Dry Ice Experiments for your Science Classroom
If you want to keep your students engaged and entertained, try a few of these dry ice experiments.
As most teachers know, students are much more engaged in the classroom when they can see science coming to life right in front of them!
With the start of a new school year just around the corner, teachers are eagerly searching out ways to make their students more engaged. Dry ice is the perfect solution to combine entertainment with education.
Safety First with Dry Ice
Before you start any projects using dry ice, you need to follow the proper safety precautions. You should never touch dry ice with your bare hands, so make sure that you are wearing gloves or have some protective piece of cloth covering your hands, wrists and arms. Also, you probably want to avoid having younger students interact directly with the dry ice.
Just a Few Dry Ice Experiments to Try in Science Class
Vanishing Ice
You can showcase the properties between solids, gases and liquids when you leave a piece of regular ice out and a dry ice out for a certain time period. Ask your students what they think will happen to the ice, and let them see for themselves the different processes the regular and dry ice will go through. They won’t be shocked to see the puddle of water from the regular ice cube, but they probably didn’t expect the dry ice to stay in the same state! This is a perfect opportunity to discuss carbon dioxide and gas.
Warm Water Interacting with Dry Ice
When warm water interacts with dry ice, it creates a cloud from the carbon dioxide gas and water vapors. This cloud is perfectly safe to touch, but make sure that the students do not put their hands in the glass or bowl containing the dry ice and warm water. The cloud will start to disappear when the water is colder, but you can empty the cold water and add warm water to regain a big cloud.
Floating Bubbles
Depending on your budget, you can really impress your students with floating bubbles! A small, empty fish tank can really create some cool visuals when you add dry ice to an aquarium filled with an inch of warm water. With bubbles and a bubble wand handy, blow a few bubbles into the aquarium. The bubbles will appear to float in mid-air inside the aquarium, but the bubble is actually floating on invisible carbon dioxide gas. Incorporating dry ice in your lesson plans is a great way to keep your students engaged.
Dry ice can be bought through local suppliers, like Dry Ice Corp.
Dry Ice Corp: A Dry Ice Supplier on the East Coast
Dry Ice Corp is the largest regional supplier of dry ice products and customized delivery services in the Northeastern United States, from Virginia all the way up to Maine. And because our dry ice is supplied by manufacturing plants located right here in the Northeast, we can guarantee freshness. Other suppliers, meanwhile, get their dry ice from manufacturing plants as much as 1,000 miles away, which has a direct impact on product freshness.
Dry Ice Corp provides the highest levels of service and freshest dry ice products.
Contact Dry Ice Corp for a FREE Quote!
If you have any questions about Dry Ice experiments, please contact Dry Ice Corp by calling 201.767.3200. You can also connect with Dry Ice Corp on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and Pinterest.
