The Reader Digests | Science Experiments

Can we eat science experiments?  An exploding volcano model, maybe not - but science experiments made out of food, yes!  In honor of this year's summer reading program, Fizz! Boom! Read!, I present science experiments you can eat (and what we learn from them)!

Discuss the properties of proteins by making egg whites.  According to Vicki Cobb's Science Experiment's You Can Eat, this is a great way to discuss how

germanfood.about.com

the shape of protein molecules plays an important role in determining the reaction.  Egg whites' proteins are like "tiny balls of yarn" and dissolve in water because they are so compact. Beating them = unraveling the yarn. Whoa! Slowly beat in some sugar, which mixes with the water in the egg whites, drop them on a cookie sheet, and heat them in an oven at 175 degrees for 1 hour, then turn it off and leave them in overnight.  The meringues are dried, leaving hard egg whites and sugar.  Yummy!

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Another fun and easy experiment in the book discusses oxidation of fruit.  Take an apple, slice it in half, and place a sliced kiwi on the cut top of one side, leaving the other side of the apple bare (or put a sponge on top).  Which side ends up brown?  This is a great way to introduce the idea of oxidation, and the effects of vitamin C on the browning process.  Make a fruit salad using apples, peaches, and bananas, and mix pieces of one vitamin C tablet (or lemon) on one side and leave the other plain.  What happens? Does vitamin C slow down the oxidation process?  What if you leave part of it at room temperature and put the other in the fridge?

Oh, and could flying pies be a physics lesson?  Definitely!

Of course, the best part about food experiments is eating them afterwards! Visit the library for more books about science experiments with food and don't forget to sign up for our summer reading program beginning on June 1!

The Reader Digests | Pie!

Who doesn't love pie?  I don't know any librarian that doesn't love pie! That's why this summer, we are going to eat pie! Yes, pie!

We are so determined to keep our kids reading this summer that a few dedicated, brave, and perhaps a little hungry library staff have volunteered to get pied!

What is getting pied, exactly? This is getting pied....

You are probably wondering what this is all about.  

Who is going to pie us?  

KIDS, that's who!  

Children at the Chavez, Manteca, and Ripon Libraries will get a chance to pie their library staff under these conditions:

2,500 total books must be logged and read by children at the branch during this year's Summer Reading Program! (Fizz! Boom! Read! June 1 through July 31)

The person must be a child who has completed the program and turned in their reading log.

After 2,500 books are read, the child's name will be drawn at random.

"The Pie-ing" (Doesn't it sounds like a horror movie?) will take place at the last children's Summer Reading Program event at each branch, on July 31.

Kids will pie either Suzy at Chavez (she likes Banana Cream!), Rena at Manteca, Melinda at Ripon, or Tara at Ripon (I'll take Coconut Cream please!).

Starting June 1, read those books and bring on the pie, kids!!! Yummy!