Does an acid or a base clean pennies better?
Students clean pennies with acidic and basic solutions to determine which cleans copper better. This activity should be done after Mysterious Solutions. Materials 1 qt water + baking soda 1 qt water + Lava soap shavings 1/2 qt lemon juice 1 qt vinegar 4 8-oz. cups for each group 100 dirty pennies What To Do DIVIDE the class into groups of four students with the following roles: • Materials Handler: Distributes materials. • Equipment Handler: Manipulates materials. • Recorder: Records results. • Speaker: Shares results with the class. Materials Handlers PASS OUT the following to each group: 8 oz. cup of baking soda solution; 8 oz. cup of vinegar solution; 8 oz. cup of lemon juice; 8 oz. cup of Lava soap solution; 4 dirty pennies. Equipment Handlers CLASSIFY the substances into acids and bases based on findings from the Mysterious Solutions activity. Lemon juice and vinegar are acids; Lava soap and baking soda are bases. Equipment Handlers PLACE a penny into each solution. Recorders WRIT
