Spring Into STEM: STEM For Success shares hands-on STEM experiences for students of all ages to foster discovery and fun. To post questions or read the activity plans for these demonstrations see: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vS8P_EcB2Ba9fXGZl4SXvL__FiXavr2O900GradYMMtKQt3gvSjOPTbh30tF_4tZCG6VmerhHiFQIHz/pub

STEM For Success shares hands-on STEM experiences for students of all ages to foster discovery and fun. To post questions or read the activity plans for these demonstrations see: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vTs2uuZp0_ZchRxjkB8_1FJ1LsQrrnVELUDg51Kf9yphCTxCGaJ8CHJYw9bzce-zVAGrjgCWurSu37V/pub

Presenting two activities: "Science of Baking Bread" and "Making Caramel"

STEM for Success presents "Creating Invisible Ink At Home"! In this video, we will show how to easily make your own invisible using household supplies that are readily available. PDF for Materials: 1/2 spoon Baking soda 1/4 spoon Turmeric 1 Q-tip 1 cotton ball 2 small bowls 1 white sheet paper Water Procedure: Step 1: Making the invisible ink - Add 1⁄2 spoon of baking soda and 2 spoons of water to a small bowl - Mix using your Q-tip Step 2: Making the revealing solution - Add 1⁄4 spoon of turmeric and 3 spoons of water to your second small bowl - Mix using a spoon Step 3: Writing the message - Using a Q-tip dipped in the baking soda solution, write your message on a white sheet of paper - Wait until the message is dry Step 4: Revealing the message - Dip a cotton ball in the turmeric solution, and dab it over your paper. The secret message will show up in red! How it Works: First, we need a little background about acids and bases: Acids typically have a significant amount of H+ ions, while bases have a significant amount of OH- ions. The pH scale (shown below) is a way to measure how acidic or basic a solution is, and is determined by the concentration of H+ or OH-. Turmeric is a pH indicator, which means its color depends on the pH of the solution it is in. Specifically, it turns red when the pH is a lot more than seven. Since our baking soda solution has a pH of around 8, it makes the turmeric red, which allows the message to show up!