Australia's Science Forum

We have a new teacher and she has asked for "fizzy tablets" to use with a Year 6 class. Wants to show the different rates of fizzing with various water temperatures - hot, ice cold and room temp. Any suggestions as to what she could use? I thought alka selzters, but expensive option or using bicarb as a cheaper option.

Any ideas would be appreciated!
Thanks
M

what about aspro clear? or last night i bought soluble panadol - 16 tabs for $3.95.
jar of eno?

Our Bio teachers love Alka seltza tablets for this surface area prac.
When I went looking found they were very hard to get went into a chemist and got the last 3 boxes the girl said i've had two others both from schools and bought all my stock havn't sold thoes for a long time.
but alternatives are Steradent, Berrocca

would fruit tingle lollies do the job
trish

i found alka seltzer at our local woolworths a lot chepaer than the chemist too -

We do this as a major assessment piece for our juniors - looking at surface area v time taken to dissolve, or rates of reaction (it varies from year to year). From experience Aspro Clear is cheapest, by far. I got our local chemist to order in a stack for me, which lasted through "modifying the experiment" stages etc.

disprin tablets. we used them to blow the tops off film canisters

The cheapest by far are home brand denture tablets. We use 1/2 tablet per group.

Thanks, everyone for your great budget ideas. I never thought of looking in woolies for alka seltzer, but I'll look at all the other options too and see what I can pick up the cheapest.

Love the denture tablet idea!

We use a ship load of alka seltzer tablets for the Year 7 prac task - making a lava lamp. Kids have a ball.
I buy them from the local IGA - good value but I reckon those denture tabs could be cheaper.

Thanks,

cheers,

Searchie

Are denture tablets safe though? Don't they release some form of acid? Yeah yeah, I know its only mild, but...

Most kids who need to wear plates after their braces use it, Im sure they barely rinse the plate before putting it in their mouths!
In our experiment kids dont even need to touch it, I put 1/2 a tab into 100ml conical and gas is collected in the balloon. Once you mention denture tabs, they think of there grandparents and think is very gross!!
those teachers who weigh everything place the tabs in for student.
Waste goes down the sink.