This experiment never gets old!  Put some raw eggs into jars and cover the eggs with (white or cider) vinegar. Remember to always wash your hands after handling raw eggs, since they can carry a bacteria called Salmonella enteriditis!

Do you notice anything happening to the eggs when you add the vinegar?

Let them sit overnight in the refrigerator and see what they feel like the next day.  Before handling the eggs, gently rinse them with water, and be careful not to get vinegar in your eyes, since vinegar is an acid and stings!

Only the membrane of the egg will remain, which is like a rubbery balloon.  What does it feel like?

If you want, draw or record what you observed in your science notebook.

What happened?  Egg shells are made up of two chemical elements called calcium and carbon, which stick together in calcium carbonate crystals.  Vinegar is an acid that breaks the crystals apart in a chemical reaction.  The  carbon and vinegar react to form carbon dioxide bubbles, which you probably noticed when you added the vinegar to the eggs.

To make alien monster eggs,  return the eggs to the  jars.  Cover them with corn syrup and add some green food coloring.  Leave them for 24 hours in the refrigerator and see how they feel the next day!

What happens?  The balloon-like membrane of the soft eggs let water molecules pass through.  Corn syrup doesn’t have much water in it, and water molecules move out of the egg into the corn syrup, making the egg shrivel.

If you want to, now try rinsing the eggs and submerging them in water again overnight (in the fridge.)

Happy eggsperimenting!