Activity 1:

Materials:
● 1 lie/ lemon OR sour orange
● 1 teaspoon of baking soda
● 1 clear (transparent) cup/ container

Instructions:
1. With Supervision of an adult. Cut the lime or sour orange in half.
2. Squeeze the juice from the fruit into the container
3. Slowly sprinkle the baking soda into the fruit juice
4. Make observations.

Once you have completed this task, fill in the following table with 3 observations that you
made: for example: Did the baking soda disappear/dissolve? Was something new formed?
Did the reaction happen fast or slow? Was there a colour change? Did the baking soda and
lime mixture become warm or cold? and so on …

Observations made
There was a lot of fizzing
1.

The colour changed to yellow.

2.

The mixture became cold

3.

The reaction happened quickly.

4
Review questions:

1. What did you understand by the skill - observations? Give examples.

The ability to recognize, analyse, and recall your surroundings using all five of your senses is referred to
as observation skills.  Sometimes don’t touch or taste anything because it can be dangerous. E.g. A
scientist looking at a chemical reaction in an experiment. An astronomer looking at the night sky
and recording data regarding the movement and brightness of the objects he sees.

Content:
Instructions: Read along the notes and tips and conduct the activities for each skill.
 Observation

 Inference and prediction

 An inference is an explanation based on an observation. It is a link between what is

observed and what is already known, but not really seen at the moment.
 Example – a friend gives you a box of Winterfresh – you infer it has a chewing
gum inside, even though the box is not sealed. Your friend is just trying to prank
you by giving you an empty box.
 A Prediction it is an educated guess based on good observations and inferences about
an observed event or prior knowledge. 
Example – Your friend snaps open a new box of winter fresh and hands you a rapped
winterfresh straight of the box. You predict it has a chewing gum because of what you
observed happening.

Activity2:
Remember that inferences are made by using your previous knowledge along with your
observations to come up with an explanation for what occurred.
In this case, the previous knowledge will be provided:
Acids and bases are two types of chemicals with specific properties. Some of these properties
are:
 An ACID tastes sour, and when in strong enough concentrations, can irritate the nose
when smelled.
 A Base feels slippery to the touch and can taste bitter.

When some acids and bases are mixed, they can react vigorously.
- Based on your previous knowledge AND the observations made in
Activity 1, can you tell which substance used is the acid and which is the base?
- Can you give an explanation to your answers?
 In the Space below, write which is the acid and the based and shortly explain why.

ACID: The lime is the acid because it tastes sour and can irritate the nose when smelled. 

BASE: The baking soda is the base because it feels slippery tastes bitter. 

- Make a prediction based on your observations and what you know.

What would happen if:

o instead of using fruit juice for our experiment, we used vinegar (an acid)
o instead of using an open container, we used a small (0.5 liter) bottle with a
narrow mouth opening and we fill the bottle about halfway full of the vinegar.
o Then we add a tablespoon of baking soda and quickly cover the mouth of the
bottle with a balloon.

Prediction: The carbon dioxide will inflate the balloon.  

Assignment: Complete the lab if you didn’t. Also, look around your yard and try to locate at
least three different types of broad leaf. You will need four different types of leaf for our next
class.

 A ruler is required for measurement taking.