Weird Science: Color Changing Lemonade

 

Thatbaby has turned into quite the little science kid during this pandemic.  I think because I started including "science class" into Mom-school back in the beginning, but there's nothing he loves more than making "potions" and doing experiments.  So much so, that he asked for science experiment kits for his birthday and received several.

He always wants to pull them out and try out different experiments - or create his own (basically baking soda, vinegar, and then other ingredients) - so it wasn't too surprising that he would want a full science day.

His idea was to just do all the experiments he had in his kits, but I supplemented with some fun ones I thought they would like.

We started out doing some ectothermic and endothermic reactions with one of his kits.

And using the kit's uric acid to learn about evaporation and growing our own crystals.

Every young scientist should make take a run with bubbles.  We made our own "unpoppable" variety.

We used red cabbage to create our own "litmus noodles" for lunch - which changed color when we added an acid (lemon juice)

After lunch we made some elephant toothpaste

And aquatic sand was a big hit.

We also did an osmosis experiment with gummy bears 

And create our own bacteria growing petri dishes.  Although this one took a few days to see the results.

For all my friends who don't wash their feet in the shower?  That really gnarly black one?  That's just a qtip that was swabbed between each child's toes.  Your feet are gross.  Wash them.  This experiment also showed us that antibiotics really stop bacterial growth, soap cuts down on bacterial growth, yogurt contains bacteria, and toothpaste doesn't do much to the inside of your mouth.

Our final experiment came with dinner where we did some color changing lemonade I found on Left Brain Craft Brain.

Butterfly pea flowers work as a pH indicator, just like cabbage does.  So adding this magic blue liquid to an acidic drink like lemonade...

Gives the lemonade a vibrant purple color!

This is a really fun "experiment" for just about any time because it makes for such a pretty drink.   The butterfly pea flowers on their own make for a fairly vibrant tea, or beautiful tea latte. I've even heard that it's what's used to create the blue colored drinks at Disney.

Color Changing Lemonade (adapted from Left Brain Craft Brain)

Juice of 6 1/2 lemons

1 1/3 cup sugar

5 cups water, divided

1 tsp dried butterfly pea flowers

1. Boil 1 cup water.  
2. Place dried flowers in a tea strainer and place in boiling water for 3-4 minutes.  Remove strainer. Chill while making lemonade.
3. Combine lemons, sugar, and remaining 4 cups water.  Stir until sugar dissolves.  
4. Divide lemonade between 4 glasses filled with ice.
5. Add 1/4 cup of the flower water to each glass of lemonade and watch it change color right before your eyes.