HOUSTON – Kate Biberdorf is taking the science world by storm!
She’s a chemistry professor at UT-Austin, an author and science entertainer better known as Kate the Chemist.
Kate has received tons of positive reactions from her hands-on approach to teaching and showing students of all ages just how fun science can be.
Kate even released two books during the pandemic, back in March:
- Kate the Chemist: The Big Book of Experiments – Includes 25 exciting experiments
- Kate the Chemist: Dragons vs. Unicorns – Features a version of Kate’s 10-year-old self solving neighborhood problem using science
And her latest book was released less than 2 months ago!
- Kate the Chemist: The Great Escape – The second of a 5-part series
Kate also came prepared with a kid-friendly experiment to help occupy the kids.
WANT TO LEARN HOW TO CATCH A BUBBLE?
MATERIALS NEEDED FOR THE ‘DRY ICE BUBBLE’ EXPERIMENT
- 3 liter soda bottle
- The soda bottle cap
- A funnel
- A tube
- Tape
- Bowl
- Bubble bath solution
- Dry Ice and gloves or a towel
- Universal indicator
PART 1 DIRECTIONS
Fill soda bottle with water Add in the universal indicator Add dry ice
WHAT’S HAPPENING
Lots of color changes
THE SCIENCE BEHIND IT
When you add the dry ice, which is solid carbon dioxide into the bottle, you’re forming carbonic acid which is reacting to the minerals of the water. The acid and water react and the pH level slowly drops causing the color change in the water
PART 2 DIRECTIONS
Screw the funnel tube to the bottle Take the funnel and put it into your bubble bath solution
WHAT’S HAPPENING
A physical change is happening! We’ve got dry ice (a solid) going into a gas, this is called sublimation. When you pull out the funnel from the bubble bath solution you will now see a bubble form
THE SCIENCE BEHIND IT
The bubble bath solution is used because it has great surface tension and it’s going to trap that gas inside of the solution.
Check out this clip below for the full step by step instructions: