Brandt has chemistry this year. It's been a struggle. For extra credit, over spring break and in anticipation of Easter, Brandt could dye Easter eggs using natural products to make the different colors. Today I helped him get that going.
Brandt chose to do four different colors, mostly because we had the necessary "ingredients" on hand. He chopped up red cabbage to make blue, beets to make red, spinach to make green, and then used turmeric to make yellow. He let the various stuff steep in water, then after a time, poured the colors into deep mugs, added some vinegar, and then dropped in the eggs. He left them sit on the counter for a long time, trying to soak up as much color as possible.
The end results were not bad. The blue, red, and yellow all turned out great. The green was pale and sickly. We should probably have used kale instead of spinach as that might have made it a bit darker, but all in all, the process was a success. And Brandt got the extra credit, boosting his grade out of failing range.
