Baby Soda Bottles

What is a baby soda bottle?  They are the preforms used to make 2-liter bottles.  The tubes are placed in a vacuum mold and heated to become the shape that we are used to seeing filled with soda pop!

Steven Spangler (you have probably seen his You Tube videos with mentos and coke) suggested the idea of using them as test tubes for kids. They are indestructible, you can seal them with their lid and they are super fun!  You can buy them at StevenSpanglerScience.com.  We used these for our Harry Potter Pop Rocks Potion at my son's birthday party.

Other Baby Soda Bottle Activity ideas

1-A Discovery Tube – Collect treasures on your next nature walk. Use the test tube to collect dirt samples, leaves, good old bugs or samples of water from ponds and streams. Study with a magnifying glass or microscope.

2 - Roots with a View – Grow simple green plants in the tube and watch the sprouting process. Learn about growth and plants needs by placing loosely packed soil or growing medium in the tube along with a few radish, pea or bean seeds. Over the course of a few days, watch how the plants grow and how the roots spread out for water and nutrients.

3 – Wave Bottle – Fill test tube ¾ full with vegetable oil. Fill the rest of the bottle with water. Add a few drops of food coloring and seal with the cap. Notice how the dye colors the water and not the oil. Tip bottle back and forth to create wave.

4 – Time Capsule – Use the test tube to hide and protect a secret message to be opened in the future.

5 – Color Shake Up – This activity requires a small amount of colored lamp oil. Be careful not to get the lamp oil around any open flames. Fill the test tube with equal parts of lamp oil and water. Food coloring can be used to color the water. If you are using yellow lamp oil, color the water with a few drops of blue food coloring. Seal the test tube with a cap and shake up the liquids. Yellow & blue makes green.

6- Dancing Beads – Fill the bottle half full with small Styrofoam beads (like those found in beanbag chairs). Add water until the beads begin to overflow the bottle. Seal with a cap and watch the Styrofoam beads jockey for position in the bottle. This is an easy sway to help young scientists get a better grip on the notion of density.

7- Magnifying Glass – Fill the test tube to the very top with water and seal it with a cap. Hold the test tube up against newspaper print to magnify the letters. The water magnifies the message.

8- The Erupting, Bubbling Blob – Fill the test tube ¾ full with cooking oil (ordinary vegetable oil works well). Add one cap full of water to the oil in the test tube. Notice how the oil and water to not mix. Drop one or two drops of food coloring into the test tube, but do not seal the tube with a cap just yet. Notice how the dye colors only the water and not the oil. Divide in and Alka-Seltzer tablet into quarters and drops one section into the tube. Watch what happens to the bubbling water on the bottoms of the tube. After the lava blobs have stopped bubbling fill the rest of the tube with oil until it’s almost overflowing. Cap the tube tightly. Tip the test tube back and forth and watch what happens. The tiny droplets of liquid join together to make one big lava-like blob.

9- Glitter Wand – Fill the test tube ¾ with cooking oil , add heavy colored beads, glitter and mylar confetti. Top the tube off with cooking oil, seal with a cap. Tip the tub back and forth to make your concoction move and sparkle.

10- Color Mixing with your eyes – Fill three test tubes almost to the top with water. Add drops of blue food coloring to one test tube and seal it with a cap. Do the same thing with the other two using yellow &red food coloring. Hold each test tube up to your eyes near light to observe the color. Now, cross the yellow & blue tubes in front of your eyes, looking through both of them at the same time. What color do you see? Green! Cross the red & blue tubes in similar fashion to make purple. What color does red & yellow make

11 – Test Tube Twist – Stretch a rubber band around all three test tubes you make in the previous experiment. Hold the tube trio up to your eyes and look at the light. What colors do you see? Now, slowly twist the test tube and a watch the colors changes before your eyes. Cool!

12 – Make Your Own Twister – fill the test tube ¾ full with water and add a few drops of liquid soap. Seal the bottle with a cap and start twisting. The swirling motion of the soap and water will make a twisting turning vortex. It’s your very own pet tornado!

13 – Pop Goes the Weasel – Find a cork that fits snugly into the open test tube. Fill the bottle half full with water. Divide and Alka-Seltzer tablet into quarters and drop one section into the tube. Quickly seal the test tube with the cork and point the corked and way form anything living. Pow! The cork goes sailing.

What fun things can you think of to do with baby soda bottles?