Science for Kids: pH fun

I had the pleasure to go to Laurel Park Elementary school in Apex, NC  to have fun with acids and bases and talk about pH.  There are some fun activities you can do with acids and bases and most of these you can do at home too.

Liquid pH indicators - red cabbage juice

There is this great pH indicator that you can make yourself in the kitchen.   You can boil red cabbage or blend it to collect the juice.   I cheated a little and just bought some cabbage extract in powder form from Amazon.  Just add some powder to water and you have red cabbage juice the easy way.

 For this particular brand you add 1 scoop of powder per 100 mL of water.

Depending on the pH of a liquid you add to the cabbage juice, it will turn different colors.

So we took a few different liquids and added them in order to see a color and then use the color to get an estimated pH..

Liquid pH indicator - bromothymol blue

There is another indicator that is really neat.  It is called bromothymol blue.  When you add just a little bit to water it will be blue since the pH is around around 7 or above.  If you take a straw and blow into the solution it will slowly turn yellow.  The reason is that carbon dioxide from your breath reacts with the water and forms carbonic acid.  Pretty neat stuff!

A dab goes a long way!!

Just blow air into the liquid through a straw

pH indicator strips

Lastly we used pH indicator strips to measure pH.  I just bought these from amazon as well.

We paired the kids up and each pair had 5 tubes.  In these tubes were lemon juice, cherry pepsi, water, baking soda, and windex.    They used a strip for each tube to record the color, match the color to a pH and see if they could figure out what the liquid might be.

These activities are a great way to engage kids while you go over acids, bases, and pH.   It's just another way to make science make sense in a fun way.   Seeing kids getting excited while filling out a science worksheet makes for a good day.   I look forward to seeing what the future holds for these future scientists!

STEM champions - The Daniel Center for Math and Science

I have come to a realization that many kids love science, but sadly some just don't get lots of opportunity to see science in action.   So it is awesome when you stumble into Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) outreach for those kids that might not have normally had such an opportunity.

The opportunity I recently had was through my work at Bayer CropScience.   Bayer has teamed up with a learning center in Raleigh called The Daniel Center for Math and Science.  The collaboration brings Bayer's "Making Science Make Sense" curriculum to the center for some fun science experiments once a month.     I have lived in the Raleigh area for years and had no idea about The Daniel Center.   However I was thoroughly impressed with the passion from those who run and volunteer at the center showed for the kids that were there.

The Daniel Center is a non profit organization seeking to help kids become more proficient in STEM subjects.   Their website says it best:

"There is a known gap in math and science education between American children, and children from many other industrialized nations. When at risk, and socio-economically disadvantaged children are examined as an isolated group, the gap is overwhelming. Our mission is to help children become more proficient in math, science and technology; and to prepare and motivate them to pursue a post-high school education. The Daniel Center for Math and Science is an after school and summer/track out program that seeks to narrow the education gap for at risk, and economically disadvantaged children. Our program consists of two components. The first is ages 5-12. This component exists within the framework of a licensed school age childcare facility. Our second component is our teen “Smart Is What’s Up!” program. When students age out of childcare, they transition into our teen programming, which focuses on academic tutoring, college-readiness, career exploration, and life skills. The Daniel Center introduces children to the immense opportunities in STEM-based careers through a curriculum that is activity driven, inquiry based, lively and fun."

http://www.danielcenter.org/

As I showed up I was greeted so warmly.   I immediately had help from two NC state students.  It seems the honor program at NC State volunteers all the time to help with snacks, cleaning tables, doing experiments, doing homework or anything else that is needed.   As I left the center that day three kids were cuddled up to one NC State student going over math problems.   There is nothing so heart warming as watching an impressionable child enjoying their time learning about science and math.   Kudos to these college kids for not only working towards their degree but already making a huge difference in our society.

As for our stay, we had 3 other awesome Bayer volunteers engage the kids about DNA.   A big thanks to Durba, Ashley, and Casey!    I was impressed when the kids gave a very nice description of DNA.    This just shows the quality of the program at The Daniel Center.    We talked about DNA and then had our hands-on where we made DNA with twizzlers and gummy bears.   Then we extracted DNA from bananas.   If you are curious about these experiments and want to try them at home you can find detailed instructions in an earlier blog post.  On a personal note, I love running these experiments if any local teachers want help.  I know I am already looking forward Laurel Parks STEM night coming up soon.

For me it is important to show that science is fun while still teaching a lesson.    In a world where many people don't even think food (like bananas) have DNA we need to proactively reach our kids with more STEM activities.    These learning are crucial for our future leaders.  Places like The Daniel Center are reinforcing fndamenatal principles for kids that will be our next leaders.  What our future leaders learn now will influence future decisions that affect our world.   Our leaders need lots of skills, but a science and math background is one that should not be overlooked.

I am sure there are plenty of places like The Daniel Center around the country and even the world.   Most of these places need support which can be given in a number of ways including volunteering your time or even financial help.    Any help you give to an organization like this really will make a difference for these kiddos.  This extra investment from places like The Daniel Center is above and beyond what they get in schools and that time spent with these kids is also an investment in our world's future.  

Here was some of our fun!