Cool Chemistry Labs...

[aliki]

There's a summer program geared for disadvantaged girls entering 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th grades in an urban neighborhood. The goal of the program is to encourage girls to stay in the sciences and mathematics, by either pursuing a degree at the post-secondary level or a career in the sciences or mathematics. The program consists of mini-

Comments

[shes_unreal]

You could do something really simple - chemistry tends to be super fascinating even if you just do simple stuff, and if they're disadvantaged they may not have been able to do a lot in class (especially the younger kids).

Something I did at a 6th grade science camp was "candy chemistry." We tested solubility with m&ms, putting them in water, then in oil (the dye of the m&m is soluble but the "m" is not, so it floats to the top of the water - of course they're not oil soluble at all so nothing happens in oil).

Then I had them make an indicator solution using a cabbage, talked to them about acidity (why are lemons sour? acidity is also what makes sour candy sour), had them taste-test sour candy and rate them according to sourness. Then we tested the acid levels of the candy with the indicator solution.

[shes_unreal]

I also did forensic science stuff with younger kids and an EXTREMELY limited budget, so some of the things we did were footprint analysis, blood spatter analysis (measuring the size and shape of drops using water balloons), fingerprint analysis, and handwriting analysis. I set up a crime scene using a huge piece of butcher paper and had the kids measure and sketch the crime scene, set up evidence markers, take pictures and collect evidence. The curriculum I used isn't available online that I can tell but this might be something similar

[aliki]

Thanks for the links, I'll check them out!

[aliki]

Cabbage indicator is a fun one, thanks for reminding me of that good one!