This year for President’s Day, we talked about the Presidents for which President’s Day was established: Washington and Lincoln. As part of our discussion, we talked about what each of them were known for and what parts of history were important at the time. After some understanding of President’s Day, we then decided to do an activity with coins. We choose a science experiment in learning how best to clean coins. We choose to work with Lincoln on our pennies.
How to Clean Coins
We have been very into the science experiments as of late. My kids have truly enjoyed making hypotheses and then doing the experiment and seeing if they were able to predict correctly. This time we talked about how to clean coins. We picked pennies because we enjoyed learning about Lincoln and pennies seem to show the dirt and wear.
My kids chose multiple different things to try to clean the pennies. The first thing they thought of was soap, then they also thought maybe just some water. They talked about using something that bubbles, like a soda. Then we talked about other cleaning agents, like vinegar and baking soda that we use around the house. We decided to try out each and every one of them. Most of my kids thought soap would get them the cleanest.
Choosing Your Supplies
Below is a list of the things we chose to try to clean the pennies, you could choose other options as well. There is no right or wrong in this situation, it is all about experimenting!
- Baking Soda
- Vinegar
- Dish soap
- Water
- Toothbrushes
- Pennies
How Clean is Your Penny?
Before you keep reading, did you come up with your own hypothesis? If so, what is it? Have you done your own experiment?
In our household, we decided that a combination of baking soda and vinegar was the most effective in getting the pennies clean. Behind that we actually found baking soda alone and then rinsed with water. Followed behind by vinegar alone and soap and water. My kids were relatively surprised that the soap and water didn’t do as much as baking soda and vinegar. It was interesting to see how the different things worked. Don’t worry, we did still talk about how important soap is for us and our hands!!
More experiments here: love potions, rescuing animals, and lights and shadows.
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