NEW DADLABS SHOW! In the newest addition to our show lineup, Quality Time, we highlight kids activities that you can do with your children. In this episode, Daddy Brad is joined by Girlstart to demonstrate an amazing dry ice powered crystal ball. This experiment is a fun science project for kids and a great way to teach them some basic chemistry. DadLabs ep 406.

Daddy Brad: Hello I’m Daddy Brad and welcome to a brand new segment on dadlabs.com called quality time, where we show you cool activities to do with your kids – so you can spend some quality time. We are delighted today to be joined by Caitlin from Girlstart, and she is going to show us a really cool experiment/activity to do with your kids – Caitlin welcome.

Caitlin: Thank you so much! Well this activity is great because you can get everything that you need at the grocery store or just from your house. So, all you need is a really big bowl – fill it with some water, some really cheap Dawn soap.

Daddy Brad: Does it have to be Dawn?

Caitlin: Dawn works the best actually.

Daddy Brad: How about Palmolive?

Caitlin: It can be generic.

Daddy Brad: How about soap? Just no anti-bacteria or …

Caitlin: Correct! Or scents no.

Daddy Brad: No? Just soap okay!

Caitlin: Yes just soap. Pour some soap in – make the bubbles happen.

Daddy Brad: Got it the bubbles.

Caitlin: Okay so now we have some soapy water, and then you just get some rags – these are cut up t-shirts – they work really well, you know – the rag that your mom cleans the kitchen table with, that works really well – that size works.

Then find a littler bowl…

Daddy Brad: Daddy’s cereal bowl, kids cereal bowl.

Caitlin: That’s exactly the way to look at it - you can just fill this bowl with water, and that’s it. Then you want your dry ice.

Daddy Brad: Where do I get dry ice?

Caitlin: Dry ice is typically at the grocery store – central markets a given.

Daddy Brad: It costs like $1,000 doesn’t it?

Caitlin: It doesn’t – this bag only cost about $8 I think.

Daddy Brad: You’re kidding me?
Caitlin: No

Daddy Brad: 8 bucks for dry ice? Popsicles at my house tonight!

Caitlin: Don’t eat those! Bad idea – you actually have to wear a glove to touch it!

Daddy Brad: Really? So if you lick it - you’re really going to hate it?

Caitlin: You’re going to be really sad.

Daddy Brad: Don’t lick the dry ice.

Caitlin: Don’t lick the dry ice.

Daddy Brad: Okay 8 bucks – we’re rolling.

Caitlin: Okay so the pieces come as a really, really big block, so you kind of have to beat it up – because you only want some small chunks. Ignore the loudness.

Daddy Brad: Beat it up!

Caitlin: Okay so typically a parent should grab the dry ice – I wouldn’t recommend a kid doing it, so you just want to get a chunk – a pretty big size chunk.

Daddy Brad: It’s smoking!

Caitlin: It is smoking – so now lets see what happens when we put it in the water.

Daddy Brad: Whoa! It’s really smoking.

Caitlin: Its really smoking now. So what dry ice is – it is frozen carbon dioxide.

Daddy Brad: It looks like the Journey concert when all the smoke came out onto the stage, and Steve Perry’s out there shaking it. Look at that! Look!

Caitlin: Is that your time or my time?

Daddy Brad: Journey? Hello?

Caitlin: So you get your soapy rag, and you kind of squeeze it out just a little bit – you don’t want it too wet, and what you’re going to try to do is create a film over the top of the bowl – like a bubble. So your end result – we’re hoping, is going to look pretty similar to a crystal ball.

So the carbon dioxide is being released and the water vapor is being released as well, and so the bubble is keeping that all tracked in – and so it’s looking like a crystal ball. This one is seeming to be pretty good – it’s not wanting to pop, but lets see what happens when we do pop it. That was not really good.

Daddy Brad: What happened?
Caitlin: It wasn’t as much smoke.

Daddy Brad: Okay so we’re going to make this nice little film – this reminds me of Halloween.

Caitlin: Correct this is something very simple that you can do for Halloween.

Daddy Brad: Yeah Frankenstein!

Caitlin: You can use dry ice for a lot of things for Halloween.

Daddy Brad: Yeah you can put fish on it and they’ll stay cold and also you can store…. Okay whoa! Look at that!

Caitlin: See that looks cool.

Daddy Brad: Dang that looks great! Caitlin, tell us a little bit about Girlstart.

Caitlin: Girlstart’s a non-profit organization in Austin, Texas and we do programs to spark girls’ interest in math, science and engineering technology. Its just really important to show them that dry ice can be really fun, and dry ice is all about chemistry. And we do things from anywhere from a summer camp to workshop series, to one-day events, and we do things for girls, families and grown-ups.

Daddy Brad: What age group do you serve?

Caitlin: We serve girls as young as 1st grade, all the way up to high school and our big events that are open to the whole public – we’ve had 2 year olds there before – just running around and learning new things about science and how it can be really fun.

Daddy Brad: Can they go to your website and find out how to do these things? Is that one of the things they’re able to do?

Caitlin: You can go to our website and find out more about different programs that we offer, and our website is www.girlstart.org and that’s the best way to see what’s going on in Austin.

Daddy Brad: Cool that’s great! What a wonderful activity – Caitlin thank you so much for joining us here on Quality Time.

Caitlin: Thank you.

Daddy Brad: That’s all for us here for quality time – if you’ve got cool activities that you want to share with some of our readers, go to dadlabs.com – and join the community, and tell us about cool activities and things that you do, to spend some quality time with your kids. See ya! Okay lets do this again!

Caitlin: Okay.

Daddy Brad: Excellent! I want to do it this time .