Science Experiments with Pantry Staples: What You Can Do with Ten Cheap Ingredients
By Ahmed, founder
You can run months of home science from one kitchen cupboard. Here are ten staples, what each does and where to start.
The ten
1. Baking soda. A base. Fizzes with acids, makes invisible ink. How do spies write secret messages?
2. White vinegar. An acid. Reacts with baking soda to make carbon dioxide. What makes a volcano erupt?
3. Cornstarch. Makes oobleck, a non-Newtonian fluid. Is oobleck a solid or a liquid?
4. Table salt. Lowers the freezing point of water, grows crystals, helps extract DNA. Why does salt melt ice?
5. Sugar. Dissolves, grows crystals and compares with salt on ice. How do crystals grow?
6. Vegetable oil. Floats on water, shows density. Why do the blobs in a lava lamp go up and down?
7. Food colouring. Makes invisible things visible: diffusion, mixing, layers. Why does food colouring spread faster in hot water?
8. Dish soap. Breaks up fats and cell membranes. Can you pull DNA out of a strawberry?
9. Aluminium foil. A reflector and conductor. Which hat keeps the sun off?
10. Dried beans. Seeds that sprout in a bag. What does a seed need to grow?
Add a few non-food basics
Zip-top bags, clear plastic cups, tape, scissors, a ruler, a measuring cup, string, paper and a marker. With these, you can run most experiments in our family units.
Substitutions
- No cornstarch? In some countries it’s called corn flour.
- No baking soda? Fizzy tablets can make gas in water.
- No Epsom salt? Table salt works for crystals, more slowly.
Safety
Even pantry items need care: keep ingredients away from eyes, don’t taste experiments, check for allergies and never mix cleaning products. See kitchen science safety rules.
Where to begin
Our Kitchen Chemistry for Families unit uses mostly these ingredients. Sign up for three lessons free.