Great Copper Cleaning Experiment

I enjoyed this easy experiment with my First graders that showed the amazing chemical change of a dirty copper penny(copper oxide) back into its pure clean copper. If you dip it into vinegar and a dash of salt you will see the change. You can also use lemon juice and tomato sauce. I thought it would be fun to experiment with other things that the kids came up with. We tried some cleaning items, soda, and spit. None worked as well as the things with acid.

A cool-I mean HOT heat experiment!

I just did a very simple heat experiment with my daughter that answered our question-what material is the best insulator of heat? All you need is 4 mugs, boiling water, 4 types of material big enough to cover the top of the mugs, (foil, wool, linen and paper is what I used), 4 rubber bands, and a thermometer.

First you put the same amount of boiling water in the mugs. Then you cover with your 4 materials and wait 30 min.s. We predicted the foil would be best. It was-it was 108 degrees.

However, to our surprise the other 3 worked well too. They were still 102 degrees-all the same.
We then put our info. on a line graph and decided to always use steel to go cups for our coffee and hot chocolate.