an adult and baby elephant by water
Activity

Elephant Toothpaste

A science fair project about elephant toothpaste.

Perkins School for the Blind Secondary school student Kendra Hammer shares her science fair project.


I chose elephant toothpaste as my science experiment because it’s tactile for the students who can’t see. I also chose this experiment because it is very fun to make and I love watching the end result and seeing the foam shoot up into the air.

Here are some of the vocabulary words that I used in my experiment:

When people visit my table at the science fair, I plan to have the elephant toothpaste already made and ready. Then when people walk by, I plan to have the students feel the toothpaste so that the students can examine it and see and describe what they think it feels like.

student with elephant toothpaste poster board
Student with elephant toothpaste poster board
Student holding elephant toothpaste at Science Fair
Student holding elephant toothpaste at Science Fair

Materials

Preparation

student feeling the elephant toothpaste
Student feeling the elephant toothpaste

Procedure

  1. Pour the hydrogen peroxide into the flask using the funnel.
  2. Add 12 drops of food coloring into the flask.
  3. Add about 15 mL of liquid dish soap into the flask and swish the bottle around a bit to mix it.
  4. Place flask in a deep bucket  to collect foam.  Then pour the premixed yeast/ water mixture into the flask.
  5. Observe the reaction.
  6. Feel the flask.

Observations & Conclusion:

Variations

Experiment #2:

Add more dish soap: (30mL)

Produced 2 liters of foam. The foam came out slower and was more thick and the flask felt hot. 

Experiment #3:

Added 175 mL of hydrogen peroxide   

Once I doubled the amount of hydrogen peroxide to 175 mL, the foam tripled in size and filled 3 liters. The thickness of the foam was very similar to the second experiment.

NGSS Standards:

Sources

Sources:

By Kate Fraser

Collage of elephant toothpaste

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