A comprehensive course that teaches the fundamental ideas behind chemistry. Students will discover how to create the four states of matter, grow crystal farms, experiment with phase shifts, crosslink polymers, shake up rainbow solutions, and stew up a chemical matrix of heat and ice reactions.

Step 1. Click Here to download your copy of the Ultimate Science Curriculum Chemistry Student Guidebook. To download the Parent/Teacher Guidebook, Click Here.

Step 2. Watch the videos that go with it below.

Lesson #1: Chemical Matrix of Acids and Bases

Overview: If you love the idea of mixing up chemicals and dream of having your own mad science lab, this one is for you. You are going to mix up solids and liquids in a chemical matrix, and see a lot of cool chemical reactions between acids and bases.

What to Learn: After this experiment you’ll understand that an indicator can change color when you combine it with different materials. Today we will use a cabbage juice indicator, but there are many different kinds. You will see several chemical reactions take place (that means things will bubble, ooze, spit, change color and get hot or cold).

Materials:

muffin tin or disposable cups
popsicle sticks for stirring and mixing
tablecloths (one for the table, another for the floor)
isopropyl rubbing alcohol
hydrogen peroxide
water
acetic acid (distilled white vinegar)
liquid dish soap (add to water)
head of red cabbage (indicator)
calcium chloride (AKA "DiEx" or "Ice Melt")
citric acid (spice section, used for preserving and pickling)
sodium tetraborate (borax, laundry aisle)
sodium carbonate (washing soda, laundry aisle)
sodium bicarbonate (baking soda, baking aisle)
ammonium nitrate (single-use disposable cold pack)

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Lesson #2: Laundry Soap Crystals

Overview: Can you really make crystals out of soap? You bet! These crystals grow really fast, provided your solution is properly saturated. In only 12 hours, you should have sizable crystals sprouting up.

What to Learn: Today’s focus is on crystals and supersaturated solutions. You’ll use heat to dissolve more borax (sodium tetraborate) than usual in a pot of water and love the result when it cools!

Materials

pipe cleaners
cleaned out jar or bottle (pickle, jam, or mayo jar)
water
borax

Lesson #3: Non-messy Squishy Slime

Overview: Sugar, water, and cornstarch by themselves are not very exciting, but combine them together and you’ll find a gooey, goopy slime! This chemical reaction creates a polymer that’s really fun to play with.

What to Learn: You should understand you are working with a chemical reaction, where you add two or more compounds together to get something completely different. You are making something called a polymer, which is an incredibly long chain of molecules.

Materials

See Student Worksheet for experiment instructions

Lesson #4: Moon Sand

Overview: Moon sand is basically clay with a beach twist. If you’ve ever tried making a sand castle, you know the disappointment of having the structure crumble after hours of work. Moon sand adds the best properties of clay to the sand for a moldable, sandy texture that’s easy to work with, and shows you firsthand what a non-Newtonian fluid looks and feels like!

What to Learn: After today’s lesson, you’ll know a bit about non-Newtonian fluids and viscosity and how to play with an experiment to get different results.

Materials

cornstarch
water
sand
measuring cups/spoons, depending on how much moon sand is desired
Popsicle stick or other stirring apparatus
food dye (optional)

Lesson #5: Rubber Eggs

Overview: Did you ever think it would be OK to bounce an egg? In science class, anything is possible! Learn how in today’s experiment.

What to Learn: After this bouncy experiment, you’ll know one way to spot a chemical reaction. You’ll also see how solid calcium carbonate and stinky liquid vinegar can combine to produce carbon dioxide gas.

Materials

hard-boiled egg
glass or clean jar
distilled white vinegar
Optional: regular egg
Optional: chicken bones

Lesson #6: Microwaving Soap

Overview: When you warm up leftovers, have you ever wondered why the microwave heats the food and not the plate? (Well, some plates, anyway.) It has to do with the way microwaves work. Microwaves generate high-energy electromagnetic waves that, when aimed at water molecules, make these molecules get super-excited and start bouncing around a lot. Which is why it’s dangerous to heat anything not containing water in your microwave, as there’s nowhere for that energy to go, since the electromagnetic radiation is tuned to excite water molecules.

What to Learn: Light you can see (visible light like a rainbow) makes up only a tiny bit of the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Microwaves emit “microwaves” that are lower frequency, lower energy waves than visible light, but are higher energy, higher frequency than radio waves. The soap in this experiment will show you how a bar of Ivory soap contains air, and that air contains water vapor which will get heated by the microwave radiation and expand.

Materials

microwave (not a new or expensive one)
plate
3 Ivory soap bars

Lesson #7: Salty Eggs

Overview: Have you ever noticed how much easier it is to float in the ocean than a swimming pool? Why is this? You will discover the answer using an egg, a glass of water, and some salt.

What to Learn: After today you’ll know how salt changes the density of water, which affects your ability (and your egg’s ability!) to swim in it.

Materials

hard-boiled egg
glass
water
salt

Lesson #8: Quick & Easy Density

Overview: Today you’ll get to make a layered, colorful density jar and watch some fun effects of hot and cold water. Both will allow you to play while learning about density!

What to Learn: You should know that density means how tightly atoms are packed together in a substance.

Materials

large glass jar
water
vegetable oil
liquid dish soap (colored if possible)
honey
corn syrup
molasses
rubbing alcohol
two identical glasses or jars
cold water
red and blue food coloring
index card or other thick, heavy paper
hot water

Lesson #9: Lava Lamp

Overview: We’re going to watch how density works by making a simple lava lamp that doesn’t need electricity! If you like to watch blob-type shapes shift and ooze around, then this is something you’re going to want to experiment with.

What to Learn: After today’s experiment, you’ll understand what density is, and know some cool facts about the differences between oil and water

Materials

empty glass jar with straight sides or clean 2 liter soda bottle
vegetable oil
salt
water
food dye

Lesson #10: Penny Crystal Structure

Overview: What in the world is going on when water freezes? Something is happening to those little H₂O molecules, but what??? You’ll find out today using pennies and a ruler.

What to Learn: You will learn what atoms and molecules are up to in their little microscopic world as they go from a liquid to a solid. You will also see what happens when a solid breaks. (Have you ever chipped off a piece of ice? Then you already know what cleavage is!)

Materials

ruler
50 pennies

Lesson #11: Rock Candy Crystals

Overview: Candy, anyone? That’s what you’ll make today, and you’ll learn about crystals as you go! Yum!

What to Learn: You’ll find out how to make a supersaturated solid solution by heating up water and adding more and more sugar. Once your crystals form, you’ll see the regular repeating pattern that all crystals have.

Materials

sauce pan
spoon
stove or other heating apparatus
8 cups granulated sugar
3 cups water
measuring cup
glass jar (cleaned out pickle, jam or may jars work great)
aluminum foil
wooden skewer (string or yarn will also work)
tape
food coloring is optional but fun!

Lesson #12: Bouncy Putty Slime

Overview: Time to play with polymers! Polymers are very long chains of molecules and are super fun because they act differently depending on what they are made of and how they’re put together. This polymer slime will even bounce!

What to Learn: In today’s experiment you will learn that polymers are long, long chains of molecules that often have very fun and useful properties. You will see that it’s possible to play with polymers so they form different structures. The fishnet structure of today’s polymer will cause it to bounce.

Materials

borax (laundry whitener)
water
white glue
disposable cups (2)
popsicle sticks (2)
tablespoon
teaspoon
optional: food coloring

Lesson #13: Glowing Slime

Overview: When you think of slime, do you imagine slugs, snails, and puppy kisses? Or does the science fiction film The Blob come to mind? Any way you picture it, slime is definitely slippery, slithery, and just plain icky — and a perfect forum for learning about polymers. This slime can also be made to glow, which is a terrific introduction to understanding UV light.

What to Learn: By the time you are finished you will understand that just as spaghetti needs sauce to stick together, polymers need a cross-linking agent. And, you’ll learn to make cool luminescent slime you can view with a little help from a black light.

Materials

water
popsicle sticks
disposable cups
clear glue or white glue
yellow highlighter
measuring spoons
scissors
borax (laundry whitener)
Optional: UV fluorescent black light

Lesson #14: Bouncy Ball

Overview: This is one of those “chemistry magic show” types of experiments to wow your friends and family. Here’s the scoop: You take a cup of clear liquid, add it to another cup of clear liquid, stir for ten seconds, and you’ll see a color change, a state change from liquid to solid, and you can pull a rubber-like bouncy ball right out of the cup.

What to Learn: Solids and liquids have different properties. Polymers are long chains that can be linked together to form silicones which have really cool uses.

Materials

sodium silicate (“water glass”)
ethyl alcohol, also called ethanol (70%)
beakers or disposable cups (2 per group)
popsicle sticks (2 per group)
teaspoon measures (2 per group)
rubber gloves
small Ziploc bags

Lesson #15: Sewer Slime

Overview: Get ready to be grossed out as you make a sewer slime that closely resembles snot! What to Learn: You should understand that the guar gum from today’s experiment is a polymer, or long chain of molecules. The borax links all those polymers together in a chemical reaction, forming a gel. Materials

water
2 disposable cups
measuring spoons (tablespoon, ½ teaspoon, ¼ teaspoon)
popsicle sticks
powdered guar gum
borax (sodium tetraborate)

Lesson #16: Hidden CO2

Overview: If you’ve ever burped, you know that it’s a lot easier to do after chugging an entire soda. Now why is that? Soda is loaded with gas bubbles — carbon dioxide (CO₂), to be specific. You will experiment to determine where carbon dioxide gas may be hiding in other household items. You’ll also create your own scale to determine if CO₂ weighs the same as air, more, or less.

What to Learn: Focus on carbon dioxide for today’s experiment. Where is it? How do you know? What does carbon dioxide look like as a solid?

Materials

Part I (Hidden CO₂)

baking soda
chalk
distilled white vinegar
washing soda
disposable cups (3)
popsicle sticks (3)
Optional: Other items to experiment with: flour, baking powder, powdered sugar, or cornstarch (in place of baking soda/chalk/washing soda) and lemon juice, orange juice, or oil (in place of distilled white vinegar)

Part II (Bonus: Making a Scale to Measure CO₂)

baking soda
distilled white vinegar
two disposable cups
large container
two water bottles or stacks of books
two long pencils or skewers
string

Lesson #17: Plasma Grape

Overview: You’ve heard about solids, liquids, and gases, but is there anything else out there? It’s time to learn about plasma! Plasma makes up most of the matter in the universe, since most of it is inside of stars, and stars make up most of the matter we can detect with our eyes.

What to Learn: Clouds of gas are made up of wiggly, jiggly atoms that dance all over the place. When gases are heated, more energy is added and this makes those molecules dance around even harder. When this happens, they collide with each other more often, knocking electrons off here and there. Those naked electrons and charged ions give the gas different properties than the original gas. so scientists call this new highly energetic gas plasma.

Materials

microwave (not a new or expensive one)
green grape
red grape
cherry tomato
a knife with adult help

Lesson #18: Sensing Temperature

Overview: Have you ever wondered how an ice-cold glass of water gets water drops on the outside of the cup? It’s all about temperature change! You will see how a temperature difference can fool your fingers in today’s hot and cold experiment.

What to Learn: You will understand why condensation occurs and feel how skin can detect a temperature difference, but not an exact temperature.

Materials

cup of hot water
cup of cold water
cup of room-temperature water

Lesson #19: Indoor Rain Clouds

Overview: If you’ve ever wondered why water forms on the outside of a glass of ice water, this is your big chance to discover the real reason through chemistry and state changes.

What to Learn: This lab demonstrates evaporation and condensation of molecules in the air. Today you’ll get to make it rain indoors!

Materials

glass of ice water
glass of hot water
towel ruler

Lesson #20: Soaking Up Rays

Overview: It’s a blistering hot day and you want to wear something cool. Will you choose the dark- or light-colored outfit? Is there science involved in fashion? You bet!

What to Learn: You should discover that the sun transfers its heat in a process called radiation and that dark colors absorb the infrared radiation while light colors reflect it.

Materials

2 ice cubes, about the same size
white piece of paper
black piece of paper
a sunny day

Want More Science Activities?

These videos are samples from my online eScience Learning program. It's a complete science program for K-12. Plus, it's self-guiding, so they can do it on their own.

Access over 800 more experiments! Includes our unconditional happiness money-back guarantee! Click here to learn more.

Thank You!

Thanks for the privilege as serving as your coach and guide in your science journey. May these videos bring you much excitement and curiosity in your learning adventure!

~Aurora

Supercharged Science

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