Chemical and Physical Changes

Chemical Change

Pennies get dull over time because the copper in them reacts with the air to form copper oxide.  Pure copper metal is bright and shiny, but the oxide is dull and has a green color.  When we placed the pennies the a salt and lemon juice solution, the acid from the lemon juice dissolved the copper oxide, resulting in a clean, shiny penny. When we were finished with this, Carter was ready to clean all of his pennies!

Physical Changes

I worked on these things with both Madison and Carter this past school year, even though I had separated the kids' science and history.  It was harder doing a separate thing for each one of them because it required a lot more one on one.  The great thing was that even though there are three years between Madison and Carter's grades, they were covering the same stuff....Madison's just went a bit deeper.  She was taking Biology, and Carter  Life Science.  I have actually gone through this entire Life Science course with all of the kids together, but I wanted to cover it with Carter alone since he was younger when we did it and since it was what he was supposed to be doing at his grade level.  It worked out well and helped cut down on the one on one.  They also enjoy the hands-on things more when there is someone else to enjoy them with besides me!