A few weeks ago our homeschool coop did a few "messy science" lessons with all of the kids. It was a lot of fun and one of the favorite projects was doing invisible ink!
To start out, you need some paper, a pan with water and baking soda, paint brushes, hand sanitizer (or anything with alcohol in it), and turmeric. You mix up the water and some baking soda and put it in a pan or bowl and have the kids dip their hands in it. Then put the handprint on a paper. They can also paint on it with a paint brush.
Next leave it out in the sun for a few minutes until it's dry. It will have a little bit of baking soda caked on it when it is dry, but it won't be too obvious.
After it has dried out, mix the hand sanitizer and turmeric together. Then begin to paint this orange mixture over the paper with the baking soda handprint on it.
As you paint, the handprint and anything else painted with the baking soda mixture begins to show. The turmeric is a natural pH indicator. When it’s in contact with something alkaline, it turns red.
This project is a lot of fun and the kids even enjoyed putting more baking soda on their papers after they had painted them with the turmeric mixture to see what would happen. It will stain, so be careful not to get it on any furniture, plastic, or clothing!
The kids really did have a lot of fun doing this project and they were surprised to see their handprints turn such a red color. Give it a try and let me know how it goes!
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