F. U. N with Science F.U.N With Science_1_FINAL_UPDATE v3 | Page 4

Serenity’s
Adventures
T
his is the story of Seren-
ity, who was drinking a
blackcurrant box juice
in her chemistry labo-
ratory one day (which
was against the rules).
Upon being spotted by
her teacher as he en-
tered the lab, Serenity
panicked and dumped
her juice into a nearby
sink. What happened
next amazed her.
The liquid in the sink,
which was originally
purple, began to quick-
ly turn green. Caught
up in her amazement
and forgetting that
she had not only been
caught breaking the
rules but had tried to
avoid getting caught
by spilling her juice,
she approached her
teacher and asked
him to explain the re-
action she had seen
in the sink. Her teach-
er was still upset that
she had been drinking
in the lab when she
should not have been,
but was pleased by the
opportunity she had
given him, by providing
the perfect teaching
aid to explain the topic
for the day: acid-base
indicators.
The teacher proceed-
ed to divide the class
into small groups and
gave each group three
(3) test tubes each.
He then proceeded
to give each group
three samples, an acid
(HCl), water (H 2 O) and
a base (NaOH). Each
group was given a
small volume of black-
currant juice to add to
each of the test tubes.
In each case, the stu-
dents recorded what
happened when the
juice was added to the
samples: it retained its
purple colour when
added to the acid or
water, while it turned
green when added to