Mikro had his second chemistry class, which was about kitchen chemistry, using food ingredients. I stressed over his allergies, but was happy to see that there were ingredients that he could safely experiment with, while avoiding his allergens. There were a bunch of food items that a mystery substance was added to. The kids were asked to observe the result, and hypothesize about what the mystery substance was, and what it was being used to do. It was iodine, and it is used to test for starch. It reacts to complex sugars by turning black. The straight sugar turned a little orange. Things like goldfish crackers and rice turned black. Lentils showed no change. They talked about how every day there are chemical reactions occurring inside our bodies, including digestion. And their take home project is a working model (sort of) of the digestive tract. It's a mylar bag that you squeeze food through. I am sure it will be messy and fun.
Art class was making an abstract painting in the style of Piet Mondrian. Mikro went absolutely nuts with the masking tape...
Afterwards, we headed over to Central Park for NYCHEA's annual Not Back to School Picnic. It was our first year. Mikro had an absolute blast with the other kids.
