Turn Milk Into Plastic

I. Objectives
• To know if turning milk into plastic can lessen the dangers in plastic materials.

Key concepts
• Plastic
• Polymers
• Milk
• Casein

II. Materials
•Measuring cup
•Milk
•Stove-top oven and pan or a microwave and microwaveable container
•Mug or other heat-resistant cup
•Measuring spoons
•White vinegar
•Paper towels
•A clean, hard surface that is will not be damaged be dampness
•Spoon
•Cookie-cutters, glitter, food, coloring, markets (all optional)
•Adult help and supervision with heating and handling hot liquids

III. Procedures
• Add four teaspoons (tsp.) of white vinegar to a mug or other heat-resistant cup
• Add the cup of hot milk to the mug. You should see the milk form white clumps that are
called curds. Why do you think the milk forms curds when it is added to the vinegar? What
do you think they are made of?
• Mix the mug slowly with a spoon for a few seconds. What happens when the milk and
vinegar mixed together? Why do you think this is?
• Stack four layers of paper towels on a hard surface that will not be damaged if it gets
damp.
• Once the milk and vinegar mixture has cooled a bit, use a spoon to scoop out the curds.
You can do this buy tilting the spoon against the inside of the mug to let excess liquid drain
out while retaining the curds as you can in this way and put them on top of the paper towels
stack.
• Fold the edges of the paper towel stack over the curds and press down them to absorb
excess liquid. Use extra paper towels if needed to soak up the remaining moisture.
• Knead all of the curds together into a ball, as if it were dough. What you have in your
hands in casein plastic. How do the kneaded curds feel and look different from the original
ones?

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 •If you want to use the casein plastic to make something, you can color, shape or mold it
now (within an hour of making the plastic dough) and leave it to dry on paper towels for at
least 48 hours. Once it has dried, the casein plastic will be hard.

IV. Question/ Answer

• Can milk turn into a solid form of plastic?

• Does turning milk into plastic really works? Does turning heavy cream into plastic work?
• What are polymers made out of?
• What is casein ?
• What makes the milk turn into plastic?

V. Conclusion
I learned that milk can somehow turn into a solid form of plastic with a reaction of vinegar
and heat. I thought that the end result was interesting because the product of the
experiment was hard and tough to break. The toughest part of his experiment was getting
the correct measurements to turn milk into plastic.

Glue From Milk

I. Objectives
•The goal of these experiments is to create glue by combining curdled milk and baking
soda.

II. Materials

• Non-fat milk or skim milk

• Glass or enamel saucepan

• Tablespoon
• Access to a stove
• White vinegar
• Sodium bicarbonate (baking soda)
• Baby food jar or similar contain for the glue

III. Procedures

• Put a pink of milk into a saucepan. Add six tablespoons of white vinegar and stir.

• Heat the saucepan on a stove using low to medium heat. Stir continuously and watch
closely. After a while, you will observe clumps forming in the milk.
• Remove the saucepan from the heat as soon as you observe clumps forming in the milk.
These clumps indicate that the milk is curdling.
• Continue stirring until the curdling stops.

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• Pour off the liquid portion (this is called whey) of the milk, leaving the curds behind in the
pot. Remove as much of the liquid as possible.
• Add ¼ cup water and 1 tablespoon of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda). Stir well. Don’t be
alarmed if small bubbles appear because this means that the bicarbonate is neutralizing the
vinegar. The resulting product will be glue.
• Transfer the glue to a baby food jar.
• Glue two pieces of paper using a small amounts of mixture you made in step 6 and let me
them. Once the glue is completely dry (roughly 5 minutes), you should find that the papers
are permanently stuck together.

IV. Questions/Answers

• What is the scientific name of a glue?

• Can you turn curdled milk into glue?

• How to make a glue from milk?

V. Conclusion

• Based on the result of my experiment, my hypothesis was supported. During all three
trials, the milk turned into thick, sticky glue and was able to glue pieces of paper together.
Therefore, I conclude that if milk is mixed with water, baking soda, and vinegar, it will turn
into glue.

How To Do Paper Chromatography with Spinach Leaves

I. Objectives

• To separate and study the plant pigments by paper chromatography.

II. Materials
• Spinach Leaves
• Chromatography chamber
• Mortar and pestle
• Ether acetone solvent
• Scissors
• Acetone
• Pencil
• Capillary tube
• Spatula
• Scale
• Filter paper strips
• Watch glasses
• Thread

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• Stapler

III. Procedures
• Take a few freshly plucked green spinach leaves
• Using scissors cut the spinach leaves into small pieces and let them fall into
mortar.
• Take a measuring cylinder that contains 5ml of acetone and pour it into the
mortar.
• Grind the spinach leaves using the mortar and pestle.
• Take a strip of filter paper having a narrow notch at one end of the strip.
• Draw a horizontal line with a pencil about 2-3 cm away from the tip of the notch.
• Put a drop of the pigment extract in the middle of the line with the help of a
capillary tube.
• Allow the drop to dry and repeat till four or five drops are placed on the paper.
• Take the chromatographic chamber and pour ether acetone solvent in it.
• Fold one end of the filter paper strip and staple it.
• Using a thread, hang the filter paper strip in the chromatographic chamber.
• The loading spot should remain 1 cm above the solvents loading.
• Leave the chromatographic chamber undistributed for some time.
• When the solvent rises about 3/4th up the strip, remove the strip carefully and let
it dry.

IV. Questions/Answers
• Did the leaf you test contain different pigments? Refer to your results to support
your answer.
• Why did the separation of pigments in the spinach extract occur as it did? ( How
does paper chromatography work?)
• Why are leaves green even through other pigments are present?
• Based on what you have learned in this lab, explain why leaves tend to change
color in autumn in New England?

V. Conclusions
• Light could have affected the nature of chlorophyll thus led to inaccurate results. I
would recommended that talking out the pigment until the last minute when it is
needed in order to minimize the effect of light; * An alternative technique
(thin layer chromatography) mentioned in the preparation paper can be employed:
instead of absorptive paper, a glass of plastic slide (or aluminum sheet) coated with
silica gel use. The gel is spotted and then the slide or aluminum sheet is placed
vertically in a beaker or Coplin jar containing solvent at the bottom; * Further
experiment can employ pigments from different plants. Chlorophyll is a universal
occurrence in all photosynthesizing plants but we can compare the different
pigments in different plants. Because different pigments absorb light of different
wavelengths, by comparing the occurrence of different pigments we can deduce the
plants.

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How to make a rainbow of colored flames

I.