Science is for Kids

An interesting challenge in science is measuring things that can't be measured directly. Direct measurements are pretty straight forward.  If you want to know the mass of a pencil, you simply use a balance to measure the pencil's mass.  Sometime there are things that we want to measure which can't be measured directly.  Luckily we can use indirect measurements.  This is when we measure one thing to determine a different measurement. This video shows an experiment using a spectrophotometer to measure the amount of light which is absorbed by a solution of iron (III) chloride.  The data can be used to create a standard curve which will be used to calculate the concentration of the solution of iron(III) chloride.  The concentration of the iron (III) chloride can't be measured directly by the spectrophotometer, but it can be determined as an indirect measurement by analyzing the absorption data. I hope this was helpful!

A thermal decomposition reaction occurs when heat is applied to a compound causing it to decompose (break down) into multiple different chemical substances. An example is when baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) is heated 2 N a H C O 3 ( s ) → C O 2 ( g ) + H 2 O ( g ) + N a 2 C O 3 ( s ) Here is a video discussion of this reaction... I hope this was helpful!

The stock naming system uses roman numerals to indicate the oxidation state of metal ions in ionic compounds.  It is used because many metals have more than one possible oxidation state (charge).  One example of this is tin.  The two most common oxidation states of tin are 2+ and 4+; a Roman numeral is used in the name of the compound to tell us which oxidation state is present in a given compound of tin. In the past it was also common to see names of compounds using their Latin names.  Some examples include ferrum for iron and aurum for gold.  In the Latin naming system, different suffixes are used to indicate the oxidation state of the metal ion. I hope this is helpful!

This video shows a chromatography experiment used to separate the different color pigments that are found in a black wet erase marker. This is an experiment that could easily be done at home.  Paper towel could be used instead of the chromatography paper I used to make this video.  You just need to use paper that is absorbent. It would also be fun to try this experiment using different types of markers or pens.  You could also try different liquids, rubbing alcohol would be an interesting choice. NGSS Connection: HS-LS1-1 3.Reasoning a. Students use reasoning to connect evidence, along with the assumption that theories and laws that describe the natural world operate today as they did in the past and will continue to do so in the future, to construct the explanation. Students describe* the following chain of reasoning in their explanation iii. Proper function of many proteins is necessary for the proper functioning of the cells. I have used this...

This video provides examples of how you can calculate the pH of a strong acid or strong base if you are given just the concentration (molarity) of the solution. I hope this is helpful!

Have you ever opened a soda and had it do this? This can happen if you open a can or bottle of soda that is warm or has been shaken.  If you didn't watch the video it shows me opening three different bottles of carbonated water.  One was chilled so that it was ice cold, another was at room temperature and another had been sitting in water that was near boiling. Gases become less soluble in liquids as the temperature of the liquid goes up.  There are a number of reasons why this happens but I think we can imagine the gas molecules (carbon dioxide) moving faster and faster as the liquid they are dissolved in (water) gets warmer and warmer.  The faster the gas particles move, the more likely they are to escape the liquid into the surrounding air. So why is this important? A great example would be thermal pollution.  This can occur if factories take water from a body of water which is used to cool machinery and is later returned to the body of water it wa...