The *All Seasons* Science Club is a collection of fun, kid-friendly science experiments and STEM projects explained.
As school ends, millions of kids are released from a strict schedule of learning and innovating. As a kid who grew up with a science teacher mom, and an engineering dad, I spent my summers doing science experiments and STEM projects. I came out of every summer with many new skills and knowledge of the world around me. Now, working with young kids at the library, I teach these experiments to others.
The best part of living in New Hampshire is the leaves changing colors in the fall. Like Lorelei Gilmore in the TV show Gilmore Girls says, “I love fall, it's when the whole world changes color.” Every mountainside is covered, and the roads on my way to school are so bright and amazing. It's amazing that death creates something so colorful.
The actual science of the leaves changing color is that they are dying and losing some of the chlorophyll in the leaves in breaking down. The green of the leaves is because of the large amount of chlorophyll in the leaves, blocking all of the other pigments in the leaves from showing through. As the weather starts getting colder and the sun is out less, the chlorophyll gets absorbed into the leaf, and the other colors start to shine through. The chemicals in leaves that make the yellows, oranges, and reds are called carotenoids. These are masked in the summer months but turn into anthocyanins when the chlorophyll starts to disintegrate. Different types of trees all have different amounts of chlorophyll, which means they turn different colors and at different rates.
To see the different pigments in leaves, we can do an experiment by extracting the pigments with acidic liquids.
Materials
Leaves – both green and colored
Nail polish remover or rubbing alcohol
Tall cups
Paper towel or coffee filter cut into long, 2-inch wide strips
Tape
A stick
Experiment
Get your cups ready by filling up the cups with some rubbing alcohol or nail polish remover. Tear paper towels into strips about an inch thick.
Gather some leaves from outside. Make sure you have some of the dead, colorful leaves and some leaves that are still green.
Tear the leaves into pieces and put each one into its own cup. Mash the leaves with the stick into the rubbing alcohol or nail polish remover.
Now, you can either cover the cups with plastic for a couple of days. When you're ready to put the paper towels in the cups, tape them to the side so half of the strip is in the cup, and half is hanging over the side.
The paper towel will start to absorb the color, and you can start to see the color extracted from the levels. This is the pigments in the leaves.
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