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Special Thanks to: Aikane Lewis the "Make a Comet In the Classroom" Student demonstrator. Aikane is an eighth grade student from St. Jerome School in El Cerrito California.

Hammer or Mallet: for crushing the dry ice. A construction hammer or wooden mallet is ideal. A tack hammer is not big enough. [go to top]

Mixing Spoon: wood or plastic is best, and it should be pretty strong. A metal spoon will get very cold; you may have to wear gloves to stir, but it will work. [go to top]

Trash Bags: choose heavy weight wastebasket or garbage can liners from a grocery or hardware store. Make sure that at least one has no holes, for lining your mixing bowl. [go to top]

Mixing Bowl: capacity at least a gallon. As with the spoon, it's better to have a plastic bowl, because metal will get very cold. Even a round ice bucket will work in a pinch. We used the top of a plastic "cake keeper." Any of these is available in the housewares department of a hardware store. [go to top]

Work Gloves: these should be heavy rubber, leather, or cloth -- we used canvas and leather work gloves from a hardware store. They must be thick enough to protect your hands from dry ice "burns." [go to top]

Ice Chest: for storing dry ice. If you don't have one at home, many drug stores and sporting goods stores carry inexpensive types made of styrofoam. [go to top]

Paper Towels: These are for cleaning up spills. They are NOT a comet ingredient! [go to top]

Ammonia: an inexpensive cleaning product found in many homes. This organic substance also occurs naturally, and is part of the atmosphere of Jupiter. [go to top]

Dark Corn Syrup: can be bought at any grocery store, if you don't already have some in the kitchen. It's also OK to substitute a few tablespoons of a cola drink, or other sugary liquid. [go to top]

Dry Ice: Dry ice is frozen CO2, and should also be inexpensive. It can be obtained from party suppliers and sometimes in small quantities from ice cream stores. Store in the ice chest, and don't handle it without wearing gloves, as it can damage the skin. [go to top]

Water: water from the tap, known as good old "two cents plain," is fine. We measured ours out before starting. [go to top]

Dirt/Sand: You can use sandy backyard soil, or sand from a seashore, construction site, or from a garden and building supplier. [go to top]

These are links back to each of the Make a Comet steps
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