Our Naked Egg

Our latest experiment has been with an egg.  It is still sitting in the window sill and may undergo some more transformations, but we may have to part with it soon.

This experiment is called the Naked Egg.  Last year we learned about bones, calcium and the effect that an acid has on the base of calcium.  This reiterated all that, but also reinforced what we are learning now about animal cells and animal reproduction.

We submerged the egg in vinegar for a few days and the vinegar removed the shell of the egg, leaving only the membrane.  The above pic is right after we submerged our egg the first time.

Clara is now holding the naked egg (and actually managed to not destroy it!).  Don’t you just love her outfit!!  She certainly has her own style—I love it! 

We then talked about osmosis and the membrane being semipermeable and what would happen if we put it in water with food coloring.  This is the egg after a day in blue water.  The egg is not dyed blue, but rather has taken in the blue water and the blue is coming from inside. 

The next step is do deflate the egg by putting it in a denser liquid and the egg with release the water to equalize inside and outside.  I do not have Caro syrup and tried oil.  That has not worked—but it is cool in that the egg has released some water and it is surrounding the egg since it will not mix with the oil.  It did not release much of the water though—but we can still see how this worked.  I’m not thinking I am going to wash the thing off and do another liquid, so this may be the end of the egg—but I haven’t ditched it yet, so you just never know….