Tired of the same old baking soda and vinegar science experiment? Here is a cute experiment for making elephant toothpaste that makes lots of colored foam and is fun for kids. It uses stuff you probably have sitting around the house anyway, and while it is not as explosively fast as baking soda and vinegar it produces quite a bit of colored foam.
This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
The experiment is a decomposition of hydrogen peroxide, which is a chemical reaction that normally occurs very slowly. To make it more exciting yeast is used as a catalyst which speeds up the reaction. I used standard drug store hydrogen peroxide, which is a 3% solution. You can also buy a 6% solution of hydrogen peroxide at some beauty supply stores, and get an even faster reaction. But if you are going to do that you need to use gloves and safety goggles, so I decided to keep my experiment more low key.
Here is short version showing the results, and you can see a longer video of the full experiment at the end of the post.
Here is how to make the Elephant Toothpaste:
Supplies:
- Empty soda bottle
- measuring cup
- packet of yeast
- warm water
- 1/2 c. hydrogen peroxide (3%)
- 1/4 c. dish soap
- food coloring
Directions:
- Mix the yeast in a small amount of warm water and set it aside to start dissolving.
- Add the hydrogen peroxide, dish soap and food coloring to the soda bottle and swirl to mix.
- Add the dissolved yeast and sit back to watch the foam.
- Clean up the mess.
This is a fun science experiment for the end of the school year!
This looks super cool. Haven’t seen that before. Definitely a MUST Try!
This is sooo cool.
That sounds so neat. I think my kids would love it!
I’ve never seen that before and it looks like it has the same consistency of toothpaste when you spit it out, pretty neat.
That’s awesome! I got some Palmolive too! I guess we know what I’ll be doing with it…other than cleaning my pots and pans! LOL
That is super neat! We love doing interesting science projects! May have to throw this one on the list!
How cute this is my elephant clamped his mouth shut when we told him we were making elephant toothpaste, seriously, I think any of these projects that children can do gets them interested in science and why things happen and works, my granddaughters are home schooled and I shared this with my daughter in law, she said maybe they will try it.. LOL thank you for sharing
i like terdels
Interesting post! I think these types of science experiments can promote scientific thinking for students. I am also very glad to see this amazing fun kids experiment. It can help them to enhance their thinking and understanding power. Generally, I work for students and suggest them use this writing checker tool onlineplagiarismchecker.net to enhance their homework and academic assignment writing that can help to boost their academic performance. Anyway, I really appreciate the author for sharing this educational post.