John Monash Science School – Little Scientists

In John Monash Science School me, Gargi, Olivia, Nevon and Mr Lewis experienced something mind boggling, that even teachers find fascinating. The ph scale ranges from 0 – 14 and represents how basic or acidic certain liquids are. Something that I learnt was that we could create our own ph indicator just by using red cabbage and water, it turns out that the red cabbage has certain chemicals which react to different liquids and change colour based on how acidic or basic it is.

However, we noticed that the red cabbage indicator was a tad bit off when we measured with the universal indicator. This was a very fascinating experience for me and the other science captains, I hope we will do it again next time. 

Reflection by Nevon 

John Monash science school: At John Monash, we were testing the acidic levels of different liquids. As a mini lesson we looked at a mixture of chemicals which would change colour over time and as you poured it from one beaker to another it would change even faster. I thought this happened because as it was being poured back and forth air was being incorporated into the chemical reaction therefore causing it to change. 

Main lesson: At John Monash we were testing acidic levels of different liquids like orange juice, lemonade, lemon juice, milk, cloudy ammonia, etc. We had two different types of reactors to test with, one homemade red lettuce reactor and a universal reactor. We realised that the homemade reactor would be in the same area as the acidic levels of the liquid and the universal reactor would get on it exactly, I was surprised by how acidic milk is a thought milk would be quite a basic liquid but turns out it is in the middle. I had lots of fun, experimenting with different reactors and the difference between the results.