(upbeat music) (Randi laughs) - Welcome to my science lab.

Today I'm going to be conducting an exciting, a new, a mad science experiment.

And the best part of this experiment is that you can do it at home too.

Just make sure you get permission from an adult first.

Before we begin, you will need a balloon, some white vinegar, some baking soda, and a bottle.

The first step of this crazy concoction is to scoop baking soda into your balloon.

Now, I've already done that, and I've got baking soda inside this balloon right now.

Now, when I was reading those directions, I read the word, concoction.

That's a funny word.

A concoction means a mixture of different things.

You make concoctions when you cook and when you complete science experiments, just like this one.

Now, I'm going to make sure that my baking soda has gathered at the bottom of my balloon, just like this.

Now, second, you're going to want to pour your white vinegar into your bottle.

This can be kind of tricky and you may need to use a funnel or a cup kind of like this that's got a little spout to make it where I don't spill it all over the table.

Now, we do not want a surplus amount of vinegar in this bottle.

Surplus means too much or having a lot left over.

We want to fill this up just about halfway.

Now, my next step might be difficult, so you're going to need to ask your guardian for help.

Difficult means that it's not easy.

And scientists have to do difficult tasks all the time.

In fact, doing difficult tasks is what makes our brains grow and makes us smarter.

For the third step, you will need to stretch the opening of your balloon on top of the bottle, but you're going to have to do it so that you don't spill any of that baking soda into the bottle.

So we're going to see if I can stretch that on the lip of the bottle.

Just like that.

Now, the fourth step is easy.

We're going to keep my ingredients separate.

I'm going to keep my baking soda and my vinegar separate until I'm ready for my science experiment to begin.

Separate means to keep apart.

So last but not least, when you're ready, we're going to drop the baking soda into the bottle and watch what happens.

Are you guys ready?

Let's see what happens in this experiment when I combine my two ingredients.

Now, I'm going to keep my fingers on the outside of that balloon just in case things get a little crazy.

Let's see what happens here.

Wow!

There's a lot going on here!

Now, let's use our science brains and think about what just happened in this experiment.

What happened when I mixed those ingredients that made that balloon expand?

Well, look at that.

The thing is when you mix baking soda, which is also called sodium bicarbonate, and vinegar, which is also called acetic acid, it creates a chemical reaction that produces salt, water, and carbon dioxide gas.

You saw that happen when you saw all those bubbles forming and bubbling up.

In fact, the balloon filled with water as well as this gas.

That carbon dioxide gas is what rose up the bottle and filled up the balloon.

Even though we can't see the gas, we know it's there, because we can see that the balloon has expanded and it's taken a shape.

Well, sometimes when you do science experiments, it can be hard to figure out what you're supposed to do.

In our experiment today, we had some really tricky words like concoction and surplus, difficult and separate.

All of those words are kind of hard to understand, but if you read the context around them, we can figure out what they mean.

A concoction was when we were mixing together ingredients.

Our surplus is something we didn't want to have, which means you have too much or you have leftover.

Difficult, well, that just means it's not very easy.

And separate is when you keep things apart.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this incredible science experiment.

I hope you will try this at home, but make sure you get your parents' permission first.

And I hope you'll come back with me, the mad scientist, right here at Arkansas PBS for some more fun and learning.

(Randi laughs) ♪ Science and reading skills ♪ ♪ Math and art, color wheels ♪ ♪ Let's go to class, it's a blast ♪ ♪ You're a great student ♪ ♪ So we know that you can do it ♪ ♪ Rise and Shine ♪ ♪ Get up off your feet ♪ ♪ Ah-Ooh-Ooh ♪ ♪ It's time to rise and shine ♪