Pop Rock Balloons: Easy Science Experiment with Candy

Today’s science experiment is super simple that should capture your kids attention like it did mine (you can see it on their faces in the pictures below). This activity is awesome because it involves candy, balloons, and soda-the perfect kid pleasing combination!

Thanks for joining us, let’s get started 🙂

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Supplies:
Pop Rocks
Soda in plastic bottles (a variety is fun and diet soda works the best)
Balloons
Funnel
Chip clips (optional)
Small cups (optional)

Tip: You may want to buy extra Pop Rocks for your kids, my kids needed to eat some candy while doing the activity.

Directions:
1.  Use the funnel to dump 1 package of pop rocks inside each balloon. I used a chip clip to help keep the pop rocks in the bottom of the balloon. You don’t want the Pop Rocks to reach the soda until you are ready for the experiment.

2.  Open the soda and carefully place the mouth of the balloon over the top. Here is where you build up the excitement and get the kids guessing about what they think is going to happen. Here are some of the questions I asked:

• What do you think is going to happen to the soda?
• What do you think is going to happen to the balloon?

(Left to Right) Diet soda, tonic water, orange soda, lemon soda

3.  When you are ready for the exciting part, remove the chip clip and dump the Pop Rocks into the  soda.

The soda should fizz, and the balloons should fill up with air. To speed the process up a bit, grab the neck of the soda bottle to secure the balloon, and shake the bottle. You may need to hold onto the balloon to make sure it doesn’t fall off. The kids loved this part! The soda fizzed and filled up the balloon with soda foam, while the balloon inflated.

I LOVE watching my curious little kids learn and experience new things.

This is how I explained the activity to the kids (remember my oldest is a preschooler, so we kept it simple):

• The Pop Rocks and the soda make little bubbles, and when they pop, the air inside the bubbles fills the balloon.
• If you want to get more technical, this is how Steve Spangler explains Pop Rock science.

Then I followed up with some questions:

• Did all the balloons become the same size?
• Which balloon is the largest and the smallest?
• What is inside the balloon?
• Where did the Pop Rocks go?

After the activity, the kids decided they wanted to taste test our activity.  They started pouring, mixing, and drinking our science experiment, which is great for life skills practice. I pulled out some small cups, and let the kids go at it.

My soda filled kids look happy!

I was so glad we did this activity outside because we had soda everywhere by the time we were finished. I grabbed the hose and sprayed everything and everyone clean. I think some of our best activities end this way! 🙂