United States--Kansas

We took a trip to the middle of the United States last week--Kansas is the geographic center of the lower 48 states.  Kansas is farm state that grows wheat and other grains.  It is also in the middle of Tornado Alley and gets a lot of tornadoes.  Texas actually gets the most tornadoes and Oklahoma gets the worst tornadoes, bu what else is there for us to do in Kansas but study tornadoes?  I tried talking the kids into making wheat bread, but got vetoed, so we made a tornado in a bottle.

What You'll Need:
clear jar
water
food coloring
liquid dish soap
vinegar

Step 1: Fill the jar about two-thirds with water.  Add a few drops of food coloring to the water.  (We used red, but I think it would have shown better with a lighter color or no coloring.)
Step 2: Add 1 tsp of soap and 1 tsp of vinegar.  Screw the lid on tight to prevent leaks.
Step 3: Give the jar a good, hard shake, then give it a twist to set the liquid inside spinning.
Step 4: What you'll see is a tiny bottled vortex that looks like a mini-tornado. 

I don't think it worked like it was supposed to.  One of these days I'll need to buy a tornado tube and connect two 2-liter bottles together.  Those really work!