How To Make A Naked Egg

Yeah, you read that right, a naked egg. What the heck? What's a naked egg, you ask. Well read on because if you have kids and if they like science at all (or doing cool things) they will love this one! 

First I'll tell you how to do it and then I'll explain how it works. 

How to make a Naked Egg

Source: Imagination Station

You'll need:

* an egg (not hard boiled, just a regular egg)

* vinegar 

* a jar

Fill a glass jar with vinegar. 

Gently add the egg.  Make sure there's enough vinegar to completely cover the egg.

Here's the hard part.  Now you have to wait and see what happens.

After about 12 hours you will notice a white foam on the top of the jar.  That's the egg shell.

After about 2 days gently take the egg out of the vinegar.  Rinse it off and what do you have?  An egg with no shell!  You read that right.  AN EGG WITH NO SHELL.  How cool is that?!?!

How does this work?  

The shell of an egg (typically a chicken egg) is made up of primarily calcium carbonate. If you soak this egg shell in vinegar (which is about 4% acetic acid), you start a chemical reaction that dissolves the calcium carbonate shell. The acetic acid reacts with the calcium carbonate in the egg shell and releases carbon dioxide gas that you see as bubbles on the shell. The egg insides remain intact and are held together by the two fragile membranes just inside the shell.

Weird, right?  So it's a naked egg.

You can bounce the egg if you drop it about an inch or so above a counter top.  

It's squishy!

And if you hold it up to the light you can see the yolk in there moving around.

And look how much it grew!

If you want to see your egg get really big, simply put it in a cup filled with water. The makeup of the inside of the egg is around 90% water. If you put the egg in a cup of (100%) water, the water will begin to move inside the egg through the membrane to equalize the amount of water inside and outside of the egg membrane. This process of water moving through a membrane is called osmosis. Osmosis equalizes – or makes the concentration of water on both sides of the egg membrane the same. This means the egg will swell as the water moves inside and get larger.

It's freakish, right?

Try it and see what your kids think.  They'll love it and learn a little science at the same time.

 

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Elephant Toothpaste {Science Experiment}

We absolutely love any kind of craft that involves coagulating, exploding, bubbling and goo. We do. I'm just as bad as my kids, I think. I get all excited and do the "whoo hoo, what's it going to do now" stuff. My poor neighbors. They have to listen to that all summer.

This was a great one to do. And the oohhhs and aahhhs were so fun!

My son was at his friend's house so my daughter wanted to do something "special" since we had mommy daughter time.  We looked through my giant "things I want to make" list and this is what she picked out - Elephant Toothpaste.  This idea came from Preschool Powel Packets. 

You will need:
* soda bottle (empty)
* tray or cookie sheet
* 2 Tbsp. warm water
* 1 tsp. yeast
* 1/2 cup hydrogen peroxide (it should be a 6% solution and not the 3% solution from the grocery store.  I'll show you why in a minute.  But it can work with the3% if you can't find the other.)
* 4-5 drops of food coloring
* liquid dish soap

Add the hydrogen peroxide to the empty bottle.  Squirt in a little of the dish soap and swirl around to mix.  Add 4-5 drops of food coloring.

In a small dish, mix the warm water and yeast.  Stir until well dissolved.

Pour the yeast mixture into the bottle and watch it grow!

My daughter LOVED this!!!

Here's what it was like with store bought hydrogen peroxide (3%).  (Still super cool.)

We thought it was so cool we ran to the beauty supply store when my son came home and bought 6% to see if there truly was a difference.

Here's the science part of it:
Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) naturally breaks down into water and oxygen.  It is stored in opaque containers to help slow down this process.  Catalase (an enzyme in all living things, including yeast) speeds up the reaction.  Dish soap catches the oxygen and makes bigger bubbles and the food coloring makes it look cool.  The foam and bottle feel warm because the reaction is exothermic--it releases energy as heat.

 

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Homemade Silly Putty (or Flarp)

Silly Putty.  If you're anywhere in your 30's or 40's you remember silly putty.   I remember being in 3rd grade and my best friend's dad used to work at night and sleep during the day.  We used to sneak inside the house during the day and she would say "we don't have to be too quiet, he has silly putty in his ears."  I know, totally weird memory.  I would wonder why he would put silly putty in his ears and wondered if it flattened out and got in his brain when he slept.  

I saw this over on Pinterest and knew we had to make it.  We've made homemade bouncy balls which were pretty cool.  I wasn't sure how different these would be until I looked at the ingredients.  Different so I figured this "science experiment" would be different.  

We gathered our supplies and headed to my work.  It's a great place to do crafts and then the kids play until they are red in the face and exhausted.  (I work in a school so it's empty on the weekend.) 

Homemade Silly Putty

Source: Filth Wizardry

Equal parts Elmers Glue-All (multi purpose glue) and Sta-Flo liquid starch  

Food coloring

It's important that you don't substitute another brand or type of glue for this one.  We tried with Elmers School Glue and it was a sticky gross mess.

Measure out your glue.  Add the food coloring to the glue and stir.

Add the same amount of starch to the glue mixture and stir.  It instantly starts to turn into a gooey mixture.  So cool and gross.  At this point you want to let it sit for about 5 minutes so the glue can absorb the starch. 

Pour the excess liquid out and plop the goo on a paper towel for a minute or so.

Now this is the totally gross part.  Kneed the goo for about 5 minutes.  It'll be gooey and sticky and slimy at first.  Push through it and keep kneading it.

Voila - homemade silly putty!

It even copies the newspaper.  Remember doing that???

But even cooler... it's also Flarp.  Have you heard of Flarp?  If you're a kid you have.  It's Flubber that farts.  (I know - totally childish.)  But my kids thought this was sooooooo cool! 

Get a small cup and push the goo down to the bottom of the cup.  It farts.  And my kids laughed for about 45 minutes while doing this.  Perhaps it's gross and a tad inappropriate.  But 45 minutes of hard laughter?  Totally worth it! 

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Homemade Lava Bottles

These have been on my to do list ever since I saw them over on Meet the Dubiens!  The question that kept coming to my mind was "how the heck is this going to work?"  And when that question goes through my mind... I have to figure it out.  So 14 months later... here we are.

I can't even begin to tell you how cool these are!  And how much my kids loved them.  Who am I kidding... I was pretty fascinated by them as well!  And so easy!
You will need:
*clear plastic bottles
* vegetable oil (or any kind of oil)
* water
* food coloring
* Alka Seltzer

Remove the label from the bottle and fill about 3/4 of the way with oil.  Fill the rest of the way with water.

Add about 10 drops of food coloring.  The food coloring will stay in tony beads while it travells to the water.  It will take a couple of minutes and then penetrate the water and turn it.  It's pretty cool to watch.

Cut up a tablet of Alka Seltzer into about 8 pieces. 

Add one piece of Alka Seltzer at a time and watch what it does.

I wish my pictures were better because this was so darn cool!!!  You can add as many pieces of Alka Seltzer in as you would like and watch the bubbles.  But be careful adding too much at once, it just makes a bubbling whirlpool =o)

I'm so glad we finally made these!!! 

I hope you make these too and enjoy them as much as we did!



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Soap Explosion

Happy 2012!  I can't believe the year is over and here we are.  It's pretty cliche to say "it goes by so fast".  But seriously... it does!  We brought in the new year in style.  We all have strep throat so we partied with our anti-biotics and watched a movie.  =o)  We did run out to get sushi, though.  I just love that my kids will eat sushi with me.  Can't get them to eat a casserole - but sushi they will do.  Go figure!

You're totally not going to believe this. I didn't when I first read about it over on Toys in the Dryer. I ran out immediately to buy some Ivory soap because it sounded so cool.

WOW!!!!  So much fun!

We went to the store and bought some Ivory soap bars.  They were $1.74 for 4 bars.  Not too bad.

Then we cut one bar into 4 pieces and placed one of the pieces on a paper towel and placed it in the microwave.  We set the timer for 3 minutes but it really only took less than a minute for this awesome "thing" to happen.

I asked the kids what they thought was going to happen.  All three (we had a neighbor friend over) all agreed that the soap would turn to liquid...

The anticipation was almost too much!

Nope, no liquid!  It started to expand and became HUGE!  I can't even begin to describe how cool this is! 

It shrinks a little when you turn off the microwave.  And it's not too hot so kids can touch it.  It'll harden a little as it cools so they can break off pieces and use them in the bath or to wash their hands. 

NOTE: Lindsi over at Toys in the Dryer warns to NOT put a whole bar of soap in your microwave at once.  it gets way too big and will fill your microwave.  Which would be a bad thing, right?  My kids and I were seriously debating about doing it anyways.  But we went with the warning =o)

Enjoy!!!

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Mad Scientist Party - Part 2

If you haven't checked out part one of my son's Mad Scientist Party click here. It was all about the decor and preparation for this most excellent party.

This is part two, the experiments. This was so much fun! I bought most of the experiments on this sight here. It is the coolest site ever if you are into science and doing fun experiments!

We started and ended the party with the Mentos Geyser. The kids thought it was about the coolest thing ever. Make sure you do it outside because it's messy!


Then we went inside and the kids all made Atomic Slime. (Atomic simply means that it's glow in the dark.) I figured since the jello in the petri dishes was glow in the dark we better do something else that glows. There are tons of recipes out there to make your own slime. But I liked that this kit came with jars and lids and is called shaker slime. After the 2 ingredients are added the kids shake. The contents turn to slime. There isn't a bunch of liquid left over to dump out.

The glowing jars behind the black lights are baby food jars. I told the kids they were filled with toxic waste and then we talked about what that was. They were really filled with water and highlighter ink. I broke open a highlighter pen and squeezed out the ink. Highlighter ink glows. That simple!


Another HUGE hit was the instant snow. I had everything pre-measured so the kids were all given a cup of water to add to their tupperware. We counted and poured.


Voila! Instant snow!


We made spaghetti noodles dance. This one was kind of cool and very easy to do. The noodles would float and then sink over and over again. I told them it was magic. Okay, then I explained how it worked.


And all the kids learned about a tornado. This one was cooler than I thought it would be. The kids liked making a tornado and watching what they do. (I even talked to them about how they are formed!) We all learned lots of things today!


And our last experiment was making magic worms. This one was super cool. (Okay, they were all super cool!) I got specimen jars from the Drs. office and the kids put their worms in the little jars. (They were free! and they added to the awesomeness!)



So that was my son's 7th birthday party. Lots of smiles and laughter and hopefully lots of great memories!