Valentine’s Day is a perfect opportunity to explore science with your elementary students! Here are 5 fun Valentine’s Day-themed experiments that your students will love.
Experiment 1: Bubble Heart
This experiment will show your students the fascinating power of surface tension. Create a bubble solution with dish soap and glycerin, then dip a heart-shaped object like a paper clip or plastic jewelry into the solution and start blowing bubbles on top of it! What you’ll see is an endless stream of bubbles coming out of the heart’s edges, showing how powerful surface tension can be.
Experiment 2: Candy Chromatography
In this experiment, students can use chromatography to compare different candy dyes. Start by gathering various candies like M&Ms, Skittles, or gummy bears. Put each type of candy in separate jars filled with water. Then, place a coffee filter into the jar and watch as the colors spread around and eventually make beautiful patterns when they reach equilibrium. This is an excellent way to show your students how diffusion works!
Experiment 3: Heart-Shaped Ice Cubes
In this experiment, your class can make their own ice cubes – just in time for Valentine’s Day! Fill an ice cube tray two-thirds full with water and let it freeze overnight. The next day, pop out the cubes and put them onto wax paper with one side against the table to get half a heart shape. Repeat this process until you have enough halves to form complete hearts! Try wrapping the ice cubes in different materials and discuss which materials cause the ice to melt faster (paper vs metal) and why this could be related to heat transmission or absorption abilities.
Experiment 4: Love Potion
To do this activity all you need are products that change color with heat or cold such as thermochromic ink pellets or powders; these can easily be found online or at most stores that sell science supplies. Have your students mix together different components in test tubes like baking soda, vinegar, food coloring etc. Then add several drops of the thermochromic pigment into each tube before watching its reaction when subjected to either hot or cold temperatures! This is a great activity for learning about chemical reactions and physical changes in matter caused by temperature differences.
Experiment 5: Bouncy Heart Balloons
To finish off their Valentine’s themed science lesson, challenge your class to design their own bouncy heart balloon! All you need are helium tanks (be sure to follow all safety instructions!), balloons, tape, and crepe paper strips cut into hearts – but feel free to get creative here too! Have each student combine helium-filled balloons with a few crepe paper hearts so they end up getting one heavier-than-air balloon that gracefully falls back onto them when let go – super cute! Talk about buoyancy versus gravity during this activity if it interests them.
These five experiments are only some ideas you can use in your classroom during Valentine’s Day; there are so many other ways you can explore science together while having lots of fun!