How to Make a Miniature Sinkhole
Adapted from a "MacGillivray Freeman's
Journey Into Amazing Caves"



Have you ever wanted to make a sinkhole, without destroying your parents' yard???
Well, this is how to make a miniature sinkhole in a styrofoam cup.

Materials Needed:
1 8 oz. styrofoam cup
a scouring pad or a thin sponge
an empty two liter coke bottle
sugar
sand
scissors
piece of paper

1) Poke a hole the size of your thumb in the bottom of the cup.
2) Cut a circle the size of the bottom of the cup out of the sponge and put it at the bottom of the cup.
3) Role the piece of paper into a tube, it should be the height of the cup and half as wide. Put it in the middle of the cup over the hole.
4) Fill the tube with sugar.
5) Surround it with sand.
6) Carefully take out the tube.
7) Put a thin layer of sand over the sugar.
8) Cut off the bottom of the coke bottle.
9) Fill it with water, about a third full. It will symbolize ground water.
10) Put the cup in the water.
11) Watch the water dissolves the sugar. You might have to take the cup out of the water to see the sinkhole form.
12) Congratulations!!! You've just made a sinkhole, without destroying your parents' yard!!!