Chemistry for kids: Make a DIY bubble snake! | Kate the Chemist | Big Think

Chemistry for kids: Make a DIY bubble snake! Watch the newest video from Big Think: https://bigth.ink/NewVideo Join Big Think Edge for exclusive videos: https://bigth.ink/Edge ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Most of us are staying home to help flatten the curve of COVID-19, but that doesn't mean there isn't learning and fun to be had. It's important to take a break from screen time. Kate the Chemist, professor, science entertainer, and author of "The Big Book of Experiments," has just the activity: Creating a bubble snake using common household ingredients including dish soap, food coloring, rubber bands, a towel, and a small plastic bottle. In this step-by-step tutorial, Kate walks us through the simple process of building the apparatus and combining materials to bring the fun snakes to life. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Kate Biberdorf: Dr. Kate Biberdorf is a scientist, a science entertainer, and a professor at the University of Texas. Through her theatrical and hands-on approach to teaching, Dr. Biberdorf is breaking down the image of the stereotypical scientist, while reaching students who might otherwise be intimidated by science. Students' emotional responses, rather than rote memorization of facts, are key to Biberdorf's dynamic approach to her program, as well as science in general. Her exciting and engaging program leaves audiences with a positive, memorable impression of science—all while diminishing the stigma around women in science. She has appeared on The Today Show, Wendy Williams Show and Late Night with Stephen Colbert. Check her latest book Kate the Chemist: The Big Book of Experiments at https://amzn.to/3bQX6Yh ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRANSCRIPT: KATE THE CHEMIST: If you are at home and stuck with your kid you might as well do something fun and educational with them. What I've done here is put together a super, super fun science demonstration that is safe to do at home with your kids and hopefully all these ingredients you already have in your pantry or your craft drawer or something like that because I don't know about you, but I get maxed out on screen time so I think it's really fun to do something kinesthetic with your hands. And if you can learn something while you're doing it you might as well have fun too. Okay, this is called the bubble snake and I'm going to explain first the ingredients and then give you step-by-step instructions on how to do this. First things first is you need to get a small plastic soda bottle or a water bottle. I have these little ones in my garage because I use them when I breathe fire but the bigger soda bottles or water bottles work just as well because what you're going to do with it is actually just cut it off so you have the top part of it but I'll get there in just a second. So, any size bottle will do. You need food coloring. I prefer the reds and the pinks when I'm doing this outside but because of being on camera I'm going to use greens and blues for you. You're going to need a half cup of water, a quarter cup of dish soap, a bowl to mix your dish soap and water, a spoon, one rubber band and then an old rag. You can use a sock, you can use a rag, you can use a towel, a tee shirt. Anything will really work for this. You just don't want something that's super, super porous or super thick. The first thing you're going to do is you're going to take your plastic soda bottle or water bottle and you're going to cut off the bottom part. You only want the top portion of your soda bottle. So a perfect one is going to look like this. You're gong to see your top part here and then it's cut off right there at the edge. Then what you're going to do is take your old rag and you're going to wrap it around the edge of your soda bottle so that's where your rubber band comes into play. You're going to wrap the rubber band around your towel just like this. Two or three times should be absolutely plenty. You just want to make sure that towel sticks on here. I did this once and the rubber band snapped and the stuff went all over this actor's head because I was doing it on camera. It was an awesome day but the poor guy was covered in food coloring. Once you have this you're going to put it off to the side and we're going to build our little concoction over here. In your bowl you need to have a quarter cup of dish soap. Any bubbles will do. Bubble bath will work if you're keeping your dish soap around for quarantine time which I totally understand. Then you've got a half cup of water so you're going to add that into your dish soap... Read the full transcript at https://ift.tt/2LPgGbN