{Extra Gross} Naked Egg Experiment

This egg experiment is awesome.   It magically transforms an ordinary egg to a large naked egg through this egg science project that kids will love.   Kids Activities Blog is always excited when household items hold magical science powers!

We made a Naked Egg!

For Science, we are learning about the “building blocks of life” – aka Cells – this year with the kids.     This is the best science experiment for kids EVER!     We used this “naked egg” project along with the song about cells (featured at the end) to learn the parts of our cells.

The kids were able to identify cell parts by physically seeing, smelling, touching, and even tasting – ewwww!   We put the egg in vinegar.

Egg Experiment

As the shell of the egg is made of calcium (a base, one of the primary ingredients in antacids), it breaks down with fizzles and bubbles when it is in contact with an acid.   Vinegar is an acid.

We took our egg and dropped it lightly into a jar of white vinegar.   After about 15 min it starts to bubble – just like when vinegar is dripped on baking soda – after about 8 hours the egg starts to spin as the gasses are released from the egg shell.

It is so pretty to see the dancing egg.

Due to osmosis, the cell – aka egg – absorbs the liquid and will start to swell.   Parts of the egg shell will crack and dissolve.

After three days, you will have a completely naked egg!

Naked Egg – ewwwww!

Once your egg has lost its shell, be very careful with it.   The membrane is very soft and permeable.   We actually broke on of the eggs in our experiment during out photo shoot.

The naked egg is so squishy and slimy feeling – your kids will love it!   As they hold it, identify the parts of your egg.   There is the membrane – it holds the egg together.

We compared the membranes of a fresh egg, a burst naked egg and an egg that was sitting in sugar water.   The differences and similarities are astounding.   We found the nucleus – the command center or the brain of the cell- it is where RNA is replicated.   The cytoplasm was easy to find, it is the “white” of the egg.   In a chicken egg, the vacuole and Golgi bodies are inside the yolk.

Egg Science Project

Look at how much bigger the egg is after it absorbed all the fluid.   For another fascinating experiment (if only we had more eggs, we burst a couple and didn’t have enough leftover), put the swollen naked egg into corn syrup and watch it deflate.

The opposite of osmosis will occur and the liquid will leave the cell, leaving a brownish shriveled egg.   So interesting to literally watch what eating too much sugar does to us!

More Egg Science

Here is a great song that we used to learn the parts of a cell.

Have you done a science experiment with your kids?

I’d love to read about it!This science experiment was inspired by this egg experiment.   We featured it last year in our Silly Science Experiment collection.   Thanks Emma for sharing the details with us so we could remove our own egg shell!

More Kids Activities

This naked egg experiment is a great way to for kids to see science at work first hand.   For more science experiments for kids, check out these other ideas:

• Rotting Pumpkin Science Experiment
• Science Experiment with Baking Soda and Vinegar
• Science for Kids: Make a Balance

Did you know? We wrote a science book!

Our book, The 101 Coolest Simple Science Experiments, features tons of awesome activities just like this one that will keep your kids engaged while they learn. How awesome is that?!