Welcome to our first daily activity!
We are so excited that you are joining us! Today we will be using the scientific method as we experiment to see which kitchen ingredient will have the biggest effect on a dirty penny. We’ll start by learning a little about the penny and what happens to copper when it is exposed to oxygen and the elements. And this will lead us to even learn a little about the Statue of Liberty! We’ll then get into the experiment.
Are you ready to get started? We are! Let’s get started!
A note to moms, dads & supervising adults: Some of these links go to YouTube. As long as they watch on the webpage, it won’t go to YouTube. Please make sure to monitor your kids as they are watching the attached videos. Things labeled “Primary” is best for grades Kindergarten through 3rd, and things labeled “Intermediate” are best for grades 3rd and above, but you know your kiddos best.
Coins (Primary)
Facts You Didn’t Know about the Penny (Intermediate)
Pennies can turn green. This is caused by oxidation. Learn all about oxidation below.
(Primary &Intermediate)
All About the Statue of Liberty (Primary &Intermediate)
Time for the experiment!
Alright, it is time for the experiment. The video will go through everything you need and the steps. As a heads up, you’ll need: dirty pennies, small cups or bowls, ketchup, mustard, vinegar, soda, paper towels.
My daughter really enjoyed this! Looking forward to more lessons.
My 3 kids enjoyed this experiment and were surprised by their results.
We used ketchup, mustard, vinegar, soda, and salt water. Only ketchup worked.
Why do you think the ketchup had more of an effect than the others?
super fun experiment! thank you!
Great experiment! My son really liked it. Looking forward to more.
This was great! My niece loved it. Even made a little video after of her findings. Kept her busy for hours! Thank you!
So excited to hear! For the weekend we are coming up with an open-ended engineering design challenge. Stay tuned!
We tried all of yours but added tabasco sauce. It worked great!
What a great way to extend! Thanks for sharing your results.
I love the inspiration
This was so much fun for my girls (ages 4 and 6)! Ketchup worked the best for us. By the way, miss you Gibble!!
Awww… So glad you guys enjoyed! Be sure to try today’s– it’s a colorful fun!
Ketchup worked the best for us. Vinegar, mustard, and syrup were ok Soda didn’t really work at all. Could you post an explanation for us? We would like to know why!
Vinegar is known to be a good natural cleaner and deodorizer because it is acidic. It can counteract and dissolve dirty build ups and grime. Specifically for this experiment, the acid helps breakdown the copper oxide. And whether you know it or not, vinegar is a main ingredient in both mustard and ketchup. Now, the reason ketchup usually has the biggest effect on dirty pennies is that it not only contains vinegar, but tomatoes, which are acidic themselves. Ketchup also contains salt which aids in the breaking down of copper oxide. As far as soda goes, it’s just really sugar water, so it generally doesn’t do much. Kids often think that the “bubbles” will help clean the penny, but it generally doesn’t. Now, I do have to give the disclaimer that it does depend on how dirty your pennies were when they went in and also “what kind of dirt”. But generally, ketchup has the best results.
Thank you! This was very interesting. Now we’re going to do the next experiment.
We loved it thanks so much!
So happy to hear! Be sure to check out today’s!
My kids loved this experiment! We got a lot of varied results, but the Pepsi and orange juice did the best job cleaning. Looking forward to more science!
Orange juice… that’s a great idea! It makes sense though, since it is quite acidic. Thanks for sharing!
Great engaging activity! It’s always a plus when my nine year olds can talk about the activity and what they learned at the end. I may have even learned a few things myself 😀
We saw the best results with vinegar, mustard, ketchup, and (amazingly) chocolate syrup. Orange juice and blue Gatorade did nothing.
Thank you for taking the time to do this. Please keep these awesome activities coming.
Chocolate syrup?? Now that’s a surprise! Thanks for sharing, and we are so glad you’re enjoying it and even learning a little something:) We will definitely keep the activities coming!
Thanks for the experiment! We didn’t get around to setting it up until today, but it was great fun! Even for a first grader, although she was mostly excited to drink the leftover soda! Hope you post more soon!
You are most welcome! We post one every day (Monday-Friday). You can find it at http://www.clubscikidzmd.com/blog/ or there’s always a link to it on our Facebook page. You can also subscribe on our blog and have it sent directly to your email!
Our best result was vinegar! Thanks for the experiment and the daily posts – makes it easy to have science a part of every day
My girls (ages 6 through 13) loved this. Thanks for the fun activity!
Thanks for letting us know! We hope they’ll enjoy the rest!
I used coke, mustard, vinegar, ketchup, and salt water. Ketchup worked best. Awesome experiment!
Thanks for sharing your results!
My 2nd grade daughter and 5 year old preschool son had so much fun. Thank you very much for posting!
You are very welcome! We hope you have the chance to try some of our other experiments and activities!
Wonderful activity! I have a seven year old and at first before starting this, she was like, “Aww, I don’t want to do science!” but after watching some of the videos and then seeing how we were going to carry out the experiment, she was game! Thank you for these wonderful activities to keep kids and parents sane. We also tried lemon juice but ketchup and mustard seemed to do the most work at cleaning the pennies.
So glad to hear she enjoyed it. And if she gives a few others a chance, I bet we can make a scientist out of her 🙂