Kids, how much do you know about lemons? Here is a very quick and easy test of the power of lemon juice. Have an adult partner make a mug of hot tea for you from a teabag. Use a white or clear mug so that you can easily see the color of the tea. Now take a fresh lemon wedge and squirt in a few drops...

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Kids, there is a cool (okay, not really) product available on the market for a reusable heat pack/handwarmer that is loaded with chemistry-in-action ability. It's called a "Zap Pac Heat Pack" (contact info below). While a monetary investment is required, it dramatically and safely showcases the phen...

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Kids, here you'll be dabbling in the science of drinkable bubbles by making your very own root beer soda pop. Most sodas use pressurized carbon dioxide for the bubbles, but that would be very difficult to mimic at home. So instead we'll be using yeast to carbonate the brew. Last year we discussed th...

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Kids, this column is for you really young ones, ages 5-7 or so. It is about something called surface tension. We will concentrate on water here, because water molecules really like to stick together. An electrostatic-like force attracts them. When they are near each other, they will try very hard to...

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Kids, let's try to take advantage of the cold weather here in the Midwest. You know that a backyard pond or lake in winter can be a magical place. It is also filled with many scientific wonders. These bodies of water freeze from the top down, and they do so for two reasons. The top is closer to the ...

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Kids, did you ever think of the Christmas tree as a chemical kind of plant? The wood of most any tree can be separated into two major components. They can be thought of as the "hard" and "soft" parts, which are the fiber (hard) parts and the oils and other soluble parts (soft). The hard or structura...

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Kids, a fun event called National Chemistry Week will take place this year Nov. 4-10, 2001. Check other articles in the Bulletin and the Chicago Section web page for details in the Chicago area. The theme this year is "Celebrating Chemistry & Art". One of the related activities suggested on the ...

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Kids, did you ever think about building your own collection of chemical elements? This can be a fun science project and a great "Show & Tell" classroom session. Look back at our previous article on the periodic table (June 1998) and also at http://pearl1.lanl.gov/periodic/ for great sites that d...

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Kids, did you ever wonder why eggs get hard when you boil them? It’s because they have lots of protein, especially in the egg whites. Here’s how it works. Protein is a polymer chain of amino acids that is flexible enough to fold up on itself in different ways based on their chemistry. It...

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Kids, have you ever wondered how those trick birthday candles work ­ the ones that keep re-lighting themselves after they are blown out? All you need for this month¹s experiment is a regular birthday candle, a "trick" birthday candle, matches, and an adult partner to light the candles for y...

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