Kids Science Project Idea – Green Eggs

This science project is unique as you will turn an egg green but how it happens is very interesting and a great demonstration experiment.

Things you will need for the science project.

• An egg
• Red cabbage
• A pan
• A pot
• A bowl
• Oil
• A parent to help

You are going to make a green egg and cook it, but you will not be using any food coloring or anything green. Let us get to the experiment and we can discuss the results and hypothesis later.

Take the red cabbage and cut into slices as if you were making cole slaw. You will not need a great deal of cabbage. A cup or two should do the trick. Place the cabbage shreds into the pot and pour in a cup of water. If you are using more cabbage you may want a little more water. You do not need a lot. Turn on your stove top and leave on high or a fairly high heat. Let the cabbage cook for a bit. This could take ten to fifteen minutes. You want to get the water to turn a nice purple red color from the cooked cabbage. We will then use the water from the cabbage. Once the cabbage has cooked and the water is a very dark purple color you are ready.

Take your fresh egg and crack it. Separate the yolk into a small bowl and the white into a little larger bowl. Now take a spoonful of the red water from the cabbage and put into the bowl with your egg white and use the spoon or a fork to stir it up.

Heat up your skillet or pan and place a small amount of oil in the pan as you will be cooking the egg and need to keep it from sticking. When the pan is heated pour the colored egg white into the pan. You will notice the egg white is green. You can also put the yolk on top of the egg white now to cook both together.

This will be cooked sunny side up because you do not want to flip it over as you want everyone to see the green coloring. When done you can obviously eat the egg. There is nothing wrong with it because the coloring was added by the cabbage.

Why did this happen? You took the purple coloring from the cabbage and put it in the egg white and it turned green. You did not have the yolk involved in this. You only added the yolk after the white was cooked to finish the complete egg.

Why did this green coloring happen? What chemical process occurred? Was there any change in the egg shite itself?

This is a great science project for chemistry class in high school.