This was a super successful session on acids and alkali which created a lot of mess but which kept the girls engaged for a whole morning.
We made some red cabbage indicator so we could see what liquids were acid or alkali according to what colour the indicator went. We guessed first and then found out if we were right. We looked into the pH scale, where common household things came on that scale and what made things either acid or alkali. Peggy went on a little mission to test the various hand soaps we had in the house and came up with some surprising results. We looked at the chemical equations for acids and alkalis and the neutralisation equation. We covered the basics of the GCSE syllabus on this as the girls were interested and wanted to know more.
Since we had a whole washing up bowl of red cabbage dye (note to self: use half a cabbage rather than a whole one), we ventured outside and had a go at some tie-dyeing. The girls dyed a couple of old plain white t-shirts which came out a really lovely lilac colour with hints of pink after they added some acids into the dye.
I’d say this is a really good session for families with children of different ages. The younger ones can happily play at making multi-coloured potions whilst the older ones can learn more about the science behind it all.
