FREE SCIENCE EBOOK
7 Simple Science Experiments
- Gummy worms
- Baking soda
- Water
- Vinegar
- 2 beakers
- Scissors
- Using scissors, cut the gummy worms in half or into quarters lengthwise. You want long, thin strips of worms.
- Drop the worm strips in one glass. Add a couple of spoonfuls of baking soda and enough water to dissolve some of the baking soda. If all of the baking soda dissolves, add more until some undissolved powder remains.
- Let the worms soak in the baking soda solution for 15 minutes to half an hour.
Pour vinegar into the other glass. Drop a baking-soda-soaked worm into the vinegar.
At first, nothing appears to happen. Then, bubbles start to form on the surface of the worm. The worm starts to move. After some time, the reaction stops and the worm stills. The gummy worms wiggle because a chemical reaction between baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and vinegar (weak acetic acid) produces carbon dioxide gas. The tiny gas bubbles released by the reaction stick to the body of the gummy worms, eventually merging into bubbles big enough to float part of the worm. If the gas bubble detaches, it floats to the surface while that part of the gummy worm sinks back down.
Salt is an naturally-occurring mineral and a chemical compound with amazing properties. These properties enable salt to be used in everything from preserving food to making it taste better. Epsom salt is primarily used for health reasons. People use it to make soft water for relaxing, treat constipation, and sore muscles. You can use it to make Epsom salt crystals!
Usually it takes several days to grow crystals. However, this super-easy recipe gives you a cup full of needle-like Epsom salt crystals in just a few hours!
- Epsom salt
- Food coloring
- Beaker, cup, or small bowl
1. In the beaker, stir 1/2 cup of Epsom salts with 1/2 cup of very hot tap water for at least one minute. This creates a saturated solution, meaning no more salt can dissolve in the water. (Some undissolved crystals will be at the bottom of the glass.)
2. Add a couple drops of food coloring if you want your crystals to be colored.3. Put the beaker in the refrigerator.4. Check on it in a few hours to see a beaker full of epsom salt crystals! Pour off the remaining solution to examine them.is a chemical found in the nucleus of cells that contains the blueprint for the development and function of living organisms. It’s compared to a set of blueprints since it contains the instructions on how to build cells. The instructions are divided into segments along a strand of DNA and are called genes.
Genes provide the code for the production of a protein and control hereditary characteristics such as eye color or personality behaviors. Proteins determine cell type and function, so a cell knows whether it is a skin cell, a blood cell, a bone cell, etc., and how to perform its duties.- Beaker
- Test tube with tight fitting lid
- Lab scoop
- Isopropyl or ethyl alcohol (at least 70% concentration, higher is better—we used 95%), chilled in freezer for several hours
- Pipette (if alcohol doesn’t come in a dropper bottle)
- Paper cup
- Safety goggles
- Lab apron
- Gloves
- Sodium chloride (salt)
- Distilled or bottled water
- Liquid dish soap or hand soap
- Stir rod or wooden skewer (optional)
- Small glass vial (optional)