For many of you, Thanksgiving is still a month away but for Canada, Thanksgiving will be here in only a few days. There will probably be tons of turkey, and all the fixings that goes with them. People will eat and be thankfully and then at the end of the meal, they will scrape the meat from the turkey bones and toss the rest.

Or…

You could take a few of those turkey bones and create a science experiment with your kids. This is a lot of fun and kids are always amazed by how it works.

What you need:

• Turkey Bones (the thinner the better. If the bones are too thick this experiment will take the better part of a week and you lose the excitement for it before it has even finished.)
• Vinegar
• A jar or glass. (I prefer a jar since I can close it.)

Directions:

Day One:

1. Clean off all the excess meat from the chicken bone.
2. Talk to your children about the bone, have them touch the bone and discuss if it is hard or if it is soft. Discussion is key to every experiment.
3. Pour vinegar into the jar.
4. Place in the bones and leave overnight. If they are thin enough, the experiment should only take a day but if they aren’t really thin, it will take about two or three days.
5. Make sure everyone washes their hands.

Day Two:

1. Remove the turkey bones from the vinegar. They should be soft and bendable.
2. Discuss what has happened to them. Allow your children to touch them and bend them.
3. Tie the bones into knots. You can tie them together or simply place knots in each bone. Sometimes the bones will slide out of the knot so I find just placing a clip on either end keeps them secure.
4. Place in a high cupboard out of the way (especially if you have any cats that might be tempted by a bone)
5. Leave the bones overnight (this should only take one night but check the bones before you pull them out for the last stage.
6. Make sure everyone washes their hands.

Day Three:

1. Take out the bones and explore them.
2. Remove any clips if you used them.
3. The bones should be hard, and back to normal except that they are now knotted.

The science behind it all:

Like everyone knows, when you become a parent all the secrets of the world are not revealed to you, although at times you wish that they were, and you might be just as stumped by this experiment as I was the first time I did it and my kids asked, “why?”

So just so you can explain to your child(ren) what has happened, let’s look at the science behind this experiment.

Obviously, the main answer is that we are dealing with a chemical reaction when we do this experiment. Bones contain a substance called “calcium carbonate” and it is this substance that causes the bones to remain hard. When you add vinegar, which is a acetic acid, the chemical reaction occurs.

Carbon dioxide is created and you should see it in the vinegar as tiny bubbles. The carbon is taken from the bones and they begin to soften. When there is no longer any carbon in the bones, the bones can be bent and tied without fear of breaking them.

Now for the really interesting part. Since carbon is in the air around us, it is very easy for the reverse reaction to occur. When you leave the turkey bone out for the night, the calcium that is still in the bone takes the carbon back into the bone. This makes the bone hard again and since you had reshaped it, it will harden into whatever shape you created.

So in essence, you get two reactions in one experiment and a whole new way to look at turkey dinner.

Sirena Van Schaik

photo credit

• Cheat Sheets: Snails It has been a while since I wrote a cheat sheet for That Parent Place so I figured it was time to do so again. Right now, I am the proud snail-sitter of about 10 snails. They will be going back into a nice spot in my yard very soon,......
• Summer Safety: Poison Ivy Whether you are out hiking, camping or simply up at the cottage, chances are you may run into some poison ivy, or actually, your child may run into some poison ivy. There really is no way around it, beside keeping your child locked in the tent throughout the entire trip......
• Craft Project: Building a Volcano Well, since I did a cheat sheet on volcanoes and I have talked about them a few times, I thought I would give you a how-to on building a volcano. This is actually a pretty fun activity and many kids can take advantage of this when they need a science......
• Plant Safety With the warm days finally upon us, many gardeners are getting out into their gardens and parents with children are no exception. If your kids are anything like mine, they are already getting ready for the run to the local greenhouse to pick up some annuals and more perennials than I had......
• Craft Project: Ice Cube Painting One of the best activities that I have ever done in my class is ice cube painting.  It is fast, fun and children can do a lot of things with the experience.  It is a perfect craft for those hot summers when you want to do something creative while providing......

• Should I Get A Cat Or A Dog? Advice from a cat person who's gone to the dogs I was a committed cat person, but due to some interesting circumstances, I now have two dogs. I would never have considered getting a dog before for the following reasons: Dogs smell bad. Dogs have to be walked every......
• USA/South Korea Stem Cells to Restore Sight and Hearing Stem cells that could restore sight and hearing have been discovered in an experiment that has been performed successfully in animals. But according to two teams of scientists, it is an important step which will lead to future applications in humans. A team from the Chonnam National University of......
• Frugal Family Fun Night Tonight begins a new tradition in the frugal household - Family Fun Nights. My wife and I agreed a while back we were spending too little quality time together as a family, and too much time parked in front of the television. We have scaled back to basic cable which......
• Clarinet Guide Part 2 The keyword on a clarinet is either played using silver or nickel. On a rare occasion, gold may be used for the key work on the clarinet. Nickel plating is durable, and it does not tarnish near as easily as silver. Nickel plating is also preferred in many occasions because......
• Should We Leave Money To Our Kids? The subject of kids and money is an emotional one for many people.  Most of us would do anything for our kids, and often times that means doing things like sacrificing our own financial well-being to secure an education for our children.  Others continue to help their adult children, financially,......

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Tags: acetic acid, calcium carbonate, carbon dioxide, chemical reaction, children's science experiment, Fun with Science, science experiement, science experiments for kids, Thanksgiving, turkey, turkey bone experiment, turkey bones, turkey experiment, vinegar

Trackback URI | Comments RSS