pH / Acid's and Alkali's unit

We started the unit by watching a couple of brainpop videos that describe Acid and Alkali and the pH scale (potential of Hydrogen)


They followed this by writing up what they had learnt and doing a venn diagram activity

Once completed we moved on to the practical activities - first we made red cabbage water

and used it to identify the different pH of various household items (lemonade, vinegar, baking powder, cream of tartar, laundry powder and lemons)

we also compared the results from litmus paper to our red cabbage water results. (as you can see they arranged it in ascending pH order)

They worked on using acids and bases to neutralise each other

first they tested to make sure they had an acid and base

then they used them to neutralise each other (we used baking soda and vinegar)- the foaming is caused by the release of carbon dioxide and you are left with a salt and water,

when they tested with litmus paper the remaining liquid came out at pH7 or neutral (same as water).

They seemed to really enjoy this activity and repeated it 5 times : )


The final activity was to see how acid affects metal which provided a great opportunity to learn all about lab safety and the hazard symbols.