A Dabble in Chemistry
Greetings to everyone.
One of the gifts Xavier got for Christmas was a small chemistry set. It took a while, but Xavier wanted to "open it up."
The reason it took so long is that the set got "lost" in a pile of other items. Once we found it again, Xavier was anxious to get his chem on.
With mom out of town, a warm, lazy, sunny Sunday and nothing else productive to do, Xavier gathered up his chemistry set and we went outside to experiment.
The set came with a little mat having a place for all his lab supplies (not unlike a garage pegboard with Sharpie marker used to outline the shape of tools).
The kit has a plastic beaker and Erlenmeyer flask, stirring sticks, scoops and containers, and the chemicals necessary for the experiments outlined in the accompanying booklet.
The focus of this set is color. The chemicals: sodium bicarbonate and citric acid along with three colors of powder: red, blue and yellow.
The booklet outlining the experiments started out with an explanation of the Scientific Method, then explained how to set up the lab and prepare the chemicals for the experiments.
Xavier read the booklet to set up his lab, mix the chemicals and perform the experiments.
He had to predict what color would be produced when he mixed two or three of the colors. He then had to write his prediction in the book, do the experiment, write the results and explain if his prediction was correct or incorrect.
The chemicals, all powders, Xavier mixed in a tray and squirted with water. The powders bubbled and he mixed them together with one of the supplied stirring sticks to fully see the color of the combined powders.
He had a lot of fun. He correctly guessed the outcome of two experiments and incorrectly guessed the outcome of two. He learned some things about chemistry and color.
One of the experiments in the book he did not get to was the color volcano. That one ought to be fun when we get to it.