Fill a clean mayonnaise or pickle jar one-half full with soybeans. Add fine textured sand. Shake the jar until the beans and sand are evenly distributed and the contents fill the jar to the top. Place the jar on a pan at the front of the class. At the start of class, ask students to present hypotheses as to what will happen when the contents are completely saturated with water. List the predictions on the board. Fill the jar with water as you collect the student hypotheses. Use warm water to speed the process. Within 30 to 45 minutes, expect the glass to crack due to the build up of osmotic pressure caused by the seeds’ imbibition of water.

The Chinese created black powder roughly 1000 years ago. It's a 75:15:10 mix of potassium nitrate (saltpeter), charcoal, and sulfur. Black powder is contained in a tube around a fuse in basic firework rockets. When lighted, more sophisticated fireworks shells are fired from a mortar containing black powder, which generates a lift-off response.

Distinct metals are mixed to generate different colors in fireworks. The difference between incandescence and luminescence is that incandescence is light created by heat and luminescence is light produced by other sources. Pure components are required for any type of light since traces of other chemicals will cloud the hue. Copper chloride produces a blue tint, while barium chloride produces a luminous green color.