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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.
Trading Places: Redox Reactions
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Visitors add drops of copper sulfate solution onto a steel nail. They observe the nail change color from silver to brown as the copper plates onto the nail.
Currently Working: Testing Conductivity
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Visitors test solutions of water, sugar, salt, and hydrochloric acid and the solids salt and sugar. They clip leads from the hand generator to wires immersed in each substance.
Forwards and Backwards: pH and Indicators
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Visitors prepare six solutions combining vinegar and ammonia that range incrementally from acid (all vinegar) to base (all ammonia).
First Impressions
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Learners experiment with a commercial photo-sensitive paper (Sunprint® or NaturePrint® paper). They place opaque and clear objects on the paper and expose it to bright light, observing the results.
As The Stomach Churns
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In this chemistry activity, learners fill two test tubes with a solution of "artificial stomach fluid," consisting of hydrochloric acid in the same concentration as in human stomachs, some soap to cre
Natural Buffers
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Learners use a universal indicator to test the amount of sodium hydroxide needed to change the pH of plain water compared with the amount needed to change the pH of gelatin.
Yeast Balloons
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Visitors observe a bottle with a balloon attached around the mouth. The bottle contains a solution of yeast, sugar, and water.
Common Scents
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Learners use a mortar and pestle to extract clove oil from cloves using denatured alcohol. They put this oil on paper, which they can take home.
Natural Indicators
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Learners combine different plant solutions -- made from fruits, vegetables, and flowers -- with equal amounts of vinegar (acid), water (neutral), and ammonia (base).
Foam Peanuts
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Learners compare the properties and solubilities of Styrofoam (TM), ecofoam packing peanuts, and popcorn. First, the solubility of each substance is tested in water.
Calcium Collage
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In this activity (on pages 11-14 of PDF), learners cut out pictures from magazines of foods that help make bones strong and glue the pictures to a paper bone.
Make Your Own DNA
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Learners match puzzle pieces to outlines of a DNA strand. The puzzle pieces represent the four chemicals making up DNA base pairs: adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine.
Good Vibrations
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This lesson (on pages 15-24 of PDF) explores how sound is caused by vibrating objects. It explains that we hear by feeling vibrations passing through the air.
Gross Growth
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In this activity, learners grow germs collected from their hands and other objects. They cultivate the germs on a growth medium (such as slices of grapefruit or processed cheese) for a week.
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.
Concentrate: Concentrations and Reaction Rates
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Visitors incrementally increase the amount of iodate in three different test tubes containing the same amount of a starch solution.
Starch Breakdown
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Learners use Benedict’s solution and heat to test for the presence of simple sugars in glucose, sucrose, starch, and starch combined with amylase.