Part of Lesson Plan: Why is Water Sticky? -- Jill Sperling

Activity Overview / Details

Before the class period starts, place about 10 bottles of store bought bubbles on random desks throughout the classroom.  Then, take a bottle and go outside the classroom door to blow bubbles into the air.   As students arrive to class, they won't understand what is going on.  They will start asking a ton of questions.  Instead of answering, instruct them to go inside, grab a bottle of bubbles and join you outside.  As they come outside, have them form a "bubble tunnel" (two rows of students blowing bubbles with a walkway in between for other students to walk through).    

CAUTION:  This activity can also be done inside the classroom . . . however, the large amount of bubbles landing on the floor can cause an incredibly slippery and dangerous surface.  I highly recommend doing this outside if possible!

After all students have arrived to class through the bubble tunnel, I have them pair up with someone that has a bottle of bubbles in their hands. They are given 3 minutes to blow the largest bubble that they can possibly blow.  (During this time, I play " I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" by 4-2-4 from the Anthems - Football album to add interest to the activity.)

Once the song ends, I ask the class to raise their hands if they were able to blow a bubble that was at least 1/2 inch in diameter.  (Most students should have accomplished this.)  Then, I ask who got a bubble that was at least 1 inch in diameter.  (A few hands may go down but most should stay up.)  I continue to ask this same question, with slight increases to the bubble size each time. The goal is to see how large of a bubble they were able to blow.  (You can always spice it up at the end of the activity by awarding the winning pair a pack of bubble gum for their amazing bubble blowing efforts!)

Talk to the class about why it was that small bubbles were easy to get but large bubbles were very difficult to get and then keep (they pop easy).  Lead students to making the connection that small bubbles had less surface area and didn't break as easily.  Larger bubbles had a much larger surface area and tend to pop very easily due to the amount that they are stretched.