Hi! Welcome to the activity page. Here you
will find some cool experiments to help you take care of the environment.
You’ll learn about things you can do to help protect the environment and have
fun at the same time. So are you ready? OK, let’s start.
Make
your own soap
(Please do this
activity with adult supervision.)
Many
soaps damage the environment because they do not biodegrade. Many also use
chemicals which are manufactured in polluting factories.
You can make your own soap using more earth-friendly materials and a few
things from the kitchen. Here are
the ingredients you need to make this soap:
·
1 small
pot
·
1 spoon
·
1 large
pot
·
Wooden or
plastic molds (plastic cups and plastic muffin molds work well)
·
A
cardboard box
·
A towel
·
Grease-impermeable
paper (like wax paper)
·
2 spoons
of lye (NaOH sometimes sold as alkaline solution)
·
200 ml of
water
·
500 ml
almond or olive oil
·
100 grams
of coconut oil
·
2
tea-spoons of glycerin (available at the pharmacy and grocery store)
Let’s
make it:
1.
Put the water in the small pot.
2.
Add the lye in the water.
Little by little, and stir until it dissolves. WARNING!!!
It can get very hot.
3.
In the large pot, heat the oils and the glycerin at low heat, until they
melt.
4.
When the
caustic solution gets cool, mix it with the oils.
WARNING!!! Caustic souce can be very harmful to
the skin, and eyes. If you spill some on yourself over immediately wash and call
your doctor.
5.
Keep mixing (about 15 minutes), until the mixture gets pasty.
If it hardens, heat it a bit and it will soften again.
6.
Carefully pour the mixture into the molds.
7.
Using potholders to protect your hands, place the molds in the in the cardboard box.
8.
Cover the box with the towel. Leave it in a warm and dry area.
9.
When the soaps are solid, take them out of the molds and wrap them in the
waxed paper.
10.
Let them get harden (about 2 weeks) and then you’ll be able to use
them.
It
is that simple to make your own ecologically-save soaps!
Consider using them around your house or giving them as gifts.
Manufacturing
toothpastes commercially can also lead to pollution and disposal of
non-biodegradable plastic packaging is also ecologically unsound. Wouldn’t you smile be brighter if you could find a better
way? Well, read on and you’ll
learn how to make your own toothpaste:
Make your own toothpaste
Ingredients:
·
An empty
toothpaste container
·
A bowl
and a stick
·
150 grams
of calcium carbonate (CaCO3)
·
100 grams
of glycerin
·
25 grams
of talc
·
5 grams
of mint essence
·
Distillated
water
·
Ethyl
alcohol
Let’s
do it:
The
bowl must be sterile (absolutely clean) before you mix the toothpaste, so start
by cleaning it:
1.
Clean the bowl with water and soap.
2.
Then use the distillate water to clean it up.
3.
Rinse it with the ethyl alcohol.
4.
Mix all the remaining ingredients in the bowl with the stick (it also
needs to be very clean).
5.
Stop mixing when you have a consistent paste.
6.
Open the tooth bottle from behind.
7.
Clean it with water and soap. Rinse it well with the distillated water.
8.
Fill the tube with the paste and then close it.