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Fun: The Key to Student Engagement

Teaching physical science to middle school students often requires inventive thinking, and a surefire way to increase student engagement and achievement is to keep things fun by combining relevant, real world experiences with an engaging school science experiment.

When teaching about phase changes of matter, Penguin Brand Dry Ice^® can be used as an example of a substance that undergoes sublimation, the phase change in which matter in solid form changes directly into a gas. Try making Boo Bubbles with Penguin Brand Dry Ice to show students the sublimation process in a fun (and spooky) way! You can find Penguin Brand Dry Ice® near you using our store locator.

Dry Ice and Boo Bubbles

Create large soap Boo Bubbles filled with carbon dioxide gas to demonstrate sublimation to your students. To do this demonstration, you will first need to make your bubble solution:

Extra-strength Boo-Bubble solution

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of water
• 4 tablespoons of liquid dish soap (e.g., Dawn^®)
• Liquid glycerin (can be found in the pharmacy section of your local supermarket)

Directions:

• For every cup of water used, add two tablespoons of liquid dish detergent and one tablespoon of glycerin  
• Mix the ingredients together well and allow the bubble solution to sit overnight if possible

Once your bubble solution is ready, you can finish the Boo Bubbles experiment. For the experiment, you will need:

• An empty 2-liter bottle
• Plastic tubing
• A funnel 
• Warm water 
• Adhesive caulking
• Penguin Brand Dry Ice
• Boo Bubbles solution (recipe above)

Always wear gloves when handling dry ice because it can be a skin irritant. For this experiment, you should also wear safety glasses.

Directions:

• Attach the tubing to the mouth of the 2-liter bottle with caulking
• Pour warm water into the bottle using a funnel
• Add a few small pieces of dry ice to the water inside the bottle
• Dip the tubing into your bubble solution and watch smoke-filled Boo Bubbles form

When you combine warm water and dry ice in the container, the dry ice quickly sublimates and turns into gas. The gas forces itself out of the end of the container’s tubing. If you dip the end of the tubing into some extra strength bubble solution, the clouds of carbon dioxide gas will form large, smoky Boo Bubbles. Using a gloved hand, you can pop the Boo Bubbles and watch as a cloud of gas quickly floats away.

To try making Boo Bubbles in your own classroom, find Penguin Brand Dry Ice® near you using our store locator.