A Magical Homeschool
A hands-on, joy-led home education
The Purple Cabbage pH Experiment
Purple cabbage, like elderberry juice, is a natural pH indicator. That means that it changes colors depending when you add substances to it of varying pH levels. More acidic substances, like vinegar and lemon juice, turn it more pink. More basic substances, like dish detergent, turn it more blue.
We came up with this experiment in our own homeschool over ten years ago and it’s been a really fun activity that we’ve come back to many times over the years and introduced lots of other homeschooling friends too.
You have to do this with your kiddos. Not only is it educational, but it’s just insanely fun. 🙂
Here’s all you do.
1. Chop about 2 cups of purple cabbage and cover with boiling water. Put a lid on it and steep for about 10 minutes.
2. Strain out the liquid and reserve. It should be a deep blue-purple color, though it may be affected somewhat by your water.
3. Put a little cabbage water in each compartment of a light colored ice cube tray or similar container with many sections. For little kids, a muffin tin works well.
4. Assemble a variety of substances (preferably white or clear) to test. For younger kids, put just a few in some larger dishes. Older kids can gather lots of test substances and use them directly from the containers.
5. Give each child a small spoon and an eye dropper and explain about the pH (potential of Hydrogen) scale and how pH indicators change color to reflect the pH value of substances (more pink for acidic, more towards green or almost yellow for base, though blue was generally as alkaline as we got). This site gives more background info (though they do a different experiment).
6. Let the kids add various substances and see what happens! Make sure you keep track of which substance was added to which compartment.
Check out this range of colors Victoria got from various substances!
(Substances used on top from left to right: hot sauce, white wine, lemon juice, witch hazel, alcohol, fingernail polish remover, hydrogen peroxide. On bottom: control spot with nothing added, baking powder, alum, salt, club soda, apple cider vinegar, baking soda)
Some of the best reactions were from the alum, hydrogen peroxide, hot sauce (2 drops and it was hot pink!), wine, club soda… okay, there were an awful lot of good substances, and even those that didn’t change much taught us something!
Next time I’d like to compare rainwater (or melted snow) to tap water to distilled water, plus see about detergent (which is supposed to be very alkaline).
But wait, there’s more! Once you’ve changed the colors of the liquid in each, challenge the kids to change it back! Ask them to think about what they can add to a hot pink to make it blue again, for instance. In a few cases, you end up with a reaction (notably baking soda and vinegar ending up in one compartment).
Obviously, don’t put out substances that can react violently together (like bleach and ammonia) but I wouldn’t recommend putting those out to begin with. The harshest solution we dealt with was probably the fingernail polish remover, which only Victoria and Anna used.
When younger children are doing this activity, I only put out very benign materials like baking soda, lemon juice, baking powder and vinegar. Even with just these they can change the colors back and forth and make reactions. We’ve had some of our younger kids stay busy with a muffin tin, cabbage water, bowls of baking soda and vinegar and an eye dropper all afternoon.
Discuss pH while you do this activity — how shampoo is supposed to be pH balanced so it doesn’t sting eyes, how some hydrangeas are pink in acidic soil and blue in alkaline, and so on.
It’s available in Kindle version or print version (which also includes nature journal pages, logs for bird sightings, garden/foraging records and more). 🙂 (affiliate link)
Post Author: A Magical Homeschool
Related posts, fun (non-traditional) ways for kids to learn foreign languages.
Are your kids interested in learning a foreign language? There are lots of great apps and curricula, but there are also fantastic...
21 Games & Activities to Sneakily Improve Spelling
Looking for some fun ways to help improve your child's spelling without boring curricula or spelling tests? There are so many fun ways to...
50+ Magical Ways to Learn Together This Week
Looking for some fun ways to learn with the kiddos? Here are oodles of ways to use fun and games to learn math, history, geography,...
50+ Ways to Learn and Play With Social Studies
Looking for some hands-on ways for kids to work on history, geography, government and more? There are so many great ways to work on...
50+ Real Life Ways to Learn Math
Looking for some hands-on ways for kids to work on multiplication, fractions, ratios, algebra and more? There are so many great ways...
10 Wonderful Ways to Learn with Nature in March – Alicia Bayer
[…] is one of those science projects that’s so much fun the kids will ask to do it again and again. Use purple cabbage juice to test pH of household liquids and make all sorts of […]
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
Cabbage Chemistry for Homeschoolers
Share this post:, purple cabbage as a ph indicator., what is cabbage indicator chemistry.
Cabbage, and many other edible foods that are blue or purple act as natural pH indicators. We often use purple cabbage in chemistry labs looking at natural pH indicators because it goes through the most colors, but another popular natural pH indicator is beetroot. You can see our comparison between purple cabbage and beetroot as pH indicators .
Why do some foods act as pH indicators?
Some foods act as natural pH indicators because they contain a molecule called anthocyanin. Anthocyanin changes its structure depending on the acidity of the solution it is in. You can see the changes that anthocyanin goes through as the pH of a solution changes .
Worried about doing the lab with your kids? Check out my parent-teacher video below! Seriously, this lab is so much fun, I would hate for anyone to miss out on it because they thought it would be hard! I will walk you through the whole lab, talk about what to expect, ways to help your kids become scientists, and bring it into your home in an easy to understand way! You can also check out our post explaining what a pH indicator is .
Thrive Leads Shortcode could not be rendered, please check it in Thrive Leads Section!
3 thoughts on “Cabbage Chemistry for Homeschoolers”
- Pingback: 5 Coolest Thanksgiving STEM projects to keep kids busy while you cook
- Pingback: Secret Spy Letters for Thanksgiving Fun - Rosie Research
- Pingback: Make color changing paint with natural pH indicators - Rosie Research
Comments are closed.
IMAGES
VIDEO
COMMENTS
The Purple Cabbage pH Experiment. Purple cabbage, like elderberry juice, is a natural pH indicator. That means that it changes colors depending when you add substances to it of varying pH levels. More acidic substances, like vinegar and lemon juice, turn it more pink.
Introduction. What if you could take a single liquid, and change it into a rainbow of colors without using food dye. You can! In this activity you will use red cabbage to make what is called an indicator solution. Indicator solutions can change colors depending on what you add to them.
Science Buddies board member Courtney Corda, her son, and another mother-daughter team demonstrate how to put cabbage to work as a pH indicator. In this science experiment, you can extract your own cabbage juice indicator and use it to test the pH of different solutions around your home.
Let’s learn about acids and bases by conducting the Purple Cabbage experiment! Connected Standard: 3.2 1.A.6 Participate in simple investigations of matter to answer a question or to test a prediction.
Cabbage Chemistry Experiment. A solution is a mixture of a soluble chemical dissolved in water. Think about the difference between saltwater and tap water. The salt in the salt water has dissolved and the solution looks clear, but the salt is still there and will taste salty if you taste it.
Make a beautiful colour changing liquid from cabbage juice, and explore the science of indicator solutions in this fun chemistry experiment for children.Down...
Purple cabbage juice is a pH indicator, or a substance that changes color when it's mixed with an acid or base. If you add an acid to the cabbage juice, it turns pinkish red. The more red the...
Today’s experiment is called “pH testing using Purple cabbage” ta…da…. All liquids range on the pH scale, as acidic, neutral, or basic. An indicator is a special type of substance that ...
9.1 Acids, Bases & Purple Cabbage Objectives: 1. To demonstrate the basic physical and chemical properties of acids and bases. 2. To undersatnd what a pH scale is, and be able to interpret pH data. 3. To be able to predict pH values of different substances by testing them with indicators.
Purple cabbage is a common natural ph indicators experiment that is fun to do at home. Download our cabbage indicator lab to record your findings as well as learn the role of molecular changes in a compound called anthocyanin.