Film Canister Rockets

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We have been having a blast (no pun intended) with our film canister rockets science experiment.  It is a quick and easy experiment to do with kids and they will just LOVE it!

To make Film Canister Rockets you need a couple of empty film canisters, some alka-seltzer tablets (we used generic brand), and water.

You can also decorate the film canisters to look like rockets if you want, but it isn’t necessary. Yeah, I know not many people have film canisters lying around the house these days since our world has gone digital. I was lucky enough to have some storing my sequins & glitter in the craft supplies. However, you can buy them in bulk.

If you want to decorate them to look like rockets, you just wrap a piece of paper around the canister with the lid of the canister sticking out the end so you can open and close it. Tape it together, We made little cone tops out of circles with a slit cut into it so you can wrap it around to make a cone.

To set off the rockets, you need to fill the canisters about 1/3 of the way full of water and drop in a tablet. Quickly close the lid and set it down (lid side down) on the table or ground outside. This is definitely an outside activity~ it is messy!  The tablets will fizz and release carbon dioxide that will cause the canister to pop open and shoot up. Make sure to stand back do you don’t get hit by any flying parts!

Our paper decorations lasted through exactly one launch then they got wet and started falling apart, so the kids tore them off and kept going through the entire pack of tablets! 🙂

It’s really hard to catch an action shot with these ones- but this was the best I could do…