Summer Science Experiment #2-Shiny Pennies???

For the past several weeks, I've been trying to ween myself from soda-Diet Pepsi in particular. I love the stuff. I've been drinking it since the day I started working as a teacher's aid for a fifth grade classroom at Lankershim Elementary School. Every morning, I'd stop at 7-11 and pick up my 32 ounces of DP. It was delicious and refreshing. I continued that habit for several years, even in my last year of college. Once I moved to SF, however, it began to die out a bit because, well, there are no 7-11 franchises. Plus, people would look at you funny if you had that much soda to begin with.

In addition, DP is just really horrible for you in so many ways. Especially to your bones. And that's really why I want to kick the habit-I'd like to treat my bones really well so that when I'm 90 and I fall, I'll bounce right back up like a 21 year-old. Boo-ya.

So, this experiment served two purposes:

1. To discover if pennies really look spiffier after a soda bath and....
2. To teach Sam and Izzy about the weird crap soda does to stuff and then make them think "Why would I put that crap in my body?"

Genius, right?

I know.

So.....this experiment required some easy supplies:

If you look closely, you'll see the Lead Scientist flashing a peace sign in the background.

Next, we soaked the pennies for 24 hours in each solution of water, soda, and water plus soap. Alas, after some hard-core scrubbing, we had some results....

Sam was super surprised to see that the soda shined up his dirty pennies:

And, like magic, he uttered this phrase right after he noticed that:

"You know what, mami? You really shouldn't drink that stuff. I mean, did you see what that soda did to the pennies?!? That's crazy!"

Alacazam!!!!!! Man, I'm really brilliant sometimes.