Patriotic Science Experiments

 Is your family excited about July 4th fireworks?  The Fourth of July, our neighborhood looks like a war zone; everyone is very enthusiastic about fireworks—for days!  We live near Quantico; people are very patriotic, love fireworks, or both.  Add a little science to the festivities while you wait for it to get dark.  

Kiddos like Fireworks in a Jar or 4th of July Skittles—easy experiments for tikes.

Alka-Seltzer Fireworks are Pop Rockets with paint.  We did these on the sidewalk, which remained red for a very long time.  Do them in red, white, and blue!

Colorful Lather Prints is fun for all ages.  Use red and blue tempera paint or food coloring.  All of my wooden rulers are colorful, too!

Make Elephant’s Toothpaste red, white, and blue by putting a few drops of food coloring along different sides of the bottle or cylinder.

Flinn Flame Tests is a high school Chemistry lab.  I have used the HST kit and colorful birthday candles. Here is a photo of the flame colors matched to the chemicals.  Here is the green lab version using the colorful flame candles.  Your teen can repeat the lab whenever he or she takes Chemistry.  It’s a fun lab; teens don’t mind repeating it, especially if you let them mix chemicals to get different colors.  Here is the Chemmatters article about the chemistry of fireworks.