No-Mess Egg Box Volcanoes
- Catriona Mckell
- May 17, 2025
- 2 min read
Equipment
Pipette
Water and kitchen roll for cleaning
Vinegar, Lemon Juice (DO NOT USE CLEANING PRODUCTS OR CHEMICALS)
Bicarbonate of Soda, bath bomb and table salt
teaspoon or a laboratory spatula
Egg carton or well plates
Eppendorfs
Experiment
Using a pipette, put a few drops of the liquids into the wells of the egg carton. I had rice vinegar in three wells and lemon juice in the other three.
Challenge!! Experiment with other liquids to see what reactions you can create, but only use household neutral liquids, not anything with a warning label on it. For example, water, a soft drink or even coffee are safe, not bleach or cleaning products.
Using the end of a teaspoon or laboratory spatula, add a small amount, one at a time, into your wells of liquid. Keep a chart of your reactions and record after each turn. Do not do them all at once. Your goal is to see which combination of liquid and powder creates the fizziest reaction!
When you have found the fizziest reaction, recreate this by putting an Eppendorf tube down the volcano-like structures at the centre of your egg boxes. You can add food colouring to your liquid to give it some colour.
This is my table below, but you can create your own!
Liquid | Powder | ||
Bicarbonate of Soda | Bath Bomb | Salt | |
Lemon Juice | fizz | fizz | no fizz |
Rice Vinegar | fizziest | fizz | no fizz |
Explanation
The acid from the vinegar and lemon juice reacts with the base, bicarbonate of soda, which produces a gas, carbon dioxide, which is why there are fizzy bubbles. Sodium chloride, or salt, cannot produce carbon dioxide as it is not a carbonate. Instead, a neutralisation reaction of salt and acid occurs, forming a new salt and water.
I got this experiment from Dr Dot's YouTube channel. If you enjoy her experiments, why not join her online science club where you can do more experiments, talk with other learners and professional scientists and attend online quizzes and talks!
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