Joining in the Wild! Science Global Science Challenge – making a lava lamp

Wild Science! not only make science sets that will appeal to kids (and their helper adults, in my case), but they also have a great Wild! Science Global Science Challenge going on. It is a marvellous challenge too, because not only do you get to do science but also ALL THESE THINGS:

• A trip to Orlando Florida (for up to 2 adults and 2 children),
• Entry to Disney World,
• Accomodation at a 5-star resort for 7 days
• Care hire for 7 days
• A full set of Wild Science products
• Entry to the Kennedy Space Centre to meet a real astronaut!

All you have to do to be the chosen one is:

1. Buy a Wild! Science Kit (and ideally use it, and have a lot of fun), then send a copy of your receipt with your online application – they can be picked up from your local Smyths Store.
2. Design and create an awesome new Wild! Science Kit
3. Write and illustrate a basic instruction book to show other kids how to use your awesome Wild! Science Kit

There is SO MUCH SCIENCE that I’m sure there will be hundreds of brilliant entries. D wants to do something to do with unicorns – this may be slightly less achievable and certainly fairly unscientific… but we will come up with something!

The whole process has been spurred on for us by having the opportunity to undertake our very own Wild! Science project – making a glitter tube and a lava lamp. Everything in the set is non-toxic, and all scoops, stirrers and substances are included:

Initially I thought it was just ‘choose one option or the other’, but then I realised the kit actually contains both… something D was incredibly excited about. In fact, she actually crept in to my bed at 6am to do that ‘can we do it yet, can we do it yet, can we do it yet…?’ thing that kids do.

So I figured we better had ‘do it’ – and this is what we did:

1. assemble the light up LED thingy. It has two little prongs that, when they touch the little foil circle, cause the circuit to complete and the LED to light. This was a little fiddly but D managed it with only a tiny amount of help.
2. Mix up the fizzy discs. This was the bit that felt really science-y, with D donning her [comically large] gloves, picking up a little scoop and measuring ingredients into the mixing pot.
3. Make the glitter tube. This was SO EASY. It was literally just pouring glitter into glycerine, then shaking it and placing it into the base on top of the LED. Easy, but very effective – D was amazed by all the lights and sparkles reflecting off the glitter.
4. Putting the lava lamp together – D added water and oil

…and then a fizzy disc…

and there it was, her very own lava lamp!

She was completely bowled over by having created her own lava lamp, and I am impressed that the ingredients to keep it going are easily sourced (bicarbonate of soda, citric acid, food colouring, oil and water).

It has certainly got us inspired to think about what Wild! Science experiment we would love to enjoy next!