6 Dry Ice Experiments To Do With Kids

It is sometimes referred to as “cardice” and is the solid form of carbon dioxide. At pressures below 5.13 atm and temperatures below −69.5 °F, CO 2 changes from a solid to a gas with no intervening liquid form, through a process called sublimation. The opposite process is called deposition, where CO 2 changes from the gas to solid phase (dry ice). At atmospheric pressure, sublimation/deposition occurs at−109.3 °F.

6 ways to have fun with dry ice:

Put dry ice in the sink and turn the water on to make the “smoke”. Then let the kids blow on it and have them swirl their hand around the top of the smoke to make a tornado like effect.

Put soap and water in a coffee cup and drop a piece of dry ice into it for this really cool bubble fountain! This one sounds cool too!

Put dry ice and water in a bowl, using a towel just big enough to cover the bowl long ways. Add soap and water to the towel and slide it across the bowl until it creates this awesome bubble on top.

Once you’re done with the big bubble you can let the kids pick up the little bubbles and the bubbles will skip between their fingers!

Dry Ice Bombs: First be sure there is a place you can all take cover before it blows. Depending on the bottle you use, it really explodes! Put dry ice and water in a plastic bottle and screw the lid on. The pressure makes the bottle explode. We did this with a juice bottle, a milk bottle and some water bottles. The water bottles were the loudest, the milk bottle was not impressive and the juice bottle was awesome! Helpful Hint: The Juice bottle we used was a little more awesome than I expected. I knew it was going to explode and fly and be loud…but I still didn’t really see it coming! As you can see in the video, I was startled enough to jump and drop my phone! Be sure to hold your camera tights if you are videoing! Luckily I had a Yootech glass screen protector on my phone so I only cracked the screen protector and not my brand new LG v10 !

Place regular ice on one plate and dry ice on another and let them sit for about 20 minutes. Once they are both gone the kids can clearly see why it is called dry ice! One leaves a puddle of water and one doesn’t. This will help them remember that one is made of water and one is made of gas.

All in all, this was a great science lesson for us. The kids learned all about carbon dioxide, sublimation and different reactions they could get with the simple change of a container size. They learned about safety and how to plan ahead. They got some reading in because they wanted to know how dry ice is made and most importantly we made everlasting memories!

~Laura

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