It’s Valentine’s Day weekend, and Love is definitely in the air! But that doesn’t mean science can’t be as well! If you’re looking for something fun to do this weekend, check out the Top 3 Valentines Activities that involve science! They’re easy, cheap and a whole lot of fun!

You will need a few things for this experiment and you can get most of them at the local Dollar Store. Here is a list of everything I used for these Valentine’s Day Projects:

Materials:

Plastic Hearts
A Vase/Bottle
Red Food Colouring
1 L of Oil
1 Cup of Water
Alka-Seltzer
Paper
White Crayons
Red Paint /Purple
Cooking Chocolate
Plastic Hearts Mold

Let The Fun Begin!

Love Lava Lamp

Lava lamps are those fun lamps that you sometimes see in specialty stores or sitting on the living room of your eccentric auntie. And guess what?! You can make your own lava lamp at home and the process is much cooler when you do it yourself.

The idea behind home made lava lamps are a great way of observing how science contributes to our day to day lives. In this activity, you see both a chemical reaction and the consequences of polarity in molecules. Making the lava lamp is easy and a delight to watch!

To make the lava lamp you will need:

Food Dye,
Alka Zelter,
500mL- 1L oil,
1 cup of water.
Vase/2L bottle
Plastic Hearts

Steps:

Pour the cup of water into your vase. I used a vase because it was what I had available but you can easily use a 2L bottle
Next, pour all the oil in slowly to avoid the two liquids from mixing. You may need to wait a few minutes for the liquids to be completely separated.

3. Once separated you can add the food dye. You can use as many colours as you like! You can add any plastic hearts or sequins at the same time. (I used foam and plastic in mine)

4. Drop an Alka Seltzer tablet in the vase and watch your Lava Lamp come to life! I had to make a video because it was so much fun!

Make your own Lava Lamp with a few house hold items! The bubbles are a ton of fun!

Why don't the water and the oil mix?

During the activity, the oil floats on the water like a fish in the sea! Why is that? It all has to do with electric charges! Water molecules carry a positive charge at one end and a negative at the other. The charges are attracted to each other and join to make hydrogen bonds. However, oil molecules carry no charge. These fundamental differences are enough to make the two liquids enemies of sorts. The oil molecules will stick together and so will the water molecules so they will not mix.

Questions: How do you wash away an oil spill if it won’t mix with water? Why is the oil on top and not the water?

Bubbly reaction?

My favourite part of this activity are the bubbles! The reaction is fun to watch as the water fizzles and the colours can be brilliant! So what’s happening here really? It all has to do with the ingredients of the Alka-Seltzer tablet: citric acid and sodium bicarbonate(baking soda). When the tablet hits the water, the two compounds react and create the fizzy show that you see! You can create the same effect with baking soda and vinegar

Questions:Why do some substances react and others don’t?

Invisible Messages

The next activity ties in perfectly as it draws on some of the concepts we talked about for the Lava Lamp. This one was one of my favourite art projects in school and you can have a lot of fun with it! To create an invisible message you will need:

White Crayola Crayons

1 Cup Water
Red paint
Paper
Wooden Stencils (optional)
Paint Brush

Steps:

1. Write your secret valentines message on the paper with white crayons.

2. Pour 1 cup of water into a bowl and mix with a dollop of paint. Stir until watery.

3. Brush lightly over the message and watch as the message appears underneath the paint

Why does the message show up on top of the paint? **Hint:What doesn’t mix well with water?**

If you guessed that the crayons are made with oil, then you would be right! Crayons are often made with parafin wax which comes from petroleum oil. From the first activity, we know that water and oil molecules don't mix well!

Change of Hearts

Last but not the least, we can explore changes of states by making chocolate hearts! Yumm! Here is a list of what you will need for this delicious activity:

Chocolates

A bowl/ Paint Pallet
Plastic hearts mold
Food dye

Steps:

Bring out the chocolate from the box. **Note that it is in it’s solid state at that point*
Melt the chocolate at very low heat or place in the microwave in 1 minute intervals until it is in liquid form.

3. Once the chocolate is melted, pour into the plastic mold.

4. Decorate any chocolates as you like.

5. Place in the freezer for an hour

6. Once the chocolates have set, go ahead and eat the delicious treats!

What changed in the chocolate?

The chocolate started off as big rectangle sugary blocks and we were able to change the shape and create Valentine’s Hearts! It’s all related to states of matter. Matter is anything that occupies space and has mass. There are three states of matter in the physical world and they are solids, liquids and gases.

The molecules in a solid are closely packed together, however they are constantly vibrating even though we may not see it. Solids hold their own shape like the chocolate before it melted.

When the chocolate was heated, the molecules began moving faster because of the increase in temperature. This caused the chocolate to become a liquid. The molecules in a liquid can move and slide past one another, making them free flowing. Liquids can also take the shape of whatever container they are in which is the reason we poured them into heart shaped molds! Once the chocolate was placed in the freezer, it returned to its solid state.

There were no visible gases in this experiment, however a gas has plenty of free space in between it's molecules. Gases flow very easily while assuming the volume and shape of their container.

Hope you had a lovely Valentine's Day and ate lots of chocolates!!

Top 3 Valentine's Day STEM Activities