Chemistry is everywhere in the kitchen. These experiments use everyday ingredients. Always do them with an adult, and never taste the results.
1. Red cabbage colour changer
Chop some red cabbage, soak it in hot water (an adult's job) and let it cool. The purple liquid is a natural pH indicator. Add a little lemon juice and it turns pink; add a pinch of baking soda and it turns blue or green. Acids and bases change the colour of the pigments in the cabbage.
2. Baking soda fizz
Put a spoonful of baking soda in a glass and add vinegar. The bubbles are carbon dioxide gas, made when the acid in vinegar reacts with the sodium hydrogen carbonate in baking soda.
3. Dancing raisins
Drop a few raisins into a glass of clear sparkling water. Bubbles of carbon dioxide stick to the wrinkly raisins and lift them to the surface. At the top the bubbles pop and the raisins sink again.
Learn the elements
Want to know what carbon, oxygen and sodium have to do with it? Play match the symbols of the first 20 elements on ModernScholar, then try to find the noble gases. You can record your results on a printable sheet from EduPrintables.