Chemistry workshop: We create our lemonades, bread, perfumes and creams.

 A lemonade is a mixture of solid elements (sugar), liquids (lemon and water) and gases (bicarbonate); we produce chemical reactions, changes of state (ice to water), solutions (sparkling lemonade), infusions, distillations… to produce soft drinks, soaps, perfumes, creams, insect repellants, in short chemical compounds….

Goals to achieve:

- To know chemistry process like dissolutions, reactions, mixtures, separations of substances

Contents to be developed:

- Dissolutions, chemistry reactions, mixtures, mix solids…

Methodology: 

Is a lemonade a dissolution? 

It's a mix? 

It's hot and what better way to fight it with a lemonade. For this we are going to "dissolve" lemon juice in water, or orange ...

If we also put some ice cubes, it will go from solid to liquid, producing a "change of state" and cooling said solution.

We can also "dissolve" a little solid sugar and it will be sweeter and richer ..


Making perfumes.

 Perfume is also a mixture of substances that smell good. That is, another dissolution.
They are usually oils that dissolve in alcohol (perfumes) or in solid solvents such as beeswax (creams).
We are going to produce perfumes by mixing different substances in alcohol that smell great like lemon, eucalyptus, flowers ...

To carry out this workshop, we will take branches of rosemary or eucalyptus from the school patio, crush it and mix it with lemon and alcohol diluted in water. In addition to smelling good, it will protect us from summer mosquitoes.

Creams are also solid mixtures with aromatic oils.
They are usually solid oils such as waxes and substances that smell good (rosemary, vanilla…), that have properties for the body (aloe vera, almond oil…); or to repel insects (citronella oil).


Citronella oil is obtained from geranium, which is a plant that smells like lemon. 

To make creams we will use beeswax as an option.

Distillation: How to separate liquids?
Distillation is separating liquids using heat.
We can separate the alcohol from the wine, as it evaporates before other components.
We are going to obtain rosemary oil, putting it in a pot with water and rosemary leaves, we put it in the sun and wait for the water to evaporate, leaving a liquid that smells very good.
Then we separate the liquid from the solid by filtering it with a strainer.

Infusions: extraction of liquids.

An infusion is a drink obtained from leaves, flowers, roots ...
To these leaves, hot water is poured to dissolve substances that interest us.
They are very refreshing for the summer.
Chamomile or tea are very appetizing with a little ice and sugar, which would be very useful in the camp to make our own infusions.

Mix solids: shakes.

Another way to beat the summer heat during camp is to blend solids to make smoothies.
We crush fruit and add a little cold water, so we will have a super, super refreshing smoothie.
If you put it in the freezer for a little while, we will produce a change of state, since we have made a very nutritious ice cream.
Chemical reactions: acids and bases.
There are foods that are acidic (SOUR) like lemon ... and others that are basic or alkaline (BITTER) like milk, tea, or bicarbonate ...
If we mix lemon with bicarbonate, we produce a salt (like FANTA) and gas that is carbon dioxide. We have done a chemical reaction with this fizzy drink.
Be careful, because if we throw a lot, we can send a rocket into space or produce a volcano.
We can tell if an element is acidic or basic by putting a strip of paper that changes color (PH).

Like other years we will make a rocket by mixing baking soda with vinegar or lemon to launch a cork stopper.

We make our own bread: Fermentation.

Fermentation is an oxidation process, the end product of which is an organic compound. It transforms starch into glucose, which is a simpler molecule.
Gas is released in the process, causing the bread to swell.
The ferment or yeast are microscopic fungi that allow fermentation, so once the dough is made we must let it rest so that it swells. Then it is baked until it sounds hollow.
We will carry out the process and later we will try to take it to an oven for fermentation.
We will use the following doses of the components.
500 grams of flour
300-320 grams of water.
10 grams of salt (1 teaspoon)
4 grams of dry yeast