Want a simple science project for the kids?

Last year my daughter (ahem, little apprentice) did her grade 4 science project of observing what happens to a bar of Irish Spring soap over 5 days in water. One bar was kept in cold water, the other had the water reheated for 2 minutes in the microwave at the same time every day for the 5 days. She charted the weight of the soaps every day, and measured their width, length and thickness. She should have weighed the water at the end of the experiment too but we didn't think of that.

Here was her final outcome, with the pink tag showing the soap that was left in hot water and the blue tag shows the soap left in cold water, the control soap is in the middle. The leftover water from the cold side remained fluid with some chunks of soap inside. The water from the hot side became a semi-solid gelatinous mass. She thought this was VERY cool and we both ended up being surprised at the final outcome as it was different from what we projected.


If you have any questions about the process, let me know.