Cabbage Juice Indicator

Red cabbage juice is a great indicator - it turns pink in an acid, green in a base, and stays blue in a neutral substance.  And while it takes a little time to make, it's a whole lot cheaper than other indicators. 

To make some: 
Chop up a head of red cabbage and place it in a large pan.  Cover the cabbage with water.  Simmer for about 20 minutes (your house will smell like cabbage).

Let the contents cool before you remove the cabbage.  Store the water (now cabbage juice) in a jar*.

To test your cabbage juice:
Set up three glasses:
Pour a little vinegar in the first, some baking soda dissolved in water in the second, and tap water in the third.

Add a few drops of cabbage juice to each glass and observe.

*You can freeze the cabbage juice for longer storage.  Pour it into ice cube trays and freeze.  Then place the cubes in a freezer bag or box.  Pull out individual cubes as you need them.

Comparing Photosynthesis and Cellular Respiration

Understanding photosynthesis and cellular respiration are major concepts middle school students should master.

Here is a way to provide students with the information in yet another way, using foldables.  Two foldables are pictured, but they contain the same information, they care just oriented differently.

Each foldable uses two pieces of paper, folded so there are flaps.

Cut through the top three layers, at the middle of the book.

The top layer gets a title, "Cellular Respiration" on one side, "Photosynthesis" on the other side.

The next layer is labeled "What Cells" or "Where". 

The next layer is labeled "Ingredients" or "Reactants".

The bottom layer is labeled "Products". 

The corresponding information is filled in on each layer, for each process.  When finished, students have a nice study guide for comparing and contrasting photosynthesis and cellular respiration.

Snowflake Bentley

These are some great resources to pair with Sparkly Snowflakes. 

If you study weather and snow, or are just looking to do something seasonal, check out some of these resources.

Wilson Bentley was the first man to photograph individual snowflakes, in 1885.  He's the person who determined that no two snowflakes are exactly the same.  A fascinating man, indeed.

Start your research at the Official Website of Wilson A. Bentley.  You'll find a brief biography there, and some wonderful, printable images of his photographs. I printed out the collection and laminated them for my students to look at and admire. 

For a more thorough biography, and one to share with your students, check out Snowflake Bentley.  It's a picture book intended for children.  The biography is written as a story, with a lot of factual information in the margins - you can decide how much to share based on your students.


For your own knowledge, you may want to read The Snowflake Man: A Biography of Wilson A. Bentley.  I haven't read the whole book, but have read an excerpt.  You can probably get it through your library system. 

Two other books that look interesting are Snowflakes in Photographs and Snow Crystals. I'm not familiar with either book, but they are both collections of Bentley's images.  Again, it might be worth looking for these at the library before investing. 

Gummy Bear Lab

This is one of my all-time favorites!

I use this lab at the beginning of the school year, when we're reviewing measurement.  However, it is equallly apprpopriate for the study of osmosis.  (As fate would have it, I first did this lab with my 7th graders who go on to study life science, including osmosis.  When we got to osmosis, they made the connection back to our measurement study.  It was great, and I've never considered doing it any other way, or with any of my other classes).

The procedure is simple enough....

Each student gets a gummy bear*.  The gummy bear gets measured thoroughly: length, width, height and mass.  Volume and subsequently density can be determined.

The gummy bear then spends a night in a cup of water.

When the students return the next day, the bears get measured once more (after students get over the shock of seeing their newly enlarged gummy bear).

Conclusions are drawn.

In my experience, this lab leads to all kinds of questions for further experimentation... What if I place my gummy bear in Coke/tea/milk/etc?  What if I leave my gummy bear in the water for 2 days?  What if I allow my newly enlarged gummy bear to sit out for a day?  What if I use a gummy worm instead of a gummy bear?  If you have the time and resources, it's a great opportunity for students to design their own experimental process and carry it out. 


*I tried to use a gummy worm one time, when I had some at home.  It didn't work, it completely fell apart.  Fortunately, it was just me playing around at home.  For that reason, always do a test run on the gummy bears you plan to use with your students.  You really want a gummy product that's going to hold up, at least for the initial experiment.

Dress the Part: Tie-Dye Lab Coat

I love my tie-dye lab coat!  It's fun and cheerful and makes me happy.  And the students love it too - it certainly gets their attention!

It's a little different from these - it starts with red at the shoulders and works its way through the spectrum until it reaches violet at the hem.  Mine came from Flinn Scientific, who will only accept orders from "certified science teachers" and only ships to a "certified school address".  If that doesn't work for you, check out the first link for Amazon, who will ship to anyone!

I was fortunate enough to receive my lab coat at no cost, as part of a program I participated in.  However, I realize they can be a bit pricey (though I will say, it is a heavy duty coat, much thicker and heavier than any others I've encountered).  If you love the look, but consider them to be out of your price range (which is why I hadn't bought one on my own), consider a plain white lab coat and some of your own dye.  You could even use the chromatography pinwheels to make it a truly scientific lab coat! 

Sparkling Snowflakes

This is a fun, artsy-craftsy project in which students can learn about solubility, super-saturated solutions and crystal shapes.  

Make a super-saturated solution of Borax and water:
--Fill a jar with hot water (boiling is best).
--Add Borax, a little at a time, until no more will dissolve (you'll know you're there because instead of dissolving the Borax will settle to the bottom)

Use pipe cleaners and thread to make a snowflake.

Attach a piece of thread to the snowflake.

Place the snowflake in the Borax solution and leave for several hours or overnight. 

In the morning, you'll have a beautiful, sparkling snowflake, covered with large crystals. 

If you'd rather not make snowflake shapes, you can shape the pipe cleaner into stars or other shapes.  You could also just place a straight pipe cleaner into the solution.

The pipe cleaner works well because all the fuzz on it gives the crystals nice places to attach, and thus works much better than just a string.  (Which may explain why all my attempts at making rock candy as a kid were met with utter failure (and a sticky mess)).


Safety Note: The Borax and the finished snowflake should come nowhere near the mouth.  

Living/Non-Living: Awakening a Colony

Provide your students with a sample colony (a spoonful of yeast in a plastic egg) of a new life form found on Earth.  The students are responsible for "awakening" this colony and providing it with the necessary materials to sustain it (food, water, shelter, oxygen). 

You may wish to have your students complete this activity following the scientific method.  In which case, they should write down and plan and then proceed to attempt to bring it to life. 

You'll need to provide the following supplies:
--egg with yeast
--Petri dishes
--spoons
--warm water
--sugar
--"decoy" supplies - anything you can think of that your students might want to use - the more you can put out, the better.