Presidential Outreach Event

Exploring Our World Through Chemistry

Activity Booklet

Childrens Creativity Museum


Salt Table sugar Baking soda
Sodium chloride (NaCl) Sucrose (C
12
H
22
O
11
) Sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO
3
)
Lemon Juice
Millis Safety Tips Safety First!
ALWAYS:
Work with an adult.
Read and follow all directions for the activity.
Read all warning labels on all materials being used.
Use all materials carefully, following the directions given.
Follow safety warnings or precautions, such as wearing
gloves or tying back long hair.
Be sure to clean up and dispose of materials
properly when you are fnished with an activity.
Wash your hands well after every activity.
NEVER eat or drink while conducting an experiment,
and be careful to keep all of the materials away from
your mouth, nose, and eyes!
NEVER experiment on your own!
By Marilyn Duerst
Procedure:
Part 1
Lets nd out what happens when lemon juice, an acid, is mixed with some white powders found in your kitchen.
1. Line up 3 small bowls or cups.
2. Add about 1 teaspoon table salt into the rst one, 1 teaspoon of sugar into the second one, and 1 teaspoon of baking soda
into the last one.
3. Add about 1/4 cup of water to each bowl and stir.
4. Add ve drops of lemon juice to each bowl and see what happens. Record your observations in the table below. Which solution
reacted with the lemon juice? How? All acids will react in a similar wayso now you know a test for acids.
5. Carefully wash out the bowls and dry them with paper towels.
Sour Candy Surprise
Introduction: Many people like chocolate candy but what about other kinds of candy? Some are both sweet and sour, while
some are just plain sour, and make your mouth pucker! Instead of eating them, lets nd out what happens when sour-tasting candy
is mixed with some white powders found in your kitchen. Sour taste is the bodys way of identifying acids, so if your candy tastes
sour, it contains an acid. To test for an acid, try this!
Materials:
4 pieces of your favorite sour candy
(example: Lemonhead, Warheads,
SweetTARTS, Pixy Stix, sour gummy
candy, etc.)
1 peppermint (or other non-sour
candies)
4 small plastic bowls or cups
Plastic spoons
Lemon juice
Paper towels for clean-up
Baking soda
Sugar
Salt
Marilyn Duerst is a Distinguished Lecturer in Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, who enjoys collecting samples of elements, sand, and minerals.
4
Baking soda
Sodium bicarbonate
Trial 1
Peppermint or non-sour candy
Trial 2
______________
(name of candy)
Trial 3
______________
(name of candy)
Trial 4
______________
(name of candy)
Millis Safety Tips Safety First!
By Marilyn Duerst
Part 2
Now, lets nd out what happens when you mix candy with a baking soda solution.
1. Line up one small bowl or cup for each type of candy you have.
2. Add about one teaspoon of baking soda to each bowl or cup.
3. Add about 1/4 cup of water to each bowl and stir.
4. Drop one kind of candy into each bowl. Which candies do you think contain acid? How do the
candies that reacted taste?
5. Carefully dispose of the bowls.
Wheres the chemistry?
Sour candies contain acids, usually citric acid, that are found in sour fruits such
as grapefruits and lemons. These acids react with certain substances like baking
soda to form bubbles of carbon dioxide (CO
2
). When you bake cookies, mufns,
cakes or pancakes, the recipes usually contain baking powder, which contains
both a powdered acid and baking soda, allowing carbon dioxide bubbles to begin
to form even without the presence of any other acid.
Sour Candy Surprise
5

Wheres the chemistry?
The letters on the M&M or Skittles candy do not
dissolve in water and are adhered to the candy with
an edible glue that dissolves in warm water. Since the
letters are less dense than water, the letters peel off and
oat as the rest of the candy shell dissolves.
The colored dyes of the candies will color the water.
Objects that are red absorb most of the colors of visible
light EXCEPT red, which is reected to our eyes. Objects
that are blue absorb most of the red and yellow colors
of light, and reect blue light to our eyes. If you mix
the two, only violet light is reected to our eyes and the
water looks purple.
Yellow objects absorb violet light, and blue objects
absorb red and orange light, so the mixture of yellow
water and blue water looks green, the only color in the
visible light spectrum that bounces back to our eyes.
Introduction:
Have you ever wondered how the letters on small, round,
colored candies got there? Are they safe to eat? Instead of
eating those candies, lets try some experiments with them!
Find an adult to help you with the warm water and clean-up.
Be careful!
Materials:
Bag of M&Ms and/or Skittles
Several small plastic bowls
Very warm water
Stir sticks or plastic spoons for stirring
Procedure:
1. Put about 1 cup of very warm water into each of three small
bowls.
2. Add 3 red M&Ms to one bowl, 3 blue M&Ms to another
and 3 yellow ones to a third. You can also choose any other
colors of Skittles or M&Ms, except for brown.
3. After about a minute, what has happened to the m or s
letters? What other observations can you make about the
water in each bowl?
4. Using a spoon, take a spoonful of water from one bowl and
put it into a clean bowl. Add in a spoonful of water from one
of the other bowls and stir. What do you observe about the
water?
5. Using a spoon, make other mixtures and record the results.

SAFETY SUGGESTIONS:
All of Millis Safety Tips Safety First
9
By Marilyn Duerst

American Chemical Society
1155 Sixteenth Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036 T [202] 872 4600 F [202] 872 4453 www.acs.org



Colorful Lather Printing

Introduction:
Paper marbling has been popular for centuries. In a Japanese version called sumi
nagashi (meaning ink-floating), hydrophobic, carbon-based inks are dropped onto
water and blown across the surface to produce swirls like those seen in polished
marble. Rice paper lifts the ink off the surface of the water. In this activity, you will
investigate the art and science of the creation of colorful marbled paper patterns using
shaving cream and food coloring.

CAUTION! HEALTH & SAFETY: Be Safe! Shaving cream can become irritating
if left on skin for too long. Wash your hands when you are done. Please be sure not to
be too generous when dispensing the shaving cream.

Materials:
aerosol shaving cream
(standard white type)
3x5 index cards (unruled)
spatula or popsicle stick
toothpicks
food coloring
eye dropper
water
small transparent cup
paper towels

1. Spray a pile of shaving cream the size of your fist onto one side of a paper towel.
Use a scraper such as a spatula or large craft stick to shape the pile so that the
top surface is flat and slightly larger than the card that you will marble.
2. Apply only 4 - 6 drops of food coloring to the shaving cream surface, one drop at a
time.
3. Observe how the drops spread.
4. Drag a toothpick through the shaving cream and food coloring to create colored
patterns.
5. Press a 3 - 5 in., blank index card firmly on the shaving cream surface. What do
you observe through the back of the paper?
6. Lift the card off of the shaving cream and place the card, shaving cream side up,
onto the other side of the paper towel. Scrape off any excess shaving cream close
to the card with a spatula, side of a large craft stick, or squeegee . Observe the
front of the card. What happened?
7. Repeat steps 5 - 6 to marble additional cards with the remaining tinted shaving
cream.

More Things To Try
Try the same marbling technique using foam pump soap or gel shaving cream as the
base, or different artists paints on standard white shaving cream. What factors


influence your results?

Wheres the chemistry?

Shaving cream contains soap, which consists of long ionic species that have a
hydrophilic (water-loving) head and a hydrophobic (water-hating) tail. Paper
contains cellulose, which is a polymer of glucose (see below), as well as other
chemical substances.

Online Resources (accessed March 2013)
Paper decorating.
http://www.cbbag.ca/BookArtsWeb/PaperDecorating.html
Shaving creambackground, raw materials, the manufacturing.
http://www.madehow.com/Volume-1/Shaving-Cream.html
Consumer product chemistry careers.
Journal of Chemical Education Vol. 84 No. 4 April 2007
http://pubs.acs.org/journal/jceda8


American Chemical Society
1155 Sixteenth Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036 T [202] 872 4600 F [202] 872 4453 www.acs.org




Grades K-12
Density Batons
Introduction:

Students use the property of density to make beautiful toys.

CAUTION! HEALTH & SAFETY: Unwanted water/glitter mixtures can be filtered
through tissue paper, with the solid disposed of in a trash can and the water poured down the drain.
The tubing should be pre-cut by an adult.

Materials:
density toy such as a baton, keychain, necklace, or earrings end caps
scissors or knife to cut the tubing
6-inch length of 1/2-diameter, clear, rigid plastic tubing (This tubing can be purchased in 3-foot
lengths at an aquarium supply store or hardware store. Other sizes may be substituted, but tubing
with a very large diameter may be difficult to seal)
(optional) washable marker
(optional) small plastic or homemade paper funnels to pour glitter into tubing
about 1 teaspoon of glitter, sequins, and/or small plastic objects
water to fill tubing
End cap to fit tubing
ribbon or string
scissors

Procedure:

1. Cut the plastic tubing to desired length. (ADULTS ONLY)

2. Using an end cap, completely seal one end of each piece of tubing.

3. For younger students, you may want to mark a line with washable marker on the tube at the 1-
teaspoon level to help students gauge how much glitter to use.

4. Give each student a length of tubing with one end sealed.

5. Have students add no more than 1 teaspoon of glitter to the tube.

6. Have students fill the tube with water to about 12 centimeters (cm) below the rim.
Leaving a small amount of air in the tube helps the glitter to move through the baton more
freely.

7. Tell students to cork the open end of the tube and invert it. Ask them to observe their batons. Do
the batons have enough glitter? Does the glitter swirl freely? If students are not satisfied with the
result, they can add more glitter, pour out a little water to make room for more air, or discard the
contents of the tube according to the recommended disposal procedure and start over.

8. When students are satisfied with the results, remove the cork and seal the top of the tube with the
end cap. Leave a small amount of air so the glitter can move freely.

9. Students may wish to glue a piece of ribbon or other lightweight decoration to the capped ends.

10. Ask students to compare the homemade Density Baton to the commercial one. Are they similar?

Sample of a Density Baton








Wheres the chemistry?

Density batons, density key chains, and even density necklaces have become fashionable novelty
items. If you examine some of the simpler ones, you can see that they contain a liquid (most often
water), a small air bubble (helpful for agitating the solids when the tube is inverted), and various
small solid items (including glitter, sequins, small plastic stars, moons, and other shapes.) When
inverted, the materials in the tube shift and create a whirling, swirling motion that can mesmerize the
observers. But what is the science behind these toys?

As the name of this activity implies, one of the most important factors in the behavior of the
materials in the tube is their relative densities. Each kind of matter has a single characteristic density.
Lets assume that the different types of matter we are considering are not soluble in each other.
Because the densities of these different kinds of matter differ, some things float while others sink.
Why do densities differ? All matter is made up of particles. The heavier and more closely packed
these particles are, the denser the material is. Air, for example, is less dense than water. This
accounts for the observation that the air bubble always moves to the top of the tube. Some of the
solids in the tube may be less dense than water, and others may be more dense. The solids that are
less dense will float in water. The solids that are more dense will sink in water.

Why do some of the denser materials sometimes move to the top of the baton? The agitation of the
solids by the air bubble and the movement of the baton create currents in the water that may
momentarily carry some of the denser materials to the top. The surface tension of the water may also
allow small pieces of the denser solids to float. However, with time these items will also settle.




HEALTH


Grades K - 12



Introduction:


Iron for Breakfast

Our bodies need iron. An iron deficiency can result in anemia, a fairly common condition for adolescent
girls. Iron-deficiency anemia can cause fatigue during sports activities because iron is necessary for the
blood to carry oxygen to the muscles. Some foods are fortified with iron and can help prevent anemia. In
this activity, youll verify the presence of iron in iron-fortified cereal.

Materials:
Cocoa Wheats or other iron-fortified food that lists iron or reduced iron as an
ingredient, such as Total, Carnation Instant Breakfast, or iron-fortified grits
Note: Cereals that contain ferric (iron) phosphate will not work!
Plastic container or cup, about 500 mL (2 cups) in volume
1 cow magnet
1 plastic bag
1 magnifying lens
1 paper plate

Procedures:

1. Place a cow magnet inside of a small zip-close bag.
2. Pour about 2 inches of Cocoa Wheats into a plastic cup.
3. Stir the cereal with the magnet inside of the zip-close bag for about 1 minute.
4. Remove the magnet and bag from the cup and gently shake off the excess cereal. Do not wipe the bag!
5. Over the paper plate, open the bag and remove the magnet, allowing any iron filings to fall onto the plate.
Do not let the magnet directly touch the iron filings, because once in contact with the magnet, the filings are extremely
difficult to remove.
6. Place the magnet under the plate and move it around, observing the magnetic behavior of the filings. Examine the filings with
a magnifying lens.

Wheres the Chemistry?
Iron is an essential element. Every molecule of hemoglobin (the compound in red blood cells that carries oxygen from the lungs
to the tissues) has four iron ions in it. A healthy adult needs about 18mg of iron each day. If all of the iron from your body were
extracted and converted into elemental iron, you would have enough iron to make two small nails.
This amount is about 57 g. Dietary iron is found in red meats, egg yolks, shellfish, and vegetables such as beans and spinach.
Under normal conditions our bodies absorb only 515% of the iron in the foods that we eat. To ensure that we have adequate
iron in our diets, many foods are iron fortified. Iron can occur in several chemical forms. The iron in the iron-fortified cereal is
typically elemental or metallic iron (Fe). While the body is unable to directly absorb elemental iron, the reaction that occurs with
hydrochloric acid (HCl) in the stomach produces
ferrous iron (Fe2
+
), which is absorbed in the small intestines.

2008 Terrific Science Press










American Chemical Society
1155 Sixteenth Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036 T [202] 872 4600 F [202] 872 4453 www.acs.org

American Chemical Society
1155 Sixteenth Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036 T [202] 872 4600 F [202] 872 4453 www.acs.org




Grades K-5
Lincoln Drops
Introduction
Push the limitdont spill the water.
Predict how many drops of water can be placed on the head of a penny before any of the water spills off.

CAUTION! HEALTH & SAFETY: Be careful not to get bubble solution in the mouth! Goggles are
required to prevent bubble solution getting in the eyes!

Materials
pennies
cup of water
cup of soapy water
2 droppers
paper towels

Procedure
1. Place a clean, dry penny on a paper towel. Most will have a penny in their pocket! Fill the dropper
with water. Carefully place drops of water on the penny, one at a time, keeping track of the number
of drops. After youve placed about 10 drops on the penny, look at the penny from the side. What
does the water look like on the penny?
2. Continue placing drops of water on the penny, refilling the dropper as necessary. Keep track of the
number of drops (including the 10 youve already placed) that you could place before the water
spills off the penny.
3. Wipe the penny with a paper towel. See if you can beat your record. You have three more tries.
4. Return the dropper to the cup of water and set aside for others to use.
5. Dry the penny as before and place it on a paper towel. Select a cup of soapy water with its dropper.
6. Begin adding drops of soapy water to the head of the penny. After youve added 10 drops of the
soapy water, stop and look at the penny from the side. What does the soapy water look like on the
penny?
7. Continue putting drops of soapy water on the penny, refilling the dropper as necessary. Keep track
of the total number of drops you could place before the solution spills off the penny. (Dont forget
the 10 drops you put on in step 6.)
8. Wipe off the penny with a paper towel. See if you can beat your record. You have three more tries.
When you are done, drop your penny in the Used Penny Container.


Wheres the chemistry?

Water has a high surface tension, which means the surface of the water acts like a thin, invisible skin.
This high surface tension creates the dome you see when you look at the penny from the side after
placing about 10 drops of water on it. Surface tension results from the strong attraction that water
molecules have to each other. We call this attraction cohesion. Surface tension affects the number of
drops of water that fit on the penny. Other factors influence this number as well, such as the height of
the dropper above the penny; the placement of the drops; the angle at which the dropper is held; the
size of the drops; whether the penny is clean, scratched, or deformed; and whether soap is present.
There are much fewer drops of soapy water than drops of plain water that fit on the penny because
soap reduces the surface tension of water. Soap is a surfactant, or surface-acting agent, which causes
water to spread out (rather than to form a dome, as was the case with plain water).






Grades K - 3
Magic Nuudles

Introduction:
Magic nuudles are biodegradable building blocks made from cornstarch.

Materials:
Magic Nuudles
paper towel or sponge
water

Procedure:
1. Wet the sponge or a paper towel with water.
2. Give it a good squeeze to make it slightly damp.
3. Bump a Nuudle on the sponge or paper towel DO NOT SOAK THE
NUUDLE. Too much water will dissolve the nuudle.
4. Press moistened Nuudles against dry Nuudles to create a masterpiece. (If you
are having problems, its usually due to using too much water.)
5. To dispose, put old Nuudles in the sink and run water they melt like ice.
6. To clean surfaces, wipe with a damp cloth. For clothes, launder as usual.

Wheres the Chemistry?
Both polystyrene and cornstarch are made of polymers, which are long-chain
molecules that have a basic repeating unit. Some polymers are polar (such as
cornstarch), others are nonpolar (such as polystyrene); the repeating units of
both are shown on the Student Activity. The polar parts of cornstarch are the
hydroxyl (OH) groups that hang off the main chain. These hydroxyl groups
interact with water molecules to form hydrogen bonds, and as a result, cornstarch
is soluble in water. Polystyrene has no hydroxy groups and is nonpolar, so it does
not dissolve in water. The crosslinking structure of polystyrene can be broken
down in some organic solvents such as acetone. However, such solvents are
usually toxic and harmful to the environment.




American Chemical Society
1155 Sixteenth Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036 T [202] 872 4600 F [202] 872 4453 www.acs.org




Pencil Electrolysis

Introduction:
The process by which we separate the elements hydrogen and oxygen from water is called electrolysis.
The word "lysis" means to dissolve or break apart, so the word "electrolysis" literally means to break
something apart (in this case water) using electricity. It is difficult to break up water into its elements
lots of energy is needed to do that. Through a chemical means though, we can separate the compound
of water into the elements that combine to make it. Electrolysis is very easy - all you have to do is
arrange for electricity to pass through some water between to electrodes placed in the water. Its as
simple as that!

CAUTION! HEALTH & SAFETY: The reaction neutralizes the solution, which can be disposed of
by pouring it down the drain.

Materials:
One 9 Volt Battery
Two pieces of electrical wire about a foot long. Its convenient, but not necessary, if the wires have
alligator clips at each end.
Two number 2 pencils
Tap water
electrical or masking tape.
1 teaspoon Epsom Salt
Petri dish
A glass
Universal Indicator Solution

Procedure:

1. Remove the erasers and their metal sleeves from both pencils, and sharpen both ends of both
pencils.
2. Fill the glass with warm water and add 1 teaspoon of Epsom salt and 1 tablespoon of red
cabbage juice.
3. Stir the mixture thoroughly.
4. Pour some of the water mixture into the petri dish until it is of the way full.
5. Attach wires to the electrodes on the solar cell or battery, and the other ends to the tips of the
pencils, as shown in the diagram below. It is important to make good contact with the
graphite (lead) in the pencils. Secure the wires with tape.
6. Place the exposed tips of the pencils in the water, such that the tips are fully submerged but
are not touching the bottom.
7. Wait for a minute or so: Small bubbles should soon form on the tips of the pencils. Hydrogen
bubbles will form on one tip (associated with the negative battery terminal - the cathode) and
oxygen from the other.






Diagrams

Make good contact with the graphite in the pencils.



Wheres the chemistry?

The chemical equation for electrolysis is:
energy (electricity) + 2 H
2
O -> O
2
+ 2 H
2
.
At the cathode (the negative electrode), there is a negative charge created by the battery. This means
that there is an electrical pressure to push electrons into the water at this end. At the anode (the positive
electrode), there is a positive charge, so that electrode would like to absorb electrons. But the water isn't
a very good conductor. Instead, in order for there to be a flow of charge all the way around the circuit,
water molecules near the cathode are split up into a positively charged hydrogen ion, which is
symbolized as H
+
in the diagram above (this is just the hydrogen atom without its electron, i.e. the
nucleus of the hydrogen atom, which is just a single proton), and a negatively charged "hydroxide" ion,
symbolized OH
-
:
H
2
O -> H
+
+ OH
-
.
You might have expected that H
2
O would break up into an H and an OH (the same atoms but with
neutral charges) instead, but this doesn't happen because the oxygen atom more strongly attracts the
electron from the H - it steals it (we say the oxygen atom is more "electronegative" than hydrogen).
This theft allows the resulting hydroxide ion to have a completely filled outer shell, making it more
stable.
But the H
+
, which is just a naked proton, is now free to pick up an electron (symbolized e
-
) from the
cathode, which is trying hard to donate electrons, and become a regular, neutral hydrogen atom:
H
+
+ e
-
-> H
This hydrogen atom meets another hydrogen atom and forms a hydrogen gas molecule:
H + H -> H
2
,
and this molecule bubbles to the surface, and eureka! We have hydrogen gas!
Meanwhile, the positive anode has caused the negatively charged hydroxide ion (OH
-
) to travel across
the container to the anode. When it gets to the anode, the anode removes the extra electron that the
hydroxide stole from the hydrogen atom earlier, and the hydroxide ion then recombines with three
other hydroxide molecules to form 1 molecule of oxygen and 2 molecules of water:
4 OH
- _
> O
2
+ 2 H
2
O + 4e
-

The oxygen molecule is very stable, and bubbles to the surface.
In this way, a closed circuit is created, involving negatively charged particles - electrons in the wire,
hydroxide ions in the water. The energy delivered by the battery is stored by the production of
hydrogen.