Toy Concept #3
Baking Soda/Vinegar Volcano
This toy is meant to be a exciting way of demonstrating basic chemical reactions to children
To activate the volcano, the child will first pour baking soda into its top, then a red-orange mixture of food coloring (supplied with toy), then vinegar. After that, all the child has to do is sit back and watch the eruption. The volcano will be dishwasher-safe and easy to wash out in the sink. As a result, it should be reusable for dozens of eruptions.
The volcano will be made of some type of plastic (presumably injection-molded) and could be realistically colored. Molding could be difficult, since the volcano has a hollow chamber and tubes. The plastic itself should be very inexpensive, since the volcano is presumably to be made hollow. The kit would also include an inexpensive plastic dish to contain the "lava." Also important when consedering costs is that the volcano is not stackable and would require fairly large amount of storage space for mass-production. I envision total cost being somewhere between $10 and $20. Accesories could also be introduced, as soluble trees, cars, etc could be placed in the dish or on the volcano to be devoured by the lava. Durability is simply dependent on the thickness of plastic used. Safetly goggles should also be included in the kit, as well as a saftey warning about the possible dangers of ingestion of the fuel and the possibility of staining from the lava mix. This product could be used for young children, but only under parental supervision. This toy could be an interesting classroom experiment for grade-school aged children, and could be used in the home with some amount of parental supervision due to the reasons listed above.