Most ideas for experiments involving chemistry require expensive and hard to find supplies. Experimenting with Vitamin C isn’t like that. In addition to foods containing Vitamin C, you will only need iodine, cornstarch, water, a pot, and a medicine dropper.

First you’ll extract juice from your fruits or vegetables, then you’ll make what is called a ‘titrating’ solution with cornstarch and water – a very easy process. You’ll add the titrating to your juices a drop at a time, and count the number of drops it takes until the solution turns blue. This will indicate how much Vitamin C (did you know it’s really called ascorbic acid?!) is in the juice you are testing. It’s a cool process that is fascinating to watch and do.

You can also use your own ideas to change our experiment up a bit. We give you instructions on how to do that in the expanded version of this experiment in our Middle School Science Project package.

We get notes all the time from kids who have used our Vitamin C science project ideas and have won their science fair.

Purchase our package of guides, and you’ll get step-by-step instructions for this project, a list of online and offline references, and photographs. You can enter your information into our charts, and the graph of your data is created automatically! Plus, you’ll get four more guides – so your science project ideas can really multiply. Get your guide at
24 Hour Science Projects today!

PS I didn’t mention that this science project idea can be finished in 24 hours? In fact, you can start any all of the projects in our 24 Hour Science Project package today and be finished by this time tomorrow! Get your package NOW!

1. Find out what type of project your science teacher requires. There are many types of projects, and most elementary schools give a range of choices. Does your teacher want an experiment, a demonstration, a collection, a report, or a model? Knowing what kind of project you need will narrow down your choices considerably.

2. Make a list of things that interest your child. What subjects catch your child’s eye on television or in books – space, animals, buildings, computers, explosions? Does your child need instant gratification? Consider a chemistry experiment with dramatic results, such as “Which Fruit has the Most Vitamin C?” Is your child concerned about the environment? Find out which toilet tissue is most biodegradable, or which type of insulation works best.

3. Set your budget for money – and time. If you don’t have a lot of money to invest, and if your time is limited, there is no need to look at anything that requires special metals to be imported from the Far East. Decide on how much cash you’re willing to spend, and create a generous time line for getting supplies. Keep in mind that you have to actually do the project after the supplies arrive.

4. Keep in mind that this is a science project for elementary school. Don’t choose a project with complicated instructions. You want your child to do the project with your help – and not the other way around.

5. Provide four or five science project choices. Ever notice how it takes longer to decide on an ice cream flavor when there are 31 flavors? Give your elementary school child a limited list of science project choices, and you’ll both be happier.

Parents, get a free guide to science projects- including how to find experiments with step by step instructions – at Elementary Science Projects.

Our project guides are easy and fast, and will help you submit an outstanding – and maybe winning – science project for elementary school.

1. Let kids work together on the same project. They can each do the experiment, and will each have to do a science board or report, but you’ll only have to help find one idea and gather the materials from one list. This is the way to go if your kids are in different schools.

2. Use different variables for the same experiment. If you’re comparing amounts of Vitamin C in substances, for example, let one child test various canned fruit juices, and another child test different juices from fresh fruit. The research and procedure is the same, but the experiments are different.

3. Recycle projects. Our family has always done projects together, then saved them in the attic. One year one of our boys used the same experiment his brother had done the year before. We redid the experiment, but reused the science board, simply adding the fresh data and photographs.

4. Submit different types of the same project. If your school science fair allows it, one child can submit and experiment based project, and the other submit a demonstration. For example, one child can demonstrate how to take the shell off an egg without boiling, and another can experiment to see if water goes through the membrane.

Science projects are supposed to be wonderful learning experiences for kids – and they can be. Don’t let your family get bogged down in the process. Look for ways to streamline and coordinate, and make science fair time a fun educational time for your kids.

Get your free parents guide to science projects at http://www.24hourscienceprojects.com. We also have a list of fast and easy science project guides that can be done in a very short amount of time – many of which are easily adaptable for use with more than one child.

One popular project involving chemicals is an experiment determining which fruit or fruit juice has the most vitamin C. A simple indicator is made with cornstarch and iodine. Students (and parents) enjoy watching the chemical reaction that occurs along with titration, which is a fancy way of saying “putting in drops”. This project can be modified in several different ways, allowing your student’s creativity to shine. We get letters from many students telling us that this easy science project was submitted to the fair, and was chosen as a winner.

Another great science project involving a chemical change is watching what happens as yeast ‘eats’ sugar. In this project, warm water and yeast are placed in a bottle with a bit of sugar. A balloon is placed over the mouth of the bottle. As the yeast consumes the sugar, carbon dioxide is released, causing the balloon to blow up. This project is so much fun to watch that our kids did it over and over until we ran out of yeast.

Both of these projects can be done as demonstrations; they offer dramatic reactions that students will be able to observe immediately. Both science projects can also be experiments. They naturally lend themselves to a question, the formation of an hypothesis, and testing. The results can easily be graphed to form a conclusion.

Get step by step instructions for both of these projects at http://www.24hourscienceprojects.com“>24 Hour Science Projects. Along with a FREE Parent’s Guide to Science Fair Projects, we have all sorts of ideas for your scientist, starting at the most elementary, and working up to the more advanced chemical change science projects.

Here’s my response: Remember, an Independent variable is what “I” change. So in this experiment, the independent variable would be the types of fruit. The dependent variable is what changes because of the independent variable (the type of fruit). And since the number of drops depends on the type of fruit, that would be the dependent variable.

Another example, from our guide:

Variables – When doing a science experiment, there are things that you, as the scientist, control to make sure your test results are dependable:
• Independent Variable – The independent variable is the thing that you change in the experiment. All the other things in your experiment should stay the same. For example, in our experiment the independent variable is the type of fertilizer. We’ll use the same kind of pot, soil, and plant. We’ll have the plants get the same amount of light and stay in the same room at the same temperature. We’ll add the same amount of water. The only thing that will change is the kind of fertilizer.
• Dependent Variable – The dependent variable is the thing that changes because of the independent variable. For us, that would be the height of the plant. The height of the plant changed because we changed the type of fertilizer.
• Control – The Control is the group in which nothing changes at all. In the fertilizer experiment, that would be the group of plants that only was given water with no fertilizer.

For more information – including step by step instructions – on this project, check out 24 Hour Science Projects.

Using iodine as an indicator is an easy but fascinating way to show the presence of vitamin C.

If you’re interested in doing this project, visit “24 Hour Science Projects“.

Iodine and vitamin C like each other, and when they are put in the same container, they will combine. When you are adding the iodine to the juice and the starch mixture, as long as there is still vitamin C that has not been combined with the iodine, the color will stay the color of the juice, but after you reach the equivalence point- when you have added as much iodine as there is vitamin C – then the iodine starts combining with the cornstarch. When iodine combines with cornstarch it turns blue.

And if you’re doing our award winning experiment Vitamin “C”itrus, here’s a hint: the more iodine it takes, the more vitamin C there is.

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