BASF Kids' Lab

Last weekend Aiden was invited to be a mad scientist for a day!

BASF Kids' Lab is an annual program in Malaysia for kids between 6-12 years old; and best of all, it's free! The interactive educational program allows kids to experience hands on experiments to learn about the fundamental role of chemistry in everyday life.

This year's theme - Clever Foodies, introduced the wonders of chemistry through food. Aiden experienced three different experiments using food, and based on his excited but garbled chatter at the end of the session, I deduced that they tested for the existence of Vitamin C in food.

Experimenting with test tubes, beakers and pipettes.

For the first experiment, Aiden was asked to record the number of drops required to dilute the blue-black colour of the iodine. Using a pipette, he slowly squeezed droplets of lemon and orange juice into the iodine solution. It was so cute watching him shake the test tubes like a proper chemist!

Lemon champion!

For the second experiment, Aiden was given Vitamin C test strips to measure the Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) levels in food. The darker the colour, the better. It turned out, that red pepper was the Vitamin C champion for the day! (Even I didn't know that *chuckles*)

Concentrating intently on the task at hand - squeezing lemon juice!

Unfortunately, I didn't get the details of the third experiment but I'm sure it was equally as interesting as the first two. The moment he walked out of the session, he was chattering non stop, talking about the various vitamins we can find in our daily food. The experiments certainly raised his awareness about healthy nutrition!

The kids were divided into groups. Aiden was Team Papaya.

Ian was too small to join, hence he joined the other parents outside Petrosains, where the event was held.

Thank you BASF, for having us. We will definitely join the next time the BASF Kids' Lab makes a comeback next year.