With how many baking soda and vinegar experiments we have done, you would think my kids are over the chemical reaction. However, they claim that this hatching dinosaur eggs science activity is the best one yet out of all the dinosaur activities we have done!
Since that includes yummy dinosaur footprint cookies and edible dinosaur eggs, I know that they truly had fun with this one.
In this fizzy dinosaur theme STEM activity, kids get to hatch out their favorite dinosaurs. Making the eggs is as fun as breaking the dinosaurs out from them.
Without further ado, let’s make some baby dinosaurs!
How to Make a Dinosaur Egg
Materials:
- 16 oz (1 lb) baking soda
- ¼ cup water
- Large mixing bowl
- Food coloring
- Small containers
- Spoons
- Small dinosaur toys
- Plastic cling wrap
- White vinegar
- Pipettes or syringes
- Large container with high edges (casserole dishes work well)
Directions:
- Pour 1 box (16 oz) of baking soda in the mixing bowl.
- Slowly stir in water until the baking soda and water mixture has a paste-like consistency.
- Divide the baking soda paste into smaller containers. The number of containers and how much baking soda you put in each depends on how many colors you want your dinosaur eggs to be.
- Add a few drops of food coloring to each container.
- Mix with a spoon until all the food coloring is incorporated.
- Place a sheet of plastic cling wrap on your palm. Trust me, if you do this barehanded, you are going to have colorful hands!
- Spoon some of the baking soda paste (you pick the color!) on the plastic cling wrap.
- Gently press the dinosaur toy into the baking soda paste. Spoon more baking soda paste on top of the dinosaur until the entire dinosaur is covered. Feel free to mix up the colors!
- Wrap the baking soda paste with the plastic sheet and mold it around the dinosaur until it resembles an egg.
- Twist the plastic wrap tightly so the egg holds its shape.
- Repeat until you run out of baking soda paste. We were able to make 4 eggs.
- Place your dinosaur eggs in the freezer for at least 3 hours. We left it overnight.
- Take the eggs out from the freezer and place them in a large container. Make sure your container has high edges so that all the baking soda and vinegar don’t flow out.
- Set out a bowl or cup of white vinegar and hand your kids a pipette.
- Let them squirt white vinegar on the eggs until their baby dinosaurs hatch!
The kids loved to watch the colors mix as they fizz and flow onto the plate. I thought they were going to just squirt some vinegar and lose patience since the eggs were so big, but they loved every second of it. (glockapps.com) Then after all the baby dinosaurs were hatched, they ran to the freezer to see if there were any more left!
Science Behind the Baking Soda Dinosaur Eggs
Similar to the LEGO volcano experiment, the baking soda, or sodium bicarbonate, reacted to the vinegar (acid) and produced carbon dioxide gas. This is what causes the fizzing and why you see the bubbles in the foaming mixture.
During the chemical reaction, you are mixing a solid (baking soda) and a liquid (vinegar) to form a gas (carbon dioxide) and a liquid (water). You can see the bubbles popping and splashing on the side of the container.
Final Thoughts on the Hatching Dinosaur Eggs
The colors and the dinosaur toys made this baking soda and vinegar activity so much fun! The kids got so excited when they saw the dinosaur’s tail or head peeking out. My daughter also loved pretending the dinosaur toys were real baby dinosaurs and she bathed them by washing them with vinegar.
If your kids loved the baking soda and vinegar, make sure you check out:
