Your kitchen laboratory is the perfect place to whip up a tasty science experiment that can be used to teach many scientific facts. These delicious experiments are safe enough for you to use your own measuring instruments, measuring spoons and cups, and you can even lick the spoon!
Gases you can drink
Make a lemon fizz and find out what happens when chemicals react to form a gas in a liquid. Fill four ounces of water in an eight ounce glass. Mix in one-half teaspoon of baking soda.
Fill a second glass half full of lemonade. Add one-half teaspoon of baking soda in the lemonade. Compare the two reactions, then drink the juice before the bubbles go away. Then try the experiment again with apple juice or orange juice.
More gas
Mix one cup of flour with one-half cup of sugar, one-half teaspoon salt and one teaspoon of baking soda. In another bowl, mix one egg, one-fourth cup milk, and one teaspoon vanilla extract. Stir in one-fourth cup softened butter. Pour the liquid in the second bowl into the dry ingredients. Pour the batter into muffin cups. Bake them for about fifteen minutes. The gases that form inside the cupcake will cause the ingredients to rise. Now, all you have to do is decide whether you should frost your experiment or eat it plain.
Super-saturated solutions
Rock candy is the perfect experiment to show super saturation in a solution. Break apart a set of chopsticks. Tie one chopstick to another to form a “T.” Place one chopstick over the mouth of a wide-mouthed jar and adjust the second chopstick until it is one inch from the bottom of the jar. Remove it and set it aside.
Pour one cup of water into a pan and stir in one-half cup of sugar. Put it on the flame and heat it. Continue stirring more sugar into the solution until it is saturated and no more sugar will dissolve in the water. Set it aside to cool. Pour the solution into the jar. Dip the chopstick into the solution and roll it in sugar to start a seeder. Let it cool too. Place the chopstick back into the solution and let it set. Place it aside for several days and watch the crystals form on the chopstick. Use a magnifying lens and observe the crystals before you eat it.
Color separations
Separating the colors in a marker is a well-known science experiment but you can’t eat it. Try this one. Place one Smartie of each color on a different coffee filter; place them in the center. Use a straw or a new dropper and slowly drop water on each Smartie. When the Smartie is very wet, let them set for a while. When you check them, you will see the separation of the colors. Now you can eat the candy.
Amorphous solids
Amorphous solids are solids that have disorganized atomic structure. Come one cup of sugar, one-half light corn syrup, one-eighth teaspoon salt and one raw cup raw peanuts in a microwave-save bowl. Microwave it for four minutes and stir it. Microwave it for four more minutes. Stir again. Add one-tablespoon butter and microwave for two more minutes. Stir in one-teaspoon each of butter and baking soda. Stir it until it is foamy. Spread it out on a buttered cookie sheet. The baking soda will cause the mixture to harden. Glass is an amorphous solid, but peanut brittle tastes batter.
Solvent, solute and solution
Unwrap three Hershey’s chocolate Kisses and time each experiment segment. Put one in your mouth and let it set there. Do not move your tongue or move the candy around. Once it is gone, put another Kiss into your mouth and move it around with your tongue until it is gone. Place the third candy in your mouth and chew it until it is gone.
Your saliva, a solvent, dissolves the candy, a solute, in your mouth. Each step changes the interaction between the solvent and the solute. The more exposure the solute has to the solvent, the faster it should dissolve.
States of matter
Make butter to demonstrate how matter changes states from liquid to solid. Pour heavy cream in a jar. Shake the jar or roll it around for several minutes. You should see lumps begin to form. After about twenty minutes, you should have a jar of butter. Eat it plain or add salt before you spread it on a piece of bread.
Spice up your science experiments with work you can eat. Who says learning can’t be tasty and fun too!
