Yet another experiment from Play Create Explore that was a big hit with Charlotte. This one is pretty messy and not immediately gratifying but if you’re willing to put a little time and energy into it you’ll get a fun morning.
Dinosaur Rocks
Immediacy of results: Delayed
Prepwork needed: None other than getting materials
Time required: 1+ hour
Materials Needed:
1 cup Flour
1 cup Water
Food Coloring
Cookie Sheet
Cotton Balls
Oven preheated to 300 degrees
Step 1. Mix your flour and water. Separate into bowls and add food coloring until you get the desired colors.
Step 2. Dip cotton balls into the flour/water mixture and totally coat them. Place them on a cookie sheet. Any cotton balls that are touching will bake together.
Step 3. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour at 300 degrees.
While we were making these Charlotte and I talked about hypotheses and what we thought the Dinosaur rocks would look like after they cooked. I asked her if she thought the outside of the rocks would be hard or soft after they cooked. She said that she thought that they would be hard. I asked her if she thought the inside of the rocks would be hard or soft and she said hard.
Step 4. Get the rocks out of the oven and once they cool start feeling them and breaking them open to test your hypotheses!
Turns out Charlotte was 1 for 2 in her hypotheses. The rocks were indeed hard on the outside but were soft on the inside!
As a little side note, the longer these cool the harder they are. When they were just cool enough to touch Charlotte and I could break them with our palms or a wooden spoon. But when Jason got home that afternoon and we tried to show him it took considerably more strength to get one open!
