Lemon Science - Testing Chemical Reactions

Looking for a fun way to introduce your students to chemical changes in matter? If you really want to captivate your audience then lemon science is the right experiment for you.  Chemical changes are where the type of matter changes. This experiment is a fun twist on the volcano.  It's especially interesting because the lemon juice reacts to the baking soda.

For this experiment you'll need:  1 lemon, knife, fork, and baking soda.  Food dye and vinegar are optional.

Directions:  Cut the top off of the lemon.  Use the fork to macerate them lemon pulp inside.  Make sure to create a lot of juice inside the rind of the lemon.  If you want to, you can remove a little pulp and place drops of food coloring in the lemon.  Cover the dye with the pulp that you removed so that it's a complete surprise when it erupts with color.  Once you place the baking soda on top of the lemon, it will react with the lemon juice and create a volcano effect.  If you did not macerate the lemon enough to create enough juice, you can add a little vinegar.  You can see the reaction in the video below.

This experiment is a great way to explore the following questions:

What will happen if we add baking soda to a lemon?

Why does the baking soda create a chemical reaction in the lemon?

Pumpkin Science Literature Connections

One of my favorite long lessons takes place during October with the book "Pumpkin Jack" by Will Hubbell.  In the book a boy has a jack o' lantern that he loves.  The pumpkin has to be placed outside where it decomposes and eventually goes through the lifecycle process again. During this same time we do pumpkin character book reports.  I always ask for a volunteer to leave their pumpkin so that we can see if what happened in the book "Pumpkin Jack" could really happen? Would a pumpkin decompose and start the lifecycle over again? If this happens, does it mean the book "Pumpkin Jack" is realistic fiction?  For years now, the pumpkin has always started a small pumpkin patch for us.

In the top photograph the pumpkin had just one seed left in it.  It started a plant in a pot for us.  The plant blossomed and we lost it over Winter Break.  (We are in Florida and I'm not sure our weather is quite right to start a viable pumpkin during October.). In the bottom picture, we left a lot of seeds and we received quite a large pumpkin patch.  You will see from the photograph on the bottom that we even got the start of pumpkins.  Once again we left for Winter Break and the patch died.  I'm content with taking a pumpkin and sticking it outside to see what happens.  Having a donated pumpkin is even better.  If you want to actually take care of the pumpkin and grow new pumpkins, you might want to research the best times to plant pumpkins and estimate the amount of time it will take your pumpkin to decompose.  Please leave any questions that you may have in the comment section.  There's also a link to a free pumpkin craft that I use to with this lesson at the bottom of the post.

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