Science Experiments in a Bag


I originally saw Science Experiments in a Bag at Our Homeschool Fun. Susana first mentioned them in her curriculum post (I heart her picture of all the experiments ready to go!) and then in their first lesson on spiders. They looked like a wonderful way to add some science fun with very little effort on mom's part (once the bags are assembled!). I'm a planner and love to have as much work done ahead of time as possible. So I love the idea of Activity Bags. And, I recently had the chance to take a peak at Science Experiments in a Bag E-Book 2.

The experiments in this book are focused on Chemistry, the Human Body and General Science.

e-book Price: $15.00

Each experiment comes with a supply list, instructions to prepare the bags and an experiment log that includes:
  • a description of the experiment
  • type of experiment
  • supplies provided (that you bag up in advance)
  • supplies needed
  • experiment instructions
  • a place to record your results
  • observation questions
  • a place to record notes
The book also contains an Experiments at a Glance page. This page lists the experiments in alphabetical order, a description of the experiment, the area of science it teaches to, and general supplies needed. I love that they offer this page in the sample!

I printed the "at a glance" page in hopes of correlating some of the experiments with our Five in a Row lessons. I like the idea of assembling the bags ahead of time and filing them with the book we are rowing! I was able to find a few of them that would tie in perfectly and there may be more (once I come to them in the manual).

However, reading through them all, I see that there are only 5 experiments that we have NOT done!

Which tells me one thing:
  1. These are science experiments that we thought were worth doing!
Here is one that we had not done before and looked like fun:

Burning Balloons Experiment

We inflated 2 balloons ~ the second one with 1/4 cup of water inside and tied both of them closed. Then we lit a match and held it directly under the first balloon. 


As soon as the flame came in contact with the balloon it popped! {What we expected!}

Then we took the second balloon, the one with water in it. . . 


and held the flame underneath it. 


This time it didn't pop! 


If you look where the match was lit (the wind blew it out), you can see some black soot starting to form on the balloon.

Here is the explanation:

"The flame was heating the rubber on both of the balloons. The rubber of the balloon that was not filled with water became very hot and the rubber became weak. The rubber could no longer resist the pressure of the air that was inside the balloon. The rubber of the balloon that was filled with water didn’t get as hot because the water inside the balloon was absorbing most of the heat from the flame. The rubber was not weakened from the flame because it did not get hot enough and so it did not break. Water is a very good absorber of heat."

And yes! the answers are included with the book.

The book also gives instructions on how to coordinate an experiment swap ~ this would be a great activity for a co-op! There are 25 experiments in this 154 page book. Each experiment has 4-6 pages per experiment, plus resources. However, I did not find it necessary to print all the pages for our home use ~  I just printed the Experiment Log.

Thanks Activity Bags for Science Experiments in a Bag E-Book 2!

Disclosure: I offer this review as a courtesy in exchange for this book.  I give my honest opinion. 

4 comments

  1. Just wanted to let you know I love visiting your blog and value your opinion on resources. I have looked at this before and the only reason I didn't purchase it is because we are just starting BFIAR & FIAR Vol 4 so I didn't know if it was really necessary, but for a 'planner' person it sounded like a good plan. Thank you for sharing all the great ideas here and have a lovely Easter. Blessings, Renelle (Australia)

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  2. Thank you, Renelle. =)

    I think it would be worth a look at the samples to see if enough of
    the experiments would go-along with vol. 4. Homeschool Share has a
    master list of science concepts, but I haven't taken the time to go
    through them all to see if they would go along with any of the other
    science in a bag books. I saw a few that would tie in with volumes 1-2
    in this book, (for example, there is a taste experiment that would tie
    in with Lentil) but not enough if I were to purchase it (just for that
    reason). I hope that makes sense!

    Thanks for stopping by!

    ~MIchelle

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  3. Thank you Michelle :-)! And, more thank you's for reminding me that I had these wonderful experiments waiting to be used!!

    As always, a wonderful review, and I can't wait to see more of what y'all do with FIAR!! I honestly look forward to those posts and love seeing them come through my reader :-).

    Hope you and your whole family are happy and healthy! Blessings, hugs and prayers from me to you!!

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