Bubble Gum Science Fair Ideas
Most children enjoy chewing gum, blowing bubbles, making noise with it and trying new flavors. It is something all children are very familiar with and something that most children carry with them all the time. By combining this familiar treat with science, you can help your students learn key scientific concepts. Since many children do have easy access to bubble gum, you can perform many bubble gum experiments at a moment's notice in the classroom. You can demonstrate many physical science concepts and teach your students how to design simple experiments of their own.
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Malleability
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This experiment demonstrates the differences between malleable and non-malleable materials. Collect about a dozen pieces of the same gum and unwrap one of them. Let a student try to stretch the dry gum; it should break. Ask another student to chew a fresh piece of gum for about a minute and try to stretch the chewed piece. The chewed piece should stretch easily. Ask your students why this happened and what the differences are. The answer is that when you heat and mold certain materials, the molecules loosen and allow the material to stretch.
Bubble Gum Adhesive
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This experiment helps demonstrate why sticky materials stick to some surfaces better than others. Give a student one or two pieces of gum and let him chew for about two minutes. Let him stick the gum to a rough surface, like sandpaper. Have another student chew a piece of gum and stick it to a slick surface, like a mirror. Let both children try to pull their gum from each surface. See which one leaves the least amount of gum behind. The sandpaper should cling to more gum because its surface has more friction and thus more places for the gum to grip. Ask your students what substance might help get the rest of the gum off the sandpaper. Oily substances, like olive oil or hand lotion, would work best.
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Bubble Gum and Concentration
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This experiment demonstrates that chewing gum can help raise concentration and focus. It is best used with older students studying psychology. Give a student a list of multiplication tables or other easy-to-solve math problems and ask him to solve them all in a minute. After the minute, see how many he has completed. Give the same student a piece of gum and a list of different easily-solved problems and ask him to solve them again in a minute. Compare the two sheets; did he solve more with or without the gum? Students should be able to work better while chewing gum. The repetitive motion helps their minds to focus.
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