Coke and Mentos is an easy experiment that is almost always successful. Not only easy, but fun, messy, and absolutely interesting for students.

This was the first time I took my practicum class outside, and it made me realize how great it was to be outside, even for a few minutes to get sunshine on our faces.

Students were able to ask questions (ex. what is going to happen?), make predictions/hypotheses (ex. I think the Coke will go everywhere), draw conclusions (ex. the coke is now minty), and find connections to the experiment (ex. one time my family did this other experiment…). This was great to experience, seeing lightbulbs going off at different times! This experiment was a look at solutions and the question posed at the beginning was – will adding Mentos to Coke give a solution? or will it be a heterogeneous mixture?

Coke is a solution to begin with, which was interesting to see how students justified it either being one or not. Many students also believed that the Coke and Mentos when added together would create a solution automatically – I did too. However, once we added the substances together and the CO2 was released, the students took turns looking at the bottle to see that the Mentos were still whole at the bottom. So in this state, as a group, we decided that this meant it was heterogenous – but with time, would the Mentos dissolve?

(The answer is yes they do – which we then discussed two days later, they took about 24 hours to dissolve)

Core Competency: Critical Thinking

Facet: Questioning and investigating

Profile: I can ask questions and consider options. I can use my observations, experience, and imagination to draw conclusions and make judgments.

First Peoples Principles of Learning: Learning is holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential, and relational (focused on connectedness, on reciprocal relationships, and a sense of place). 

Big Idea:

  • Solutions are homogenous (5)

Curricular Competency:

  • Communicate ideas, explanations, and processes in a variety of ways (5)

Content:

  • solutions and solubility (5)