Be sure to save those leftover turkey or chicken bones for this fun and easy STEM experiment for kids! Help your littlest explorer transform into a mini scientist. Help them plan their science experiment, gather their ingredients and tools, make predictions and analyze the results! This is a great activity to do together during holiday break. Enjoy the exploration and the curiosity that follows!
- Keep some turkey or chicken bones after Thanksgiving dinner and give them a good wash to make sure they are clean. Try bending them - will they bend like rubber or do they snap? They snap! In this experiment, you will try to make the bones bend like rubber.
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Label the jars with the masking tape. Label one Water and the other Vinegar.
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Fill the Water jar about ¾ filled with water and the Vinegar jar ¾ filled with vinegar.
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Drop the cleaned bones inside and make a prediction - which liquid will turn the bones bendy?
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Let the bones sit overnight and, in the morning, take them out and check on them. How have they changed? How have they stayed the same?
- Leave the bones in their jars for about a week and check on them after 3, 5, and 7 days.
- Was your prediction correct? Did you guess that the bones in the vinegar would be able to bend? Why do you think that happened?
- Try this experiment with eggs as well. Eggs have lots of calcium carbonate in their shells, which will react similarly with the vinegar.
- What do you think will happen to the egg if left in vinegar?
- Will it become bendy, or will something else happen?
Click here to download the PDF to Bending Turkey Bones.
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