Can You Make a Volcano Erupt?

Lemons and Baking Soda? We have a fun STEM Challenge that will have your students curious on how volcanoes erupt and why.

For this challenge, students will turn a lemon into a volcano and make it erupt!

What you need per student…

What you need to do...

Start by breaking students up into groups of three to four or solo if distance/virtual learning.
Have students create a team name.
Tell students that the objective is to have students make a volcano erupt with lemon and baking soda!
Give each group of students the materials needed.
Have students write down their team name on their Creator Sheets.
On their Creator Sheets, have students start discussing why they think that the baking soda and lemon mix will cause an “eruption” (help guide students to think about lemons having citric acid)
Have students put two or three drops of food coloring in the lemon
Students need to decide how much baking soda they are going to want to use (¼ teaspoon, ½ teaspoon, etc.)
Once students decide on the amount of baking soda they are going to use, they will make a prediction on how big their eruption will be.
Students will then put the baking soda on top of the lemon, watch the first reaction.
Students will then stir the baking soda into the juice to see a bigger reaction.
If the reaction doesn’t occur, add more baking soda.
Students will record their observations on the Creator Sheet and if they needed to add more baking soda to make a bigger reaction.

We would love to see you try this STEM Challenge. Share your results with us through social media!

Happy Making,

Maker Maven

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