1. Children’s Engineering
Bringing
Children’s Engineering
to the Elementary Classrooms
Unit #2
Materials, Tools, & Sorting with
Design Brief for Making Soap
Created by Miss Kelley Davis
Page County Public Schools Division-Wide STEM Coach

2. Let’s make some soapy solids, liquids, and gases!!!
Take 2 to 3 pieces of soap and drop in a glass measuring cup.
Put the cup and soap in the microwave for 20 – 30 seconds.
Remove from the microwave and immediately add 2 drops of scent AND 1 – 3 drops of color.
Stir with a popsicle stick
Pour into a silicon ice cube or candy tray.
About 15 minutes later...your soap is complete!!!
The soap goes in a SOLID...comes out a LIQUID...then returns to a SOLID.
The microwave provides the heat and energy for the changes in states.
BUT what about GAS???

3. Here comes the BOOM GAS!
Place half a bar of Ivory soap on a paper plate in the microwave.
Microwave for 30 seconds – 2 minutes...watch carefully.
After several seconds, you should be able to see how the gas escapes from the soap.
Water is trapped inside the soap. The microwave heats the water causing water vapor to expand and voila!

4. Now it’s your turn to be an engineer and try your own design brief!

5. A Soapy Gift for You
Background: We learned about the 3 different states of matter: solids, liquids, and gases. We also learned the different processes they go through to change from one state to another. In order to observe the different changes, we made our own soap.
Challenge: Your challenge is to design and build a containing structure for your soap. The structure must be large enough to contain all of the soap pieces. You will use this structure to package and transport your soap to a secondary location where it will be “sold” for profit. Don’t forget to decorate the package to increase profit.
Criteria:
*must be a containing structure
*have a moving or 3 dimensional part
*contain all the soap pieces
*include decorative packaging to help “sell” their soap
*be neat and colorful
Materials:
*1 foot of tape *2 paper fasteners
*glue sticks/white glue *2 popsicle sticks
*construction paper/scrap paper *crayons/markers
*recycled materials *limited craft materials
Tools:
*scissors *ruler *Crop-o-dile
*hot glue gun *hole punch
SOL: Science 2.3 The student will identify characteristics of each state of matter &
understand changes in the phases of matter
STL: Standard 11 The student will brainstorm, design, and construct