Every Day is a Chance to Learn: An Eggciting Morning!

EGGs-periment!

We had done this little experiment a while ago with chicken eggs. A couple of days back, C requested to run it again. This experiment involves soaking an egg in vinegar for around 24 hours or more, to dissolve the exterior shell. Once the shell has dissolved, the egg membrane is revealed, and it will be translucent! It's pretty cool to touch the soft membrane, and also to be able to observe how the yolk floats around inside!

You will learn about:

1. How acetic acid in VINEGAR dissolves the shell made of Calcium Carbonate

2. How the MEMBRANE of an EGG looks and feels like

3. How an egg soaked in vinegar expands (becomes bigger) because of OSMOSIS

When an egg is placed in vinegar,
the calcium carbonate in the shell reacts with the acetic acid and
releases carbon dioxide (in the bubbles).

After 24 hours, most of the shell has dissolved. If not, replace
with new vinegar and soak until the shell can be washed
and rubbed off under running water.

This morning, the egg was ready! :)

C was excited to touch the soft membrane
of the egg!

You can almost see the egg yolk floating inside!

Next we added food colouring to water
and let the egg sit inside for a few hours.

After a few hours, the egg had absorbed the food colouring.
The egg is also much bigger than its original size.

At this point, C could not wait to bounce the egg around. We did it over a large tray as the thin membrane is the only thing holding the egg white and yolk together.

Comparing the eggs.

C exploring the texture of the membrane.

It bounces really well from a low height.

The next thing C did was to drop it from a high point and watch the membrane break! The egg white and the egg yolk was released. We also observed that the coloured water had travelled into the egg. A great way to introduce the process of OSMOSIS to C!

C picking up the membrane.

The egg white, egg yolk and some of the
coloured water.

C having messy fun!

Meanwhile, C helped me with preparing lunch. She cracked the eggs herself and beat the eggs to prep for egg omelette! C did an awesome job with minimal spillage. Practice really makes perfect! :)