Make Your Own Air Freshener
You will need the help of a grown-up or older brother or sister to do this fun kids science project. Ask them to help you buy your fresh materials, and to chop for you.
Materials:
fresh herbs, fresh flowers, lemons or oranges
5 bowls
7 ½ cups slightly heated water
plastic wrap
5 coffee filters
5 spray bottles
chopping board (optional)
knife (optional)
Instructions:
Go to your grocery store with a grown up and go to the fresh herbs section. Choose two nice smelling herbs, and choose either two lemons or two oranges. Remember to get a whole bunch of the nice smelling herbs.
Next, go to a flower shop and choose two flowers with very strong smells. If you're not sure about how strong it should be, look for a star lily or mountain lily. Get a good number of flowers.
When you get home, prepare five bowls.
Ask your parent for help on this next task. Take each of your herbs or flowers and chop them up into tiny pieces then put them in corresponding bowls. For example, put all your chopped mint in one bowl, all your lilies in another. Remember to wash the knife in between chopping, and remember to put the center of the flowers into the bowl as well.
Ask your parent to peel the orange or lemon and to put the peel into another bowl.
Pour a cup and a half of slightly heated water into each bowl.
Quickly cover the bowls with plastic wrap so that you seal the air in the bowl.
Allow it to sit overnight.
The next morning, check on your bowls of water. You will find that each bowl has a different scent.
Using coffee filters, strain each of the bowls into the five spray bottles you've prepared, and squeeze the filter for any extracts that may have been left behind.
Smell the water again. You will find that the water still smells like the herb, flower, or peel that had been placed in it!
Your scented water can now be sprayed or spritzed and is ready for use around your home as an air freshener!
Concept Explanation
This fun kids science project shows us how the bits or particles of odor found in things like flowers, herbs, or fruit can transfer into water, and give their smell to the water. When we smell, our noses pick up on these odor particles and we are able to determine whether something smells pleasant or unpleasant, or whether it smells like anything at all. This fun kids science project shows us how scent can be transferred to water in a similar manner to which we smell the scent itself! To see how well you smell, close your eyes and smell the water again, you will find that you can smell it better. This is because our sense of smell gets stronger when we close our eyes!
