Favorite Halloween Science Demos
I remember a time when Halloween was nothing more than dressing up and running from house to house in search of the greatest candy bars. Fast-forward to 2008 and Halloween is a big deal… elaborate costumes, parties galore and merchandising second only to Christmas. Oh, did I mention that it’s a dream come true for the highly-motivated, somewhat neurotic science teacher who can’t wait to make things glow, ooze, pop, scream and gross out everyone who is willing to participate.
If you’re one of these teachers, please keep reading (because I need your help). This year, we’re compiling a list of the best Halloween Science Demos… so far. You’ll find some of my favorites in the list below, but this is just the starting point. I want to know your best Halloween Science Demos.
Just post a comment below and share what makes your students (or children) scream with excitement!
This year I plan to use the water spheres to give my slime some texture – call them eyeballs if you will! I teach about phases of matter at this time of year and the water spheres and slime are the perfect “non-examples” that my sixth graders need to make the 3 phases of matter much more interesting.
I was a mad scientist last year for our Haunted Trail Event we did for the community. The kids loved when I did the old Baking Soda and Colored Vinager but I added a little bit of dish soap for extra foaming into my beaker. I also did the Bubbling Blob in a test tube and they love watching the bubbles like a lava lamp even after it’s done fizzing you can shake it all you want and the two won’t mix that’s so amazing to the kids. Thanks for all the great experiments Steve!
Great article! I have 5 kids and these projects will be cool to do with them – especially the green slime!
Is that the “elephant toothpaste” experiment in the video with Ellen? How do you get it to go so fast? Have you ever tried doing it inside a carved Jack O’ Lantern? Fun, fun!
Hi Linda,
That is the Elephant’s Toothpaste experiment with Ellen. It was pretty fun to see her response to the explosion! The link here shows the recipe that I used to get that reaction. I have done it in a pumpkin and you are right, it’s a great experiment!
Thanks for your comments!
Last year, in our science classes we did the exploding pumpkin with Calcium Carbide – worked beautifully. Another favourite experiment we showed our classes was using alcohol with different metallic salts i.e.
Carve out a face on the pumpkin
Carve out a little hole in the back of the pumpkin.
Place a lit tea candle in the pumpkin.
Fill a few spray bottles with alcohol and add different metallic salts. i.e Strontium chloride in one bottle, Cupric Chloride in another etc. Spray the alcohol mixture through the hole in the back of the pumpkin and you will have different coloured flames coming out of the carved face. It was so awesome, picture went into our yearbook.