Materials:
bag of rocks and shells
jar of rock powder
jar of shell powder
HCl acid with dropper
wet paper towels to clean up messes
glass pie plate
Separate the rocks from the shells.
Put several rocks in the glass pie plate.
Test each with a drop of HCl.
What happened?
Wash the rocks and the pie plate. Dry thoroughly
Put several shells in the glass pie plate.
Test each with a drop of HCl.
What happened?
Wash the shells and the pie plate. Dry thoroughly.
How can you use the information from this experiment to determine which jar contains ground rock and which one contains ground shell?
Get approval for your experiment.
Do your experiment.
Which jar contained the rock?
Which jar contained the shell?
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For the parent: This experiment sometimes works with vinegar. If you would rather use vinegar than HCl, do the experiment ahead of time to make sure that it works. Also, I never leave my children alone in a room with chemicals. While I don't hover, I am doing something that I can drop immediately if there is a problem. Train your kids to always put the dropper back in the bottle and twist the cap on securely between EACH use of any chemical.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Chemistry for Kids: Lesson 5
Materials:
a bag with some rocks and shells in it
a jar with some rock powder
a jar with some ground shell
Open the bag. Separate the rocks from the shells.
Was it easy to do this? Why?
How are rocks and shells different?
Get the two jars with powder in them. One has ground rock, the other ground shell. Which is which? How can you tell?
How can you know for sure?
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For the parent: My husband made the rock and shell powders using some kind of hammer-thing. Do not label the jars "rock" and "shell." If you want you can label them "1" and "2" or "A" and "B." This is another experiment meant to help kids see that we can identify things if we know something about them. In this case, they have experience with rocks and shells and can differentiate between them based on what they know rocks and shells look like. But, if rock and shell can no longer be identified visually, can we still differentiate between them?
a bag with some rocks and shells in it
a jar with some rock powder
a jar with some ground shell
Open the bag. Separate the rocks from the shells.
Was it easy to do this? Why?
How are rocks and shells different?
Get the two jars with powder in them. One has ground rock, the other ground shell. Which is which? How can you tell?
How can you know for sure?
------------------------------------------------------
For the parent: My husband made the rock and shell powders using some kind of hammer-thing. Do not label the jars "rock" and "shell." If you want you can label them "1" and "2" or "A" and "B." This is another experiment meant to help kids see that we can identify things if we know something about them. In this case, they have experience with rocks and shells and can differentiate between them based on what they know rocks and shells look like. But, if rock and shell can no longer be identified visually, can we still differentiate between them?
Chemistry for Kids: Lesson 4
List what you know about sand and salt:
Get the mixture you will use today. Notice what is in it.
Think about how you could separate the two things in this mixture using what you know. Separate the two things.
How did you do it?
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For the parent: Mix some dry coarse sand and some salt in a jar prior to this lesson. Let your kids struggle with this, but don't let them reach the point of frustration. The intent of this experiment is to show that we can use what we know to separate something that seems impossible to separate. Salt dissolves in water. If you add water and stir, it is easily separated from the sand when the mixture is poured through a coffee filter.
Get the mixture you will use today. Notice what is in it.
Think about how you could separate the two things in this mixture using what you know. Separate the two things.
How did you do it?
------------------------------------------------------
For the parent: Mix some dry coarse sand and some salt in a jar prior to this lesson. Let your kids struggle with this, but don't let them reach the point of frustration. The intent of this experiment is to show that we can use what we know to separate something that seems impossible to separate. Salt dissolves in water. If you add water and stir, it is easily separated from the sand when the mixture is poured through a coffee filter.
Chemistry for Kids: Lesson 3
Materials:
1 packet of microwave popcorn
Take the plastic wrapper off some microwave popcorn. Throw the wrapper away.
Weigh the bag. How much does it weigh? ___________________
What do you expect to happen to the weight after the popcorn has popped? Why? ______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
Pop popcorn.
Weigh the bag again. How much does it weigh? _______________
What happened to the total weight? Why?____________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
Eat popcorn.
-------------------------------------------------
For the parent: In the last experiment we learned that matter is not destroyed, yet this experiment seems to prove otherwise. Let them wrestle with the seeming contradiction. If you need to step in with a hint, you can ask them if they remember what happened when they opened the door of the microwave. Did anything come out besides the bag of popcorn?
The point of this experiment is to show that sometimes it will seem that matter has been destroyed in a chemical reaction. Since we know that cannot be so, there must be another explanation. Usually the alternate explanation has to do with some fault in the setup of our experiment. In this case water that was inside the popcorn kernals became steam. In our experiment, we did not capture the steam, but that doesn't mean that it wasn't there.
1 packet of microwave popcorn
Take the plastic wrapper off some microwave popcorn. Throw the wrapper away.
Weigh the bag. How much does it weigh? ___________________
What do you expect to happen to the weight after the popcorn has popped? Why? ______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
Pop popcorn.
Weigh the bag again. How much does it weigh? _______________
What happened to the total weight? Why?____________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
Eat popcorn.
-------------------------------------------------
For the parent: In the last experiment we learned that matter is not destroyed, yet this experiment seems to prove otherwise. Let them wrestle with the seeming contradiction. If you need to step in with a hint, you can ask them if they remember what happened when they opened the door of the microwave. Did anything come out besides the bag of popcorn?
The point of this experiment is to show that sometimes it will seem that matter has been destroyed in a chemical reaction. Since we know that cannot be so, there must be another explanation. Usually the alternate explanation has to do with some fault in the setup of our experiment. In this case water that was inside the popcorn kernals became steam. In our experiment, we did not capture the steam, but that doesn't mean that it wasn't there.
Chemistry for Kids: Lesson 2
Materials:
Film canister or small pill bottle
ice
water
Put ice and some water in a bottle.
Put the lid on.
How much does it weigh? __________________________________
What do you expect to happen as the bottle warms? ________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
What do you expect to happen to the weight of the bottle of ice and water? ______________________________________________________
Roll the bottle in your hands to warm it.
Weigh the bottle again. What happened? ____________________
______________________________________________________
Why? ________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
-------------------------------------------------------
For the parent: Though this is only one experiment, it illustrates a point that you can affirm would be borne out by other similar experiments: in a chemical reaction matter is not lost. Matter changes form, but it is not destroyed.
Film canister or small pill bottle
ice
water
Put ice and some water in a bottle.
Put the lid on.
How much does it weigh? __________________________________
What do you expect to happen as the bottle warms? ________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
What do you expect to happen to the weight of the bottle of ice and water? ______________________________________________________
Roll the bottle in your hands to warm it.
Weigh the bottle again. What happened? ____________________
______________________________________________________
Why? ________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
-------------------------------------------------------
For the parent: Though this is only one experiment, it illustrates a point that you can affirm would be borne out by other similar experiments: in a chemical reaction matter is not lost. Matter changes form, but it is not destroyed.
Chemistry for Kids: Lesson 1
Chemistry is the study of matter.
Matter is anything that has mass.
Mass is anything that has weight and takes up space.
What things have mass? How do you know? List below:
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For the parent: This is best approached as a discussion. I had each of my 3 kids (ages 9, 10 and 11) come up with their own lists separately (I gave them about 5 minutes), then we came together and discussed their answers. They had an intense discussion about whether or not air is matter, until one of them mentioned that when we blow up a balloon we can see that it takes up space. This led to finding a balloon and weighing it empty, then blowing it up and weighing it full to determine whether or not air had weight. (It does).
Matter is anything that has mass.
Mass is anything that has weight and takes up space.
What things have mass? How do you know? List below:
----------------------------------------------------
For the parent: This is best approached as a discussion. I had each of my 3 kids (ages 9, 10 and 11) come up with their own lists separately (I gave them about 5 minutes), then we came together and discussed their answers. They had an intense discussion about whether or not air is matter, until one of them mentioned that when we blow up a balloon we can see that it takes up space. This led to finding a balloon and weighing it empty, then blowing it up and weighing it full to determine whether or not air had weight. (It does).
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