Salt Volcano

I asked a friend of mine to make me a copy of an activity she had from a book called, The Science Explorer Out and About and we got around to trying it today. The activity is titled: "Salt Volcano," but after our bout with it, I would call it: "Salt Dud." I know. I'm SO creative. Anyway, I don't know about the rest of the book, but this science experiment totally sucked. So much so, in fact, that I didn't even bother taking pictures--because there would have been nothing for anyone to see.

The instructions call for oil, salt, water and food coloring. You fill up a jar with 3 inches of water. Add 1/3 cup vegetable oil and a drop of food coloring. Shake salt over the top. The instructions go on to say, "Wow!" so you would think something pretty cool would happen. But it doesn't. Oh sure, the salt falls down through the oil, dragging a bit of oil with it to the bottom, and then releases the oil, which then bubbles back up to the top. But it is so slow, and so minuscule of a reaction as to be hardly worthwhile. Certainly not, "Wow!" More like, "Hmmm...did something just happen?"

Therefore, "Salt Dud" I have aptly termed this experiment, and there it will forever remain in my memory. On the other hand, I was perusing the Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas blog where I found a similar experiment. Only this experiment looked like it actually worked to the magnitude of "Wow!" so we will be trying it sometime very soon.