Gather 6 plastic cups and label them paprika, salt, sugar, water, pepper and Equal and put 2 teaspoons of the labeled ingredient into the appropriately labeled cup. Next, add half a cup of store-bought bubble solution to the cups. Blow a bubble using the unadulterated bubble solution. This will serve as the control mixture to compare with the liquid in the cups. Stir the mixtures in the cups one at a time and blow a bubble. Note how big the bubbles are that form and write down your observations for each mixture. The important lesson of the activity is for the students to perceive how different chemicals change the bubble solution.
Half fill a glass with water. Add about a 1/2-inch of oil. You'll see that the less dense oil floats on top of the water. Pour in a little salt and observe what happens. The salt mixes with the oil, making it more dense so it sinks in the glass. However, when the salt dissolves, the bubble of oil rises back to the top of the glass. Next, repeat the experiment using sugar instead of salt. Then do it again, this time with sand. Students can try other household items like pepper or baking soda to see what happens with the oil bubbles that form.
For this science project you need some bubble solution purchased from a store. Blow bubbles, using a stopwatch to time when the last of the bubbles pop. Do this four times to get an average time. Next, pour a half cup of solution into a plastic cup and add 2 teaspoons of salt. Blow bubbles and time how long the bubbles last, repeating so you get four sets of results for the salt solution. Calculate the average of the bubbles' longevity. Repeat the process but this time substitute sugar for the salt. Ask your students to observe how these different additions affect the longevity of bubbles.
For this experiment you'll note how soon you see bubbles form in boiling water. First, boil a pot of tepid water and time how long it takes for a full rolling boil of bubbles to rise rapidly to the top. Next, heat a pot of tepid water, this time adding a teaspoon of sugar. Do not use the same pot unless you've allowed adequate time for the pan to cool to room temperature. Note how long it takes to reach the boiling point. Finally, using a cooled pan, add a teaspoon of salt to the pot of tepid water and record how long it takes for the water to boil. Students should observe how chemicals affect the time it takes to boil water.