Chicago Section American Chemical Society

May 2018: Materials: • Plastic drinking bottle (1 or 2 L) with lid• Water• Ketchup or soy sauce packet or pen cap with modelling (or Sculpey) clay Experiment: Fill with water nearly to the top of the bottle. Add the ketchup packet (or if using the pen cap, add about a pea-size p...

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February 2018: Materials: Two different sized ziplock bags; Water; Calcium Chloride ice-melt pellets Experiment: In the large bag, put the ice-melt pellets in so that it is about one-fourth full. Fill the small bag about half full with water and make sure that it is sealed well. Place the wat...

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January 2018: Materials: Glass, Water, Pepper, Dish Soap Experiment: In a glass of water, lightly sprinkle a little pepper onto it. What do you see happen? Maybe some of the flakes sank and some of them floated? Now, touch your fingertip to the dishwashing soap and then using that finger, touc...

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November 2017: In the February 2017 edition of ChemShorts For Kids you investigated some unique properties of water like cohesion. I want to take a look at that again using a different experiment. Materials: Wax paper, Water, Food coloring, Toothpicks, Dropper, Dish soap Experiment: Have differ...

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June 2017: Have you ever laid out in the summertime looking up in the sky at the clouds and imagined what animal shape the cloud has made? What is a cloud and can I make one? Materials: 2 L empty transparent plastic bottle with a lid matches warm water Warning! When using matches make su...

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May 2017: What is a bath bomb and why does it fizz when it goes into water? A bath bomb is a solid, powdery substance which can take many shapes. Here is one pictured below. As it's submerged in water, it bubbles. This is the result of the release of CO2 also known as carbon dioxide. This is the...

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April 2017: Materials: Paper or Styrofoam cups Ink pen Pencil Water bottle with cap Push pin Experiment: A) Begin by pushing the pen into the cup about 1 inch from the bottom and follow with two more holes, each 1 inch above the previous one. Above the sink or a tub, plug the holes w...

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March 2017: As a kid doing dishes (does anyone do those anymore?), I was always fascinated when I had a glass filled with water and if you put a small plate on top of it and tipped it over, the water would stay in the glass. Back then it never made sense to me how this happened. Materials: - Pa...

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February 2016: Here’s the challenge: Fill a glass with water as full as you can without it spilling over. How many paperclips do you think you can add before the water spills over the rim of the glass? Materials: - Box of paper clips or a lot of pennies- Drinking glass- Dishwashing soap ...

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January 2017: Have you ever seen a can crushed? How about one that has been ripped apart? Crushing an aluminum can may not take that much strength but ripping one apart would be very difficult to do. That is unless you’ve had a little chemical help. Materials: Copper Sulfate (can be fou...

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