From apple juice to gatorade, our kids experience drink based solutions every day. In the summer, that cool sweet tea that’s full of ice, tastes different initially than it does when all the ice melts though….and that’s a curious science concept called dilution, the subject of Today’s What’s Inside our Juiceboxes. Lemonade can be both too sweet and too sour. And why is apple juice always a golden color and fruit punch red. Weird right, well our students explored what’s inside their juiceboxes in What’s Inside Nearly Everything, so they can learn that color, flavor, and sweetness are a function of concentration and dilution.
Our young scientists explored making a solution less concentrated by adding water to juices.
Water is an incredible solvent and any child will tell you not to add any water to their juicy drinks, because they already know that it affects the flavor. By investigating the relative concentration and dilution of both solid powders (sugar, salt, citric acid) as well as various liquid flavorings (vanilla, strawberry, pumpkin) into water, our students explored the basic science behind making a juice that fits your own palette.
The color of juice matters to a kid, and just looking at the box of most fruity drinks, you can see Red 40, Yellow 5 and Yellow 6, as there is something about the color that seemingly enhances the flavor (or experience) of juice. Try giving a kid gatorade for the first time that is dye-free, and you will see that even at a young age, we expect our drinks to be fun colors. Our students explored the basic science of concentration and dilution by taking dark green (for example) and trying to match it to a teacher’s light green, only using a pipette and water to dilute the mixture. All of this set the background in discovering how flavor, color, and sweetness are important factors in designing any juicy drink, from lemonade to strawberry kool-aid. Our students applied what they learned about concentration and dilution as they applied What’s Inside Nearly Everything to create their very own custom lemonade or juicebox.
If you are having a great time in Wheaton, South Loop, and Northbrook, we opened a new classroom to accommodate you if you need an additional week of camp for Med School (next week) or Spy Gadget Camp (two weeks from now). As a loyalty reward for registering for an additional week, just contact our live customer service agent at https://direct.lc.chat/13887540/ or at 773-798-2012 and say “Loyalty 22”. Your science takeaway card for Concentration and Dilution is below….
What’s Inside My Juicebox - Takeaway Card for Parents