Looking back on my childhood, I 100% see the benefits of kitchen chemistry. I had this friend Emily who lived around the block from me. Even though we went to the same school, I met her through a friend who lived down the street from me. Emily and I would ride bikes a lot. We’d hop on our bikes and explore the neighborhood. Nothing too far from home, and back in time for dinner. Now I can’t remember whose idea it was, but we did the vinegar and baking soda reaction. I remember standing in Emily’s kitchen as her parents collected the ingredients we needed. We must have done this a few times, because I also remember doing the specific reaction on the street curb in front of my house. Either way, in my memories, I can still see the bubble forming in the red solo cup on the street curb.
It really stands out to me, but I couldn’t really tell you why. My first recognition of a chemical reaction, or hanging out with my friend and trying something new for the first time? Maybe it was the spring air and having a little freedom to ride around town by ourselves? All I know is that this is a big time memory for me.
And now that I’ve been a teacher, I can say with certainty this feeling comes back EVERY TIME I show kids something super cool in the lab. Whether it’s Elephant’s Toothpaste, Flame Test, or making ice cream. Somehow I still get the chemistry butterflies over it.
And now as a chemistry teacher, here’s my professional opinion about all of the benefits of kitchen chemistry for you and your students (or your kids – this is great for homeschool too!)
Cheap
A jug of vinegar is $3, and a box of baking soda is about the same. Compared to the crazy chemicals that are probably shoved in the back of your stock closet, this is an easy thing to come up with. I use sugar and sugar cubes in the factors that affect solubility lab. Making ice cream can be a bit of a pain for a whole class, but you probably have all that stuff in your kitchen right now for just your family. You could use salt and sugar to discuss differences in ionic and covalent bonds. I use glow sticks for Collision Theory. I have glow sticks in our emergency kit we could borrow from (seriously I have a lot). If you made a giant “grocery” list of kitchen chemistry materials, it’d probably hit $50.
Easy to Get Kitchen Chemistry Materials
The chemicals across the board that you’d use in kitchen chemistry experiments are usually found in a grocery or drug store. There’s no need to go to some speciality website to get these materials. In fact, some of the typical chemicals require big time credentials to get your hands on. One of the primary benefits of kitchen chemistry is that these chemicals are really no-fuss. You can get them fresh, or steal a bit from your kitchen at home.
Chemistry in Your Real Life
Teaching chemistry is tough because it can be super hard to relate it to your real life. Try to make atoms and molecules relevant to a teenager and tell me otherwise! (Seriously, I’ll take all the help I can get.) This is one of the driving benefits of kitchen chemistry. It’s literally the chemistry of your kitchen! Bake a loaf of bread – there’s (my favorite) fermentation reaction. You may accidentally stumble upon a fermented pineapple on your kitchen counter because YOU HEARD IT bubbling. (Debated eating it, but decided to pass)
Making caramel is done by melting down sugar in butter. You can discuss melting points, and covalent bonds here. Why is vinegar used in laundry to cut down on hard water and soften clothing? How can baking soda be used to bleach a stained coffee mug? Don’t even get me started on lemons!
A lot of this is macro, or substance level chemistry. This means you have to teach the micro/atomic level chemistry first. I have a bunch of cool stuff for that too (just search “labs” in the box at the top of the page). When making real world connections, kids learn better, and faster and have more fun. I mean, I had no idea what was going on during that vinegar and baking soda reaction at the time, but I can still see it foaming up!
Shareable
I don’t know who came up with the idea to try this reaction, me or Emily. But one of us shared it with the other. Sharing or reteaching is the ultimate form of learning! Imagine your students going home and sharing a kitchen chemistry lab with their family. That not only proves that they learned the content, but that they deeply understood it. Plus, they were excited about it! I’ve had this happen a few times. My students return to my classroom after lab day, and report they did the lab AGAIN at home with a family member. It makes me so thrilled when that’s a little brother or sister.
The benefits of kitchen chemistry are seriously outstanding. And this doesn’t mean that standard chemistry experiments aren’t great too. They both have their place. I have a blog post on 15 of my favorite “chemical free” lab activities you should check out if I’ve sold you on kitchen chemistry labs. In fact, I also have a lab book available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store which is upwards of 80% kitchen chemistry experiments.
If you need a chemistry curriculum, I have one for you! You can get a free copy of my chemistry curriculum outline. This outline explains how I teach chemistry and the order in which I teach the units. There’s also a link to a live document of my day-by-day outline of each and every lesson I teach.
