Here’s a great project for pre-K kids. They can cut the fish out of paper or foam, pour the water and put a drop of soap behind the fish to make it “zoom.”

My original post and written directions for zooming fish can be found by clicking here.

Plants are wonderful chemical reorganizers.  Using the sun’s energy and a process called photosynthesis, they can turn water and carbon dioxide into sugar (glucose) and oxygen.

Thanks to plants and other autotrophs like algae, Earth has an oxygen-containing atmosphere that can sustain animal and human life.

To watch plants make oxygen, all you need is a water plant like Elodea (available at pet stores), a large container, water and a few small clear glasses or test tubes.

Fill the large container with water and turn your small, clear containers on their sides underwater to remove all the air bubbles.

Cut a branch off of your plant, place it under water in the large container, shake off any air and put it under your small, clear container- stem side up. Invert the small container, allowing no air to enter it. Repeat the experiment with your other small clear container, but don’t add a plant. This is your control. If you’re using test tubes, you can put them in small cups or beakers so they don’t tip over. (See photo above.)

Place your experiment in bright sunlight or near a strong lamp and observe what happens. You should see oxygen bubbles form on the plant as it performs photosynthesis.  In a test tube, you will eventually see some water displaced by oxygen.

What happens if you duplicate the experiment in a room with no light?

Tap water contains some carbon dioxide. How do you think the experiment would work with lake or pond water?

You can’t judge an egg by its shell, but you can use science to figure out whether or not it’s fresh.

Imagine an egg. It can be white or brown, since they’re identical except for shell color. There are two membranes inside an eggshell, separating it from the inside of the egg and helping to keep it safe from microbial invaders.

Under the membranes is the egg white, made up of proteins and water, and the yolk, which also contains fat and is enclosed in a sac. Tiny rope-like structures anchor the yolk between either end of the egg. The egg white contains a substance called lysosyme, which is a potent antibacterial. Eleven percent of an egg’s weight is made up by shell, 58% by white and 31% by yolk.

When a hen first lays an egg, the raw egg white contains carbon dioxide, making it look cloudy, and the proteins in the egg white are freshly folded into their correct protein shapes, so it will hold a nice shape in a pan. However, egg shells contain thousands of tiny pores, some big enough to see with the naked eye, and as an egg sits, it changes.

The contents begin to slowly shrink, and a small air pocket forms between the two membranes, usually at the large end. The egg’s pH, about 7.6 when first laid, rises as the egg ages and loses carbon dioxide. In just a few days, the pH may reach 9.7, causing the egg white to look clear and spread out more in a pan when the egg is broken.

The nicer shape and centered yolk of fresh eggs is why they’re recommended for frying. But why are older eggs better for boiling, and why does the yolk turn green sometimes?

Fresh eggs are harder to peel. When you boil an egg, it cooks from the outside to the inside, and its proteins become unfolded, or denatured. The denatured proteins are more likely to stick to the membranes on the eggshell of a fresh egg because the pH is lower. According to “FOODS, A Scientific Approach” by Charley and Weaver, eggs are easier to peel if their pH is greater than 8.7. In other words, old eggs that have lost carbon dioxide have a higher pH (are less acidic) and are easier to peel.

Sometimes, when you boil eggs, you see a greenish/gray/blue layer on the outside of the yolk. It’s the harmless product of a chemical reaction between the iron in the egg yolk and sulfer-containing proteins in the white. You can try to avoid it by using fresh eggs, using hot (not boiling water) to cook the eggs, by plunging eggs into ice water immediately after cooking, and by promptly removing the shells.

If you’ve heard of candling eggs, it involves shining a strong light through a raw egg to look at yolk position, air sac size and white clarity. You can also tell that an egg is older if it floats in water, due to the enlarged air sac.

Ideally, to cook perfect hard boiled (large) eggs, you put them in cold water, bring the water to a boil, remove the heat and let the pan stand with the lid on for 17 minutes before removing the eggs and plunging them into cold water. Alternately, boil large eggs for eleven minutes and put them in ice water to stop the cooking. For perfect eggs, prick the large end of your eggs with a pin to release the air in the air sac.

Whether you’re home or away, science can make any vacation more fun.  You can collect data for real citizen science research projects by searching SciStarter.com or do your own experiments.  KidScience app, based on the science projects on this website, puts fun science experiments at your fingertips on your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, no matter where you are.

I showed Kare11 viewers three of our favorite KidScience experiments: Red Cabbage Litmus Paper, Fizzy Balloons and Marshmallow Slingshots (using stuffed animals like Angry Birds to learn a little about the conservation of energy. Click here to watch the TV segment.

How will you mix a little science into your spring break?

“Are you a good cook?” was the first thing Dr. Tsneo Suzuki asked when I sat down in the office next to his cancer research lab at the University of Kansas. I stared at the picture of his wife, who I later learned had passed away from breast cancer, and wondered whether I should be offended.

After all, I was in my twenties and had five years of molecular biology experience under my belt. But I understood why he asked the question. Once you figure out how to test a hypothesis, most science experiments involve following recipes, which scientists call protocols. Generally, if you can read directions and mix things together in the correct order, in the right proportions, you can do things like amplify DNA and clone genes into bacteria.

So I truthfully answered “Yes, I’m a pretty good cook,” and got the job.

Food preparation is like a science experiment. If you can follow a recipe, you should get something close to what you set out to make, because often the ingredients will interact with each other to make something new. This is the very definition of a chemical reaction. Everything you cook with, from water to baking soda, is just a collection of molecules.

Here’s a collection of some food science experiments on my website. Since I love to cook, I hope to add more in the future! Leave a comment if you have other favorite kitchen science experiments, and I’ll try to add them to the list.

Testing Foods for Starch- Add a drop of iodine and watch for color change to detect starch.

Crock Pot Microbiology: Making yogurt from scratch is a delicious experiment

Yeast Experiment: Pyramids, Pasteur and Plastic Baggies- Grow yeast in a plastic bag to see how they make bread rise.

Emulsions: Mayonnaise and Vinaigrette- Mix the un-mixable using surfactants.

Curds and Whey: Make glue and plastic from milk and vinegar.

Gluten Ball- Explore the protein that makes bread chewy.

Red Cabbage Juice CO2 experiment- Use the pH-sensitive pigment in red cabbage to illustrate how CO2 can acidify liquids (and why soda is bad for your teeth.)

Homemade Petri Plates: test surfaces around your kitchen and house for microbes.  Use to test fingers before washing, after washing with water alone, after washing with soap, and after using hand sanitizer.

So remember, cooking can make you a better scientist, and doing science can make you a better cook.

“When I wasn’t at school, I was experimenting at home, and became a bit of a Mad Scientist. I did hours of research on mayonnaise, for instance, and although no one seemed to care about it, I thought it was utterly fascinating. When the weather turned cold, the mayo suddenly became a terrible struggle, because the emulsion kept separating, and it wouldn’t behave when there was a change in the olive oil or the room temperature. I finally got the upper hand by going back to the beginning of the process, studying each step scientifically, and writing it all down. By the end of my research, I believe, I had written more on the subject of mayonnaise than anyone in history. I made so much mayonnaise that Paul and I could hardly bear to eat it anymore, and I took to dumping my test batches down the toilet. What a shame. But in this way I had finally discovered a foolproof recipe, which was a glory.” Julia Child, from My Life in France

Julia’s secret for fool-proof mayo? Beat the mixture over a bowl of hot water to get the oil and eggs to form an emulsion, which is a mixture of two thing which are normally immiscible, like water and oil. In an emulsion, a bunch of one type of molecule will actually surround individuals or small groups of  the other type of molecule (think ring-around the rosy with one or two people in the middle who would rather not be there.)  When you’re trying to make an emulsion, it also helps to add a mediator called a surfactant to get between and interact with the immiscible molecules to stabilize the mixture. In a vinaigrette prepared using oil, mustard and vinegar, the proteins in the mustard act as surfactants.  In mayonnaise, adding a little water to the eggs before adding the oil helps make some of the proteins in the eggs more available to act as surfactants.  Of course, adding a little mustard helps too and tastes great!

You can tell when an emulsion begins to form, because your mayo or vinaigrette will start to look lighter-colored and thicker as the molecules are rearranged and reflect light differently!

Remember that a bacteria called Salmonella enteriditis can lurk in raw eggs and make you sick, so it’s better to use pasteurized eggs for recipes like mayonnaise, where you don’t cook the eggs.

Here’s the New York Times recipe we used to make mayonnaise:

• 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon cold water
• 3/4 cup neutral oil such as safflower or canola

Like salad? To make delicious vinaigrette, whisk together 1 Tbs. vinegar and 1 Tbs. mustard (the surfactant.) Now, add 3 Tbs. oil, drop-by-drop until you see your emulsion form!

Try some variations on these kitchen experiments. Does it work better to use a cold egg, room temperature egg, or warm egg?  What happens if you try to make mayo by setting your mixing bowl in a bowl of ICE water? Do you get an emulsion?

Can you see the difference between batches of vinaigrette? One was whipped over a bowl of ice water and the other over warm water.

As Julia Child would say, “Bon Appetit!”

I’m re-posting this project we did two years ago, since I’m making plates today for a hand-washing experiment that the kids and I will do after school. Stay tuned!

Did you know that every surface in your home is teeming with microorganisms? Culturing microbes from your home on petri dishes lets you grow some of them as colonies  that you can see with your naked eye. You might already have what you need in your kitchen cupboard.  If not, the ingredients are readily available at most grocery stores. I demonstrated this experiment on Kare11 and you can watch it here, following the yeast experiment.

To make petri plates, you’ll need disposable containers (see below),  beef bouillon cubes or granules, plain gelatin or agar agar*, water, sugar and Q-tips. (*Agar-agar can be found with Asian groceries in some grocery stores.) **Gelatin will melt if it gets too warm, and some strains of bacteria can liquify it, which is why scientists in labs use agar to make their plates.  The idea to use agar for plates originally came from Angelina Hess, who used agar for canning food.

For containers, you can use foil muffin tins, clear plastic cups covered with plastic baggies, clear Tupperware with lids, or real petri dishes.  We’re going to use clear deli containers, so that we can recycle while we learn.  (Containers must be heat-resistant enough to pour warm agar into.)

Start by making microbial growth medium (or microbe food, as we like to call it.) Mix together:
-1 cup water  
-1 Tbs. agar-agar (OR one and one half packages gelatin, which is about one and a half oz or 12g)
-1 bouillon cube (or 1 tsp. granules)
-2 tsp. sugar

The next step requires adult assistance, since it involves very hot liquid.  Bring the mixture to a boil on the stove or in the microwave, stirring at one minute intervals and watching carefully until the gelatin or agar is dissolved.  Remove the boiling liquid from heat and cover.  Let cool for about fifteen minutes.

Pour the medium carefully into clean containers, until 1/3 to 1/2 full.  Loosely place lids, foil or plastic baggies over containers and allow dishes to cool completely.  The geltin or agar should make the growth media hard like jello.  When your plates have hardened, store them in a cool place, like a refrigerator, before using.  Plates should be used in 2-3 days.  When you are working with the plates, try to keep the lids on loosely whenever possible, so that they are not contaminated by microorganisms floating around in the air.  If you’re planning to use muffin tins, simply place them in a muffin pan, fill them with agar, and when they’re cool, put them in individual zip-lock baggies.  With other containers, put the lids on tightly once the plates harden.

When the plates are ready, shake the condensation (water droplets) off the lids of the containers and put them back on.  If you have a clear container, you can draw a grid of four sections on the bottom of the plate with permanent marker. (If using muffin tins, label each bag with the surface you are checking.)  Decide which surfaces you’d like to test.

Label your plates with the names of the surfaces you want to test.   Be sure to label the bottom of the plate since the lid will move.  You should be able to see through the agar to see your lines and your writing.  If you want to, you can label a separate plate for each surface, but we had three kids and three plates, so we made sections.  TV remotes, kitchen sinks, computer keyboard, doorknobs and piano keys are great surfaces to check.  You can even touch your finger to the plate, cough on a plate, or leave one open to the air for half an hour to see what’s floating around!  (See the photo at the top of this post for a better picture of how your plate might look.)

Rub a clean Q-tip around on the surface you want to test.  Then, remove the lid from the plate and gently rub the Q-tip across the section of the plate labeled for that surface.  If you’re careful, the agar shouldn’t break.  If it does, it’s no big deal.  When you’re done, set the plates on a flat surface with their lids loosened and taped on (do not invert them.)

Here’s what grew on one of our plates (pictured above): The large, fuzzy colonies are fungi and the small, whitish ones are probably bacteria.

See what grows! You will mostly see fungi (molds), but you may also see some tiny clear or white spots that are colonies formed by millions of bacteria.  Record and draw how your plates look in your science notebook.  Keep track of how long it takes things to grow and the shapes, sizes and colors of the microbial colonies that grow on their plates.  Sciencebuddies.org has this great page on interpreting what you find growing on your plates!  If you want to learn more about microbes, search for the words fungi and bacteria on the website cybersleuthkids.com and it will give you some great links to microbiology websites.  Microbes are everywhere, but that very few of them are harmful, and many of them are essential for good health.

Wash your hands after handling the plates, and throw the plates  away when you are done.  Remember, if you washyour hands with regular hand soap for the length of time that it takes to say the ABCs, you’ll remove most of the harmful bacteria and viruses on them.  (One side effect of this experiment is the sudden urge to disinfect computer keyboards and remote controls.)

One of the first things you learn when you do science is that experiments don’t always turn out the way you hope they will. And that’s OK. If at first you don’t succeed….

We tried to measure how far a sneeze would throw visible droplets by putting grape juice in our mouths and tickling our noses with feathers dipped in pepper. Sadly, no matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t seem to sneeze with grape juice in our mouths. Laughing so hard we spit the juice out was one unexpected outcome. We decided to try it again in the future using petri dishes spaced at intervals to avoid the grape juice problem.

Since there was no school today and it was ten degrees below zero (F), we tried throwing boiling water into the air to see if it would freeze before it hit the ground. Once again, our experimental conditions were less than perfect, and although some of the water froze into an icy cloud, the majority hit the ground with a splash. The experiment would have worked better at -20F, but it was still fun!

In a few weeks, I’ll be heading to North Carolina to attend Science Online 2013, an “un-conference” of online science communicators, writers, artists and video-makers. It will be next to impossible to choose which sessions to attend, since people will be talking about everything from writing science narrative to drawing science comics and using science to write fiction. I’ll be co-moderating a session on writing for kids with Elizabeth Preston, Editor of Muse magazine (which my 12-YO loves) and giving a short talk on why I made KidScience app.

To make the meeting even more fun, there will be a Cyberscreen film festival and an art show for participants, which inspired me to pull out my paintbrushes from college and do a quick “self portrait with microbes.” It’s been so much fun to paint again that I might go buy another canvas today and paint a “Still Life with Bacteria.”

My musician friend helped me make my silly “science song” sound amazing so I can use it on my website and for videos like the one above that I made for KidScience app.

How do you mix up science, music, film and art? Do you know any science project that can morph into art projects, like red cabbage litmus paper collages or photographing tie-dye milk patterns? I’d love to hear your ideas!  I’ll let you know about the cool things I learn and fun resources I discover at ScienceOnline in early February!

How would you safely land a spacecraft on a planet with no atmosphere if you couldn’t use rockets? A parachute wouldn’t work, since there’s no air resistance.  You’d have to design your craft with a protective shell so the impact wouldn’t destroy it.

Pretend a raw egg is your spacecraft and Voila: you have a science experiment.  Besides being lots of fun, an egg drop experiment is a great way to try your hand at engineering and is a fantastic STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) project for kids and adults alike!

The kids and I dropped holiday decoration-encased eggs from a crane in the Kare11 studio on Kare11′s Sunrise News to test our own engineering skill. Click here to see what happened.

The law of motion says that the faster you change the speed of an object, the greater the force applied to the object will be.  We demonstrated this concept with our egg-throwing experiment  by smashing eggs against a table, which stopped them fast, and watching them survive being hurled against a hanging sheet, which slowed them down.  This same law explains why, if you drop an egg on the floor, it will break.  When you change the speed of the egg slowly,by suspending it or surrounding it with material that helps absorb or redirect the force, less force is applied to the egg and it may remain intact. Can you design a container to protect an egg?

Why not have a holiday egg drop competition with your out-of town cousins, or other friends and family?  Here are the rules we came up with.  (We have a no parachute rule, but if you’d really like to design a parachute for your egg, that would be fun too!)  I’m thinking an egg nogg carton might be a good place to start.

-Container made up of 100% holiday material like wrapping paper, bows, cardboard, tinsel, food, glue, toothpicks, wood, tape, plastic and string. No Styrofoam, bubble wrap or packing peanuts are allowed.

-Container must contain one RAW egg.

-No Parachutes (defined as any material attached to your egg craft in such a way that it will expand outward as it falls, catching air.)

-Container should be no larger than 20 inches in any direction

-No tape or glue must touch the egg.

Drop your egg from different heights to see how well it survives.  (Make sure you’re supervised by an adult when you do your egg drop!)

You can calculate the force of gravity on your egg and container by multiplying its weight in kilograms by 9.8meters/second (the acceleration due to gravity.

If you live in the Twin Cities, I’ll be on Kare11 Sunrise on Tuesday morning Dec.18th with Kim and Tim. We’ll be dropping our containers from a studio crane.  Should be fun!