroxide release it's Oxygen quickly and to great effect when it was combined also with the dish washing liquid, creating a fun coloured, foamy, heated mess.