The "Egg"speriment

Janai turned in her first grade science project today. Perhaps you are thinking the same thing that I was... and the answer is yes, these days kids have science projects in the first grade! And no, you didn't have to do such a thing way back when. Anyhoo... the only instructions were that the project be neat and age appropriate. I don't know about you, but there's something about neat and age-appropriate first grade science that left me a little stumped. But, we finally came up with a project idea for our little scientist. Of course, it ended up being simple kitchen chemistry at it's best.

Problem: Can I remove the shell of a raw egg without breaking the whole egg?

Hypothesis: Right inside the shell of the egg is a part of the egg called the memberbrains (that would be membranes). Memberbraines are tough and there are two of them. if I can remove the shell without breaking the memberbrains, I think the egg will stay together.

Materials: Glass jar, egg, vinegar

Procedure: I cleaned the jar. I filled the jar with vinegar. I added two eggs to the jar filled with vinegar. I let it sit in the refrigerator for 2 days.

Results: See for yourself! The vinegar ate away the shell and I made a naked egg! It feels like jello and I can see the yolk moving around.

It turns out that a second grader also did a naked egg project with a different spin on it. She looked at different liquids that could be used to remove the shell (water, vinegar, sprite) - what an overachiever! Of course, only the vinegar works. It's the 5% acetic acid in vinegar that reacts with the egg shell which is made of calcium carbonate. So she did all of that work for nothing!