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Cleaning with Dirt
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Learners build a filter from old soda bottles and dirt. They create polluted water, and pour it through their filter to clean it.
Latent Prints
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In this activity, learners examine fingerprints. Learners leave a hidden print on a surface and then make their own print detecting powder from graphite (found in pencils).
Density: Make a golf ball float!
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In this activity (on page 2 of the PDF), the learner places a golf ball between salt water and colored fresh water. The golf ball is not as dense as the saltwater.
Bend a Carrot
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In this activity, learners investigate the process of osmosis by adding salt to a sealed bag of raw carrots and comparing it to a control.
Salting Out
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In this activity, learners create a mixture of water, alcohol and permanent marker ink, and then add salt to form a colored alcohol layer on top of a colorless water layer.
Diving Submarine
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Learners use a commercially available toy to experiment with density. They fill a chamber in the toy submarine with baking powder and release it into a tank of water.
To Dye For
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Learners add two dyes to mineral oil and water, and then compare their miscibility (how well they mix) in each.
Inner Space
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In this activity, learners discover that there is space between molecules even in a cup "full" of water. They first fill a cup with marbles, and then add sand to fill the gaps between the marbles.
Plastic Milk: You can make plastic from milk
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In this activity (on page 2 of the PDF), learners make a plastic protein polymer from milk. Adding vinegar to milk causes the protein casein to solidify or curdle.
Big Things Come in Little Packages
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As a group, learners investigate three packages which are all the same size and shape, but have different contents. One is filled with foam, one is filled with wood, and one is filled with metal.
Layers of Liquids
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Learners pour equal amounts of coffee, mineral oil, corn syrup, and alcohol into a beaker. The liquids resolve into stacked layers, and learners can infer which liquids are the most and least dense.
Oh Buoy!
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Learners work in pairs to design, construct, and test a device that exhibits positive, neutral, and negative buoyancy. They test a number of different objects in water to see if they sink or float.
Layered Liquids: Chemistry You Can Drink
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In this chemistry activity (on page 2 of the PDF), learners make a layered drink with liquids of different densities.
Floating Golf Ball
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Visitors observe a graduated cylinder with a golf ball floating about halfway in liquid. The bottom half of the cylinder contains a concentrated solution of salt.
Dye Detective
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Learners analyze mixtures of dyes using filter paper chromatography. They place spots of the different dyes at the bottom of a piece of filter paper, and hang the paper to touch the surface of water.
Crystal Garden
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Visitors observe a tray holding a crystal-covered brick. The crystals were created by evaporation of a solution containing liquid bluing, ammonia, and salt.
Hot and Cold: Endothermic and Exothermic Reactions
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Visitors mix urea with water in one flask and mix calcium chloride with water in another flask. They observe that the urea flask gets cold and the calcium chloride flask gets hot.
It's A Gas!
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Visitors mix water and sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) in a large flask. They then add citric acid to the mixture and stopper the flask. The resulting reaction creates carbon dioxide gas.
All Mixed Up!: Separating Mixtures
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Visitors separate a mixture of pebbles, salt crystals, and wood shavings by adding water and pouring the mixture through a strainer.
Density Rainbow
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In this activity, learners mix several sugar solutions to investigate the property of density. Each sugar solution has a different density and color of the rainbow.