I have a hard time doing science with the boys. It's not one of my favorite subjects and sometimes takes too much planning to do. But I when I do plan something out, the boys love it. For this project I had William get six dirty and dark pennies. I had them gather around the table and gave them a paper towel and told them to see if they could make them clean. When nothing happened, I put a little soap and water and told them to try again with the towel, same results. I then had them sprinkle some salt on the pennies and using an eye dropper drop a little vinegar on each penny. We did this to both sides then wiped the pennies off with a dry paper towel.
Some pennies needed more salt on them while we rubbed them dry but this was the result. Bright shiny pennies!!
Disclaimer: These three were Matthew/Samuel's pennies. William's pennies never became shiny. Though they got lighter they didn't look like this, much to his disappointment. We tried the process over with the same pennies and me helping him with the same result. What we guess is that the pennies he selected are copper since they were the older pennies and thus won't change color. So not only did we talk about chemical changes, we also talked about how different metals react with the same ingredients.
No comments:
Post a Comment