How to Make a Volcano

Margaret Morgan: My name is Margaret Morgan, I am a science educator, I work for a company called Mad Science. So today we are going to talk about volcanoes and how to make them. First we are going to talk about real volcanoes and what makes them erupt and then we are going to talk about different ways to build a volcano and then we are going to talk about different ways to make your volcano erupt. So the materials that we are going to be using today to make our volcano, first of all we have Air-dry clay which we are going to use to actually construct volcano itself. We are also going to use this bottle, we are going to have this inside the volcano, this is where the actual reaction is going to take place.

And here we have some wood, it's just going to be for decoration around the volcano and some trees, also it is for decoration and here is our vinegar and our baking soda. Your basic ingredients for your volcano are baking soda and vinegar but to make it more exciting volcano you might want to add food coloring to make the lava red or orange. We are going to use Kool-Aid today, it is red, so we are going to use that to color our lava and we have Gelatin here, gelatin makes your lava chunky.

And then we also have Diet Coke and Mentos, that is going to be our alternative magma today. So we are not working with anything too dangerous today. It's basically going to be baking soda and vinegar. It is an acid base reaction but some mild acid and a mild base. Just make sure you have an adult around when you are doing this and it does get very messy, so make sure you are prepared to do some clean-up.

As far as my credentials go, I have a bachelors degree in biology and since I graduated from college, I have been working as a science educator. I worked at local nature park in there Nature Science Summer Camp and since then I have worked for Mad Science. So I go to the schools, all over Pinellas County and teach kids about science and inspire imaginative learning by making volcanoes and making slime and all sorts of fun stuff like that. Alright, in my next clip we are going to talk about real volcanoes and what makes them erupt.