Activity 6

Food Science!

Have you ever thought about how foods can help us learn more about the world? Try this investigation! Finely chop a red cabbage into a bowl and cover it with boiling water (be careful!). Let it sit for an hour and then strain out the pulp to collect a clear, dark purple liquid. This liquid can be used as a pH indicator solution to test out the acidity of different liquids.

Pour out half a cup of your indicator solution and add a couple of drops of the liquid you want to test. Try lemon juice, toothpaste, milk and tomato juice. The more red-orange your solution turns, the more acidity is in the liquid you are testing. The more green-blue your solution turns, the more alkaline it is.

How can you use this information to better care for your body and make healthy choices?

Food Science!

Have you ever wondered how different foods can teach us more about the world around us as well as how to make healthy choices? Try these investigations:

Dip a cotton bud in lemon juice and draw a shape on white paper. Leave it to dry and then heat the paper with a hairdryer or leave it in the sun. What happens? Can you write a secret message for someone using lemon juice?

Leave an egg in a glass of vinegar overnight. Change the vinegar the next morning and leave it again for the whole day. Pour the vinegar out and dry your egg off. What has happened to it? Eggshells are made of the same stuff as our teeth and bones and the acid in vinegar dissolves it! What can we learn about how to take better care of our bodies with this experiment?

Research and do the ice cream in a bag experiment to learn about how salt changes the freezing point of water! What other ingredients can you add to change the flavour of your ice cream? Can you change your ice cream back into the ingredients you started with?

Food Science!