|
This week's LabZone activity
Aug. 13, 2003
Eat Your Words
Want to write an unusual letter? Why not pen a brief note on broccoli? Not about broccoli—actually on broccoli! Too bumpy, you say? Not if you turn it into paper.
You'll need:
- an old picture frame (or two the same size, if you have them)
- a piece of nylon or fiberglass screening just a little bit bigger than the frame
- staples, tacks, or waterproof tape
- scrap writing paper
- a bowl
- hot water
- a blender
- warm water
- some raw broccoli
- a plastic washbasin the picture frame will fit into
- two clean kitchen cloths or tea towels
- a table
- a sponge
- an iron
What to do:
- Carefully take any glass or matting out of one picture frame. Stretch the screening over the empty frame and attach it tightly with staples or tacks if your frame is wood, or with the tape if your frame is metal.
- Take the scrap paper, remove any plastic or tape or staples and tear it into pieces about 2 cm x 2 cm (3/4 inch x 3/4 inch). Soak the pieces in a bowl of hot water for half an hour.
- Fill the blender about halfway with warm water. Add a handful of the soaked paper and blend at moderate speed until you no longer see pieces of paper. If it doesn't blend well, turn the blender off, unplug it, and take out some of the paper. (DON'T put your hand into the blender—use a spoon.)
- When the paper is pretty well blended, break up a few pieces of broccoli and add them to the mixture. Blend again until the broccoli is well mixed in. Now you have pulp.
- Fill the washbasin about halfway with warm water. Pour your pulp mixture into the washbasin and stir it around. The more pulp in the water, the thicker your paper will be.
- Lay one kitchen cloth on the table.
- The screened frame is the mold on which you'll make your paper. Hold the mold screen side up with both hands, one on each side, and dip it into the basin. Scoop up some of the pulp onto the screen and lift the mold from the water. Gently shake the mold back and forth to spread the pulp evenly across the screen.
- When the water has drained through the screen, lay the screen face down on the kitchen cloth. Use the sponge to soak up any extra water from the back of the screen.
- Very gently lift the screen up, starting with one corner and gradually tilting it away from the cloth. The broccoli paper should remain on the cloth.
- To dry the paper quickly, cover it with another cloth and iron it at a medium dry setting. Once the top cloth is dry, pull gently on either side of it to stretch it—this helps to loosen the paper from the cloth.
- Gently peel the paper off the cloths and lay it on a flat surface until it's completely dry.
- Use your paper to write to someone who really likes vegetables.
What's the other frame for (if you have one)?
You can use the other frame to help give your paper more even edges. Carefully take out any glass or matting and lay the empty frame on top of the mold. Hold the two frames together as you scoop and shake the pulp. Then lift off the empty frame (called a deckle) before you remove the paper from the mold.
What's happening?
The paper you normally write on is all made with the same basic process that you have just used to make your paper. In paper mills, though, trees are the raw material that is chopped up to make the pulp mixture. It's the fibers in both broccoli and trees (and other plants) that tangle together to make paper. With recycling, old paper is reused to make new paper, just as you have done. Recycling will save our trees to provide oxygen for us to breathe instead of notepaper for us to doodle on.
Activity from Science Express, written by the Ontario Science Centre (http://www.ontariosciencecentre.ca/ ) with illustrations by Vesna Krstanovich, is used by permission of Kids Can Press Ltd., Toronto. Text copyright © 1991 by the Ontario Science Centre.
Talk Back:
Do you have any comments about this activity? Send them
to us using the form below.
|
SNK RSS Feed 
