Erlenmeyer Flasks

We had fun in 5th and 6th chemistry today.  We were learning about concentrations and titrations and acid-base neutralization, and I explained it pretty well if I do say so myself.

I had a picture on the "concentrations" page of a bunch of glasses with red liquid going from dark to light.  They wondered how you could do something like that.  Huh. I started to explain about food coloring and concentration, and then I thought, maybe I should just show them! I had food coloring in the closet and a bunch of water in an ice cream pail (not used in another lab).  So we did an impromptu demonstration at the lab table.  They wanted to swirl the food coloring in the beakers, but the water kind of sloshed out.  So I grabbed an Erlenmeyer flask from the closet and then the ALL wanted to try swirling.  And dumping liquids in it.  I must say, it is a pretty neat piece of glassware.

Then we got to talking about neutralizations and why our stomachs need to be neutralized sometimes. Which led to a discussion about why we throw up when we get sick.  Which led to a discussion about why throats feel gross when throwing up.  Which led to a discussion about anorexia. Which led to a discussion about motion sickness.  Which led to a discussion on balancing.  Which resulted in us standing on one leg with our eyes open, and then closed.

Like I said.  It was a cool science class.

And we still had time for recess!