Colorful Cranberry ChemistryA�er the big meal, turn your le�over cranberries or cranberry sauce into a chemistry experiment.

Collect• Whole cranberries or cranberry sauce

• Hot water

• A large bowl

• 1 sandwich sized zip-top bag

• Baking soda

• Lemon juice

• Spoon

• Teaspoon

Make a cranberry concoction1. If you are using whole cranberries, place a handful in a large bowl and squish them as best you can with the back of a spoon. Pour hot water over the mashed berries and let them set for a few hours. Once the liquid has cooled, strain out any solid cranberries, leaving the red liquid behind.

2. If you are using cranberry sauce, place about a cup of sauce in the large bowl. Pour hot water over the sauce and stir until the sauce breaks down into a very thin liquid.

Mix it up3. Pour some of your cranberry liquid into a sealable sandwich bag, filling it about 1/3 of the way full.

4. Add two teaspoons of baking soda to the bag. Do not close or seal the bag, just wait a few minutes and observe what happens.

5. Add two teaspoons of lemon juice to the bag. Wait a few minutes and observe what happens.

What’s happening?A chemical reaction happens when two or more things are mixed to produce something new. How can you tell if a chemical reaction has occured? If there is a color change, a change in temperature, or something new is produced (like a bubble of gas) then it may be a chemical reaction. You should have noticed two things to signal that a chemical reaction has occured in the bag: fizzing and a color change. The fizzing occurs because the baking soda is reacting with the acid in the cranberries to produce bubbles of carbon dioxide gas, just like when you mix baking soda and vinegar together. The color change occurs because cranberries contain a pigment called anthocyanin. In addition to giving cranberries their red color, this pigment acts as a natural pH indicator which changes color in the presence of the basic baking soda and the acidic lemon juice.

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