Dancing Cranberry Experiment

Usually, you see this activity with raisins, but you can easily mix it up with dried cranberries for the holiday season. There are two great ways to set up this Thanksgiving science experiment: both cause the dried cranberries to dance but use slightly different ingredients.

Dancing Cranberry Experiment

Supplies:

• Clear glass
• Dried cranberries
• Sprite

Instructions:

STEP 1. Fill the glass almost 3/4 full with soda.

STEP 2. Add a small handful of dried cranberries to the Sprite.

STEP 3. Watch the cranberries drop to the bottom of the glass, float to the top and back down again for several minutes.

The Science of Dancing Cranberries

First, what is buoyancy? Buoyancy refers to the tendency of something to sink or float in a liquid like water. Can you change the buoyancy of something?

Yes, you can! Initially, you observed that the cranberries sunk to the bottom because they are heavier than the water. However, the soda has gas in it which you can see with the bubbles.

The bubbles attach themselves to the surface of the cranberry and lift it up! When the cranberry reaches the surface, the bubbles pop and the cranberry falls back down.

You do have to be a little patient at times to observe this happening! The bubbles are key to making the cranberries dance!

You can create your own gas with a baking soda and vinegar experiment that we tried here with our dancing corn experiment. It’s also quite fun to watch.

Can your kiddos identify the solid, liquid, and gas in this activity? What if you compare it to a glass of water? What happens when the cranberries are placed in only water?

Make it even more of an experiment with testing out different items like we mentioned above and compare the results. Do different types of soda work differently?