A June STEAM project YOU can do at home!
Summer is here, but that doesn’t mean that we have to put learning on the shelf! At CACC, we keep our kids engaged and learning through play all summer long. Our Easton School Age Site recently participated in an experiment based on the book Ada Twist, Scientist by Andrea Beaty. It’s something YOU can do it at home with your favorite kiddo!
The character Ada Twist was inspired by real life scientists Ada Lovelace and Marie Curie. Ada is a curious girl who is always asking questions about the world around her. Sometimes, her experiments don’t go as planned, but she always learns a valuable lesson in thinking through problems, and to keep asking questions and searching for the answers. *Access a read-along video of the book HERE.
After you’ve read the book, help your child with this very simple but very fun Color-Changing Lemonade activity. All your mini-scientist will need to perform this experiment is lemonade and herbal tea with butterfly pea flowers in the ingredients. Butterfly pea flowers contain something called anthocyanin. Anthocyanin changes color as pH changes.  It looks bright blue at high (basic) pH’s and changes to a vivid pink at low (acidic) pH’s.
As you stir the butterfly tea into the lemonade, a chemical reaction will occur, and you should see the contents of the glass transition from yellow to purple to pink before your very eyes!
Incorporate art by having your child make a drawing of what he/she sees in the glass during the experiment.
To access the full instructions and the science behind this neat activity, visit Left Brain Craft Brain by clicking HERE.
As always, get as creative as you want, and above all else, have lots of fun learning together!