Try the Elephant Toothpaste Experiment From this Great New Book

In the children's book Khadija and the Elephant Toothpaste Experiment by Farah Qaiser and Hajer Nakua, illustrated by Natalya Tariq, the title character is inspired by a visit to a science fair. She loves the safety goggles and lab coats the scientists are wearing but wonders why no one is wearing a hijab.

Khadija decides to recreate an experiment—called the elephant toothpaste experiment—at home with mixed and messy results. She tries again surrounded by her family during their Eid celebrations and the experiment is a success. "Salaam everyone, and Eid Mubarak!" she cries. "When I grow up, I'm going to be a scientist!"

The elephant toothpaste experiment is fun and requires only a handful of ingredients, most of which you can find at home. But first, we need a lab coat (or and old shirt to protect your clothes), safety goggles, a pair of gloves, and an adult to ensure we carry out this experiment safely.

What you’ll need for the experiment:

• Hydrogen peroxide—3 percent is easier to find in drugstores, but 6 percent will provide a stronger reaction. (Caution: please take care when handling hydrogen peroxide!)
• Instant yeast
• Dish Soap/liquid detergent
• Warm water
• Food coloring (optional)
• A beaker or bottle for the experiment
• A bowl (to mix ingredients)
• A tablespoon
• Tray

How to carry out the Elephant Toothpaste Experiment:

1. Place the bottle for the experiment on the tray. (The tray will catch the foam created by the experiment.)
2. Fill ⅓ of the bottle with hydrogen peroxide.
3. Add a large squirt of dish soap to the bottle.
4. Add a few drops of food colouring into the bottle. Swirl the mixture together.
5. In the bowl, mix 1 tablespoon of yeast with 2 tablespoons of water, and mix until the consistency is smooth, similar to melted ice cream.
6. Add the yeast and water mixture into the bottle with hydrogen peroxide, dish soap, and food colouring.
7. Wait for a few seconds for the reaction to take place. The foam will start rising over the bottle's rim and into the tray!
8. Fun tip: try this experiment with different-sized and shaped bottles to see how the foam rises differently. You can also try to change the amount of materials that you are using. What happens if you use more hydrogen peroxide or less yeast?

How the Elephant Toothpaste Experiment works:

Hydrogen peroxide can break down into oxygen (O2) and water (H2O), but this reaction will happen very slowly if there isn’t another chemical to speed up the reaction. This is where yeast comes in.

First, the yeast is activated by mixing it with warm water. Yeast contains a special chemical, catalase, that can speed up the reaction. When the yeast is added to hydrogen peroxide, it can quickly break it down into oxygen (creating gas bubbles) and water. Normally, the gas bubbles escape the bottle quickly, but, the dish soap traps the bubbles, leading to the foam that we see in the experiment.

The foam looks like toothpaste squirting out of a tube! That’s why it’s called the Elephant Toothpaste experiment—only an elephant could use toothpaste this large.