Relate the chemistry you will explore in your experiments to everyday situations, as this gives your elementary students a peg upon which to hang the lessons they are learning. For example, carry out an experiment to make a red cabbage solution as a pH indicator. Print out a large pH scale and pin it to the classroom notice board so students can see the different colors and the 1-to-14 scale. Call out the names of different household substances, such as vinegar, lemonade, water and bleach, and ask students to raise their hands if the substance is acidic or alkaline. Ask them to guess the pH of each substance.
Introduce your elementary students to the concept of drafting an experiment proposal, which will become increasingly important as they progress into higher levels of education. Briefly tell students about the different subheadings in an experiment proposal and the importance of health and safety. For example, students completing a project comparing the performance of different brands of laundry detergent would include in the proposal details of the experiment procedure --- creating stains on pieces of cloth, applying different detergents and washing. Students should also write about health and safety concerns, such as the potential harm of accidentally ingesting detergent or getting it in their eyes.
Challenge your students to think about the importance of following a strict experiment procedure when completing a chemistry project. Experiment procedures contain specific instructions, measurements and health and safety warnings, all of which should be followed. Use an experiment to test the effectiveness of using dishwashing detergents in different types of water to demonstrate the importance of accuracy in experiments. For example, prepare detergent solutions with distilled, tap, and bottled mineral water. Give instruction that if a student accidentally uses carbonated water, the experiment would generate unexpected results. Furthermore, these experiment instructions will also contain a warning about ingesting or contacting the eye with detergent.
Teach your elementary scientists the best practices for displaying experiment results. Introduce an experiment to test several different liquids, such as freshly squeezed fruit juice, organic fruit juice, soda and tonic water, for the weight of sugar each contains. Design a pair of posters, one with no graphs or photographs and large blocks of unbroken text and another displaying a bar chart with the weights of sugar in different liquids and photographs of the experiment in progress. Hang the two posters and ask your students to indicate which poster looks better and is easier to understand.