Dow Chemical and The Franklin Institute (TFI) have uploaded three videos in what they are calling the “Celebrate Chemistry” series. I suspect they will be adding more in the future. Nothing too novel or innovative, but they have tried to make the videos child friendly.

1. Baking Soda Volcano (Recommended for grades 3-4)

2. In a video for older kids, The Science of Baseball covers the law of energy and conservation, and principles of physics.

If you are interested in the Student Chemistry Cartoon Contest and/or Student Chemistry Video Contest, you’ll need to submit your entries soon. They are due May 31, 2011. The idea is to clearly illustrate a chemistry principle in way that will enhance how chemistry is taught.

If you would like to find activities being held in your region, click on the activities tab and then look for your country. There is also a search box.

Here are two examples I found:

If you live in Michigan, Spring Arbor will be featuring chemistry at their annual Cougar Science Camp June 20-24, 2011. For more details, see the Cougar Science Camp page.

On August 13, 2011 Grout Museum District in Waterloo, Iowa will attempt to break the Guinness World RecordsTM Largest Chemistry Lesson.  The lesson will start at 11:00 a.m. according to the International Year of Chemistry, but they don’t have it on the museum calendar yet.

If the celebrations inspire you to do some chemistry experiments, here are 10 chemistry books to help give you ideas:

This book just cries out for some hands-on activities.

Activity 1. Which type/brand of gum blows the best bubbles?

Gather:

• Several brands of bubble gum and regular gum
• Ruler (decide on inches or cm)
• Pair of tongs or cardboard bubble caliper (see below)
• Volunteer(s) to chew the gum and blow bubbles
• Paper and pencil to record the results

The most difficult part of this project is finding a standard way to measure bubbles that are often a moving target. Check this website for a photo of a “bubble caliper” used for measuring record bubbles. Think about how you might build something similar or find a pair of kitchen tongs that might open wide enough to accommodate the largest bubbles. Try to find the widest point of the bubble. Practice on a few bubbles to make sure your system works and is relatively consistent.

Predict which brand will produce the biggest bubble. Now give the volunteer(s) each one stick of each type/brand of gum. Allow them to chew the gum for a few minutes and then blow bubbles. When they are confident that they are blowing the best bubbles they can with that type of gum, have them blow a few more and measure them. Decide how many bubbles of each type of gum you are going to measure in advance, so you record the same number for each test.

When you are done, add up the size of the bubbles for each type, and then divide by the number of bubbles you measured for that type. This will give you an average. You might want to graph your results with a bar graph to easily see the differences between the brands/types.

Edit: Simply Science has a new review of the book and ideas for graphing your results.

Activity 2. What happens to the gum when you chew it? Does it gain weight from the moisture in your mouth, lose weight, or stay the same?

Gather:

• accurate kitchen scales
• gum
• wax paper to protect the scale (or the wrapper)
• watch or timer

First, predict what you think  will happen. Take the wrapper off the gum. Place a piece of wax paper on the scale, and tare or zero the scale. If your scale does not tare, the record how much the wax paper weighs. Next place the dry gum on the scale. Record the weight (subtract the weight of the waxed paper if you did not zero it). Leave the wax paper in place.

Now chew the gum for one minute and weigh again. Record the weight. Weigh again at five minute and then at ten minutes of chewing. What is happening? Did the results follow your prediction? Try to figure out why or why not. Test more sticks and different kinds of gum, and have your friends and relatives try it, too. See if you get the same results.

Activity 3. Make your own bubble gum.

This video shows how bubble gum is made in a factory.

You can find kits and online recipes to make your own bubble gum (for example at Steve Spangler).

Try some other formulas, too. Be sure to write down what ingredients and the methods you use. Maybe with some time and the right ingredients, you could be the next Walter Diemer and discover something thrilling and new.

Links to other activities:

How long does sweet flavor last? How much sugar is there in bubble gum? See an experiment at Teach Engineering.

Does chewing gum help you concentrate? Science News for Kids has some information about that.

Why is it sticky? Learn more about the sticky properties of gum at Science in School.

Do you chew bubble gum? Let me know if you try some experiments with it. I’d love to hear what you find out.

Pop! The Invention of Bubble Gum

A few other books and kits relating to bubble gum science:

1. pH of the Planet

If you are thinking big, why not participate in the International Year of Chemistry’s  Water–A Chemical Solution: A Global Experiment? The organizers are inviting students from around the world to check the pH of local water sources and then report them. Take a look at the website for details. If you want to check out the experiment, look at the .pdf file in the right sidebar labeled Worksheet- PH of Planet, which gives details about the methods.

2. Water Temperature and Density

Gather

• 3 plastic cups
• 4 zipper top plastic bags
• sharpie pen to label the bags
• large container to hold water, or sink or bathtub
• warm water – about bathtub temperature
• cold water
• ice cubes
• Digital water thermometer (optional)

A. Density and Floating – Do bags filled with warm water versus cold water float the same?

Fill your large container with room temperature water. Place a few ice cubes and some cold water in a zipper top plastic bag. Close the top and let the ice cubes mostly melt, so you have very cold water. Label the bag cold. Fill another zipper top plastic bag with warm water and label it warm. Now place the two bags in the large container. What happens? Do both bags float? Does one bag sink? Why or why not?

B. Playing with Temperature – Does pouring water change its temperature?

Label the plastic cups 1, 2 and 3. Pour some of warm water into the plastic cup labeled 1 (say about 1/2 cup or so) and the same amount into cup 2. Take the temperature of the water in both cups, if you have a digital thermometer. The temperature should be the same in both cups. If it is not, dump the cups and refill with warm water again. Once they are the same, place cup 2 aside to serve as the control.

Now quickly pour the water from cup 1 into cup 3. Pour it back and forth from on cup to the other for about two minutes. End up with all the water back in cup 1.  Now take the temperature of the water in cup 1 and cup 2 again. Are the two temperatures still the same? Why or why not?

C. Does air change density with temperature?

If you still have warm water and cold water in separate containers, try this activity with air. Fill the remaining two zipper lock plastic bags with roughly the same amount of air, but it shouldn’t be completely filled. You can blow in the air and then quickly seal it up. Now place one bag in warm water (at least bathtub temperature) and the other in cold water. What happens?

(If you got the right amount of air in, the bag in the warm water should expand noticeably).

If you do these experiments, let me know what you find out. And it have a digital water thermometer, think up some more activities with water. I’d love to hear what you come up with.

Digital thermometers for aquariums are relatively inexpensive.

1. Iodine as a Starch Indicator

What is an indicator? In chemistry it is a substance that “indicates” the presence or state of another substance, often by changing color. For example, pH indicators change color in the presence of substances with certain levels or ranges of pH.

The element iodine can be used to indicate the presence of starch, a complex molecule often found in plants or foods derived from plants. Let’s take a look at how that works (with the supervision of an adult).

Gather:

• tincture of iodine (available at pharmacies)
• disposable containers such as paper plates or bowls
• newspaper (or other disposable material) to cover work surface
• safety:  gloves, shoes, old clothes
• food to test:  apples, onions, potatoes, corn chips, bread, corn starch, etc.
• knife or other implement to cut food

Note about safety:  read all the product warnings on the label before using. Iodine is used as a disinfectant, but it can stain skin and clothes (it can also be toxic in higher concentrations.) Be sure to wear gloves and closed-toe shoes when working with it. Clean up spills and dispose of all food used in this demonstration immediately and completely so the tested items will not be accidentally consumed by humans or pets.

Cut up a small sample of each food to be tested and place in a disposable container on a work surface covered with newspaper or other disposable material. Predict whether each food item contains starch. You might want to write down your predictions. Now place a few droplets of iodine on each item. Iodine is normally a yellow-brown color. If the iodine turns a dark blue-black color, starch is present.

Your results may look something like this:

If you don’t try it yourself, this video shows what you might see: (wish he was wearing gloves)

2. Are plastic bags impermeable? An iodine test.

Now we are ready to find out how well plastic bags keep substances in or out. This experiment is a modified version of a demonstration used to show how materials diffuse in and out of cells through a membrane.

Gather:

• tincture of iodine (available at pharmacies) – see safety precautions above
• corn starch
• water
• Mixing container and implement for corn starch and water
• 4 beakers or large disposable containers for liquids that will hold at least 1 full cup of liquid
• 3 different types of sandwich and/or zipper- lock style bags (make one a freezer bag, if possible) and twist-ties

First, cover your work surface with newspaper. Mix about 1/3 cup of corn starch in about one pint of water in a container. Next fill each of the beakers with 1/2 cup water. Add drops of iodine to each of the 4 beakers of water until the color is a golden brown. Try to add the same amount to each one.

Now, add 1/2 cup of the cornstarch-water mixture to each of the three bags. Also add 1/2 cup to the 4th beaker to serve as a control. Seal the bags with the zipper-lock or with a twist -tie. Suspend each bag in a beaker, with the cornstarch mixture into the iodine water. Be careful not to overflow the beaker. Now wait and record what happens every five minutes.

Your experiment should look something like this, although you should avoid our mistake and start with bigger containers.

After 1/2 hour you should see some differences. Can you tell the regular sandwich bag from the heavy-duty freezer bag? What happened to the corn starch?

Be sure to wear gloves when you dispose of the containers and clean up your work surface.

Do you think things would be different if you put the iodine in the bag and the cornstarch-water in the beaker? See this video for the answer.

Let me know if you have questions or comments.

For more high school/college level videos and information see the NKU Demo Database- Chemistry.

Upcoming International Year of Chemistry Events are appearing on the website. For example:

Michigan
Super Science Saturday: Celebrating Chemistry – Past, Present, Future, a science extravaganza for the West Michigan community.  This event will be held on Saturday, January 29, 2011, at Grand Valley State University.

Southwest Georgia
The chemistry celebration will kick off at 9 am February 12, 2011 at Bailey Science Building of Valdosta State University with a morning of hands-on science activities for students of all ages and their parents.

The American Chemistry Society (ACS) is putting together a IYC 2011 -Calendar although the events link is not active as of today.

The term “smart materials” seems rather vague, but in chemistry and physics it has a distinct meaning. Smart materials are a relatively newly-discovered (mostly in the last 30 years) set of substances that are getting a lot of attention because of their astonishing abilities to react to the environment.

Smart materials may react to changes in:

• temperature
• light levels or ultraviolet levels
• pH
• pressure
• voltage, etc.

in amazing ways.

Examples:

1. Shape-memory alloys are mixes of metals with the ability to be bent and stretched out of shape and then return to a coil when heated.

This Steve Spangle video shows an example of a nickel-titanium alloy:

Does anyone know where you can buy some of this?

Steve Spangler has a memory metal experiment, but I couldn’t find it listed as a product.

2. Shape-memory polymers are plastics that also change shape when exposed to heated water.

Check out this sample from… well, you will know where it is from if you watch the video.

3. Thermochromic paint contains pigments that change color at different temperatures.

You can sometimes find plastic toys that are meant to be put into the bathtub. If the water is too hot, the toys will let you know because they change color. In the future your walls may change color throughout the day with changes in temperature.

4. Photochromic paint or pigments change color at different light levels.

In this video you will see some beads that indicate whether you are being exposed to UV light or not.

Activity suggestions and more information about Solar -UV Beads and how they work.

You can find Solar or UV-sensitive beads from a number of different retailers, including Amazon (Please see disclosure page for information about my affiliation with Amazon).

5. Electrochromic materials in LCD’s that are voltage sensitive and change the color of the screen.

Smart materials are already being used in eyeglass frames that return to shape after being smashed, and in certain dental appliances. Can you imagine such futuristic applications as repairing dents in your fender by applying heat? How about taking wrinkles out of clothes with the warmth of a hair dryer, as seen in this video?

Aren’t smart materials extremely cool? If you have any sources of smart materials and/or activity ideas to share, please let me know.

Note: Be prepared for a mess (we did these outside). We supplied goggles, which we had purchased at a home supply store.

1. Density

Gather:

• periodical table of the elements
• accurate kitchen scale
• two or more objects of the same size made of different metals, for example the zinc and copper plates from a lemon battery kit

Ask the children if they predict the two objects will weigh the same (because they are the same size). If not, can they use the periodical table to figure out which will weigh more? Use the kitchen scale to test their prediction.

The Intermediate Physical Science Kit from Exploration Education has the materials for this activity, including supplies to make your own working balance.

2. A Density Column

A density column is made of liquids of different densities layered one over another.

Gather

• clear container (I used a water pitcher) big enough to accommodate the ladle)
• corn syrup
• water
• food coloring
• cooking oil ( I used canola)
• isopropy alcohol (standard rubbing alcohol)
• soup ladle
• items to test, such as crayons, pennies, hard candies, toothpicks

Ask the children to predict which liquid is the most dense and which is the least. Pour about an inch of corn syrup in the bottom of the container. Add a few drops of food coloring to the water. Hold the ladle with the bottom resting at the top of the corn syrup layer and slowly pour in an inch or so of water. Gently empty the ladle move it up and pour in the cooking oil. Again empty the ladle, move it to the top of the cooking oil layer and gently add a layer of rubbing alcohol. You may also want to add food coloring to the alcohol layer.

Once you have a column, then test how other materials float in the layers. The pennies should be the densest and fall to the bottom. We dropped in Mentos candies, which are made of sugar and glucose syrup, and found they were roughly the same density as corn syrup. The crayons are made of wax, and floated in the oil layer. Our toothpicks were the lightest of all and floated on the alcohol.

We designed our density column based on a video at the Happy Scientist website.
We also found examples at Steve Spangler Science:
Bubbling Density Concoction
and
Seven Layer Density Column

Science is Fun in the Lab of Shakhashiri has a Layered Liquids demonstration as well.

3. Elephant’s toothpaste – recommended for outdoors where messy soapsuds won’t be a problem.

Gather:

• empty plastic water bottles – enough for each child
• hydrogen peroxide (the kind you get at the grocery store works fine)
• baking yeast
• water (food coloring optional)
• dish detergent (we used Dawn)
• funnel
• 1/2 cup measuring cup

Using a funnel, add 1/2 cup of peroxide and a ‘squirt’ of dish detergent to each water bottle. In another container, mix roughly two teaspoons of yeast with about 1/4 cup water for every two bottles hydrogen peroxide (doesn’t need to be perfect). If you have a lot of children, you may need two or three containers of yeast/water. Shake or stir the yeast/water, and then pour a couple of tablespoons into each bottle containing the hydrogen peroxide/dish detergent mix. The concoction should erupt in a foamy volcano. Note: this is an exothermic reaction, which means the reaction gives off heat. Allow the children to explore the foam and some may notice the warmth.

The yeast in this reaction supplies the enzyme catalase. Oxygen is rapidly released causing the foamy bubbles in the soap.

For a much more detailed recipe, see Steve Spangler Elephant’s Toothpaste

4. Acids and Bases

Is it an acid or a base?

Liquids tested:

• lemon juice
• dish detergent
• ammonia
• vinegar

The first day we used the standard red cabbage indicator (red cabbage leaves ground in a blender with a bit of water) but the smell was unpleasant.

The next day we used frozen mixed berries ground in the blender with a bit of water. The mixed berries smelled better, although they didn’t give quite as good a range of colors.

Previous post about color and acids and bases

Steve Spangler’s Red Cabbage Experiment

Science is Fun in the Lab of Shakhashiri has an Exploring Acids and Bases Demonstration

If you children are tired of the standard red cabbage indicator, try mixing a little tumeric (spice used in curries) and rubbing alcohol in a small container and then dip in strips of paper towel. Watch out, tumeric will stain like crazy! Allow the paper towel strips to dry on a newspaper.

The tumeric solution makes a lovely yellow color. Once the strips are dry, test your acids and bases again.

We found the acids did not change the color of the strips, but bases made them turn a startling red.

We also used the tumeric/alcohol to write messages on orangy-yellow paper and after they were dry, revealed the “secret message” by lightly spraying with a household cleaning product that contained ammonia.

5. Using chemicals to make light

See Glowing Chemistry for more information

Extensions:

For the person interested in kitchen chemistry, try

Kitchen Science Activities

and Food Science 101 (the chemistry behind a simple cake)

For those interested in learning the names of the elements and their symbols:

Chemical Elements: Origins of Names Trivia Quiz

Free Rice has a chemical symbols challenge

Chemistry is great fun. Hope this inspires you to do some hands-on chemistry, too.

The Switzer brothers, Bob and Joe, were interested in science, probably due to the fact their father was a pharmacist. When Bob had a bad accident that kept him confined to home, his brother Joe kept him company by playing around with an ultraviolet lamp (also called a black light). Joe had a magic show and he was interested in fluorescent paints to develop a new magic trick. After finding commercial uses for fluorescent paints that would shine under ultraviolet, the brothers continued to experiment until they found a paint that would glow in regular daylight, not just under ultraviolet light. They had created the eye-popping Day-Glo colors found today in products as diverse as highlighters and traffic cones.

1. Glowing under ultraviolet light

Gather:

• a black light
• petroleum jelly
• paper
• tonic water
• kitchen or latex gloves (optional)

Here in Arizona, black lights are easy to obtain from virtually any hardware or home supply store, and for a good reason. It turns out that one of the best ways to find scorpions, which are active at night, is to shine an ultraviolet light on them. Scorpions glow under UV light. For those of you who are curious, Firefly Forest has a great photograph of a glowing scorpion.

How Stuff Works (site has ads) has an explanation of how a black light works. Basically, we can’t see ultraviolet light, but when it hits certain objects, forms of light that we can see are released.

Turn off the lights at night, and explore with the black light. What glows? Turn the lights back on and write a simple message in petroleum jelly on a sheet of paper (using the gloves if you don’t like the feel of the jelly). What happens when you turn the lights back off? What happens if you get petroleum jelly on your hands? Take a look at the tonic water and other household items under the black light, too.

For more black light science experiments, check Home Chemistry.

2. Light sticks

The light sticks that glow in the dark don’t need to be exposed to light or ultraviolet light to work. They are the result of a chemical reaction. How Stuff Works also has a section about how light sticks work.

Steve Spangler has a video about light sticks, and suggests an activity comparing the speed of the chemical reaction in warm water versus cold water, as measured by the amount of glow.

3. Day-Glo

Charlesbridge, the publisher of The Day-Glo Brothers, has an excellent animation of how Day-Glo pigments work. Go see it!

Entomologists who want to study insect movement sometimes use Day-Glo powders. They mark a group of insects with the bright powder, release them and then recapture the insects after a given period of time, to see where they ended up. This type of experiment is called a mark-recapture experiment. Insects may be recovered with simple equipment, like a butterfly net, or elaborate collecting equipment, such as a huge insect vacuum.

4. Glowing plastic stars

Younger children love the glowing plastic stars. Use them to create constellations, patterns, etc. My son used to like to throw light-charged plastic stars into the bathtub water and turn off the lights (briefly and with supervision). It was fun to see the stars swirl through the water.

Have fun. Who knows where an interest in light and chemistry will lead next?

Disclosure:  As a round II Cybils judge, I received a copy of this book for review purposes.

When I found the Home Chemistry blog, I was excited because there was a post about the “Chemistry of Colored Bubbles.” I have been wondering if you could make a colored bubble for ages. Now I know you can!

I think I mentioned this in a previous post, but Off the Shelf Chemistry has hands-on activities for teaching high school level chemistry with things more or less from around the house.

The home of National Chemistry Week 2009! is the American Chemistry Society. Their 2009 theme is “Chemistry—It’s Elemental!” They have a lot of resources, so plan to spend some time looking around.

About.com has a whole list of projects as well as good basic chemistry information.

Finally, Robert Krampf at the Happy Scientist has a number of chemistry experiments. Some of his experiments are free, but most require a subscription. He does have a free newsletter that has general science topics called Experiment of the Week.

And of course we have some chemistry experiments here, like Colors with Acids and Bases.

Hope you enjoy chemistry week!

If you have any great chemistry sites that I have missed, please leave them in the comments.

The first experiment requires some fresh red, blue or purple flowers (purple petunias work really well); a jar big enough to hold a few flowers with a lid; some twist ties, string or yarn to suspend the flowers; household ammonia; and for the optional last part, vinegar (any kind). The ammonia is pretty strong, so this will require help from an adult.

Have an adult pour about 1/2-inch ammonia into the bottom of the jar. Wrap a twist tie or yarn around the stems of the flowers, enough that will fit comfortably into the jar. Suspend the flowers upside-down into the jar so that they are close to, but not touching the ammonia, by wrapping the yarn or twist tie over the lip of the jar. Put the lid on the jar as much as you can. Wait about 15 minutes and you should see the flowers start to change color.

This part of the experiment is based on one by Robert Krampf in his excellent Experiment of the Week series, although I couldn’t find it in his archives. Edit: Robert Krampf has revamped his site, and so this link is no longer valid. Check out the fun stuff he has to offer at the Happy Scientist.

Now comes my addition: once the flowers have changed color nicely in the ammonia (which is a base) then try to change the color back by dipping the flowers in a bowl of vinegar (an acid). Using purple petunias, I was able to turn them a bright teal blue in the ammonia, and then back to purple in the vinegar. You can actually dip them into the vinegar, because it won’t bleach. It you dip the flowers into the ammonia, however, it may bleach or discolor them. That is why they need to be suspended in the fumes instead.

The second experiment is the classic use of red cabbage as a pH indicator. If you haven’t done this, it really is fun. All you need is red cabbage from the grocery store, a blender (ask for an adult’s help), glasses or plastic cups and items to mix with the red cabbage solution, such as lemon juice, soda, vinegar, baking soda, dish detergent and laundry detergent.

Some recipes call for boiling the cabbage (smelly!), but I just ground up the fresh red cabbage in small batches with just enough water to allow the blender to work properly. Pour the batches together in a pitcher (which can be placed in the refrigerator for use later in the day if necessary.) Pour about 1/3 cup of the red cabbage juice into testing containers such as clear glasses or plastic cups. Then mix in about a Tablespoon of one of the testing compounds. Does the color change? Try another material in the next glass. Does the color change more if you add more test material? What happens if you mix two materials, like vinegar and laundry detergent? Have fun admiring the wild colors you can make.

What is happening? The pigment molecules in the red cabbage change shape, and thus color, when in the presence of acids versus bases. Lemon juice, vinegar and soda are acids; detergents and soaps are bases.

For the grand finale, create more wild colors with markers. Fold up a diaper wipe that contains alcohol and tie in bunches with rubber bands. Color with Sharpie-type markers. Allow it to set a few minutes and then unfold to reveal a rainbow of colors in a cool tie-dye pattern. Experiment with more wipes to see what you can create. Note: allow to dry suspended on a line so the dye doesn’t move onto other surfaces.

If you don’t have diaper wipes, then try white fabric. Tie with rubber bands, if desired and then color with markers. Drop or dribble on some rubbing alcohol and the colors should separate and move through the fabric. Once again, keep on a line or suspended until dry. Once you have the technique refined, you might want to create your own tie-dye T-shirts or socks.

Spring colors rock!