Science at Home: The Lava Lamp

The lava lamp was a luxury piece of home décor that first became popular in the 1960s. Check out this link for more fun facts about lava lamps. This experiment makes some bubbles in a container that can look a bit like the colourful blobs that rise and sink in a lava lamp. Pop on some safety glasses and a white lab coat, and you can feel like a “real scientist” with your fizzy, colourful creation!

Dr Rachel Uren is a cancer researcher who has been Relaying with Team WEHI since 2018 and has been the driving force behind our ‘messy science’ experiments.

Daniel is a budding science communicator. He is 5 years old, and likes dinosaurs, Lego and explaining things to his parents in great detail.

*Science is great fun! But please, always check with an adult before you start your experiment.*

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Science at home: Blueberry syrup that changes colour

This is a fun experiment that you can do in the kitchen – and you can even eat the results! Cooking really is just chemistry that you can eat – everything you do to food in the kitchen, whether it is heating it, freezing it, or combining it with other ingredients, is a chemical reaction. This  experiment invites you to observe the way your ingredients change colour under different conditions, and explains a little bit about how and why that happens.

(Note: making the blueberry syrup does take a bit of time, so if you are impatient and would rather be doing chemistry than eating/drinking the results, try using a few red cabbage leaves blended with water and strained through a sieve and see if you can make a rainbow with some of the ingredients from this YouTube video. It’s the same chemical reaction, which you can read about below, just a bit less tasty!)

*Science is great fun! But please, always check with an adult before you start your experiment.*

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