A. New York After School Programs Make different shapes with pipecleaner and dip in soap to make different geometric bubble shapes within the pipecleaner.
B. Gordon Elementary Science Club Are bubbles always round? What happens if you make another shape with your pipecleaner? Make two shapes. (Optional: add straw for handle.) Blow and watch others in your group - look for bubbles that are not round. Let me know if you see one.
Why are bubble always round? Show structure of a bubble (layer of water molecules trapped between two layers of soap molecules). The soap molecules can move around, so can the water molecules - they are elastic. They move until find most stable shape: for one bubble this is a sphere.
For winter 2011 science club (grades 1 and 2) we did this inside. Students sat around the perimeter of a large blanket and blew their bubbles into the centre of the blanket.