A Colour Symphony!
Over the next few weeks my 123s and I are learning about the scientific method so that we can do our own mini science projects for the science fair at the beginning of March. As a class, we wrote our materials, the procedure, our predictions, our observations and the conclusion/explanation for the experiment we did this morning called “A Colour Symphony”.
Materials:
- A flat tray (like a cookie baking tray)
- Food colouring (we used 4 different colours)
- Whole milk – low fat milk will not work for this experiment
- Dish soap
Procedure:
- Carefully pour the milk into the tray so that it just covers the bottom
- Add about 6-8 drops of different coloured food colouring onto the milk in different spots
- Add ~5-7 drops of the liquid soap onto the drops of food colouring
- To clean up, pour the coloured milk down the drain
Prediction: “the colours will swirl together”, “nothing will happen”, “the soap is heavy”
Observation: when the dish soap is added….”All of the colours scatter out at once”, “tie dye!”, “creates rings of colour”, “beautiful colors”
Explanation: Dish soap goes after the fat and breaks it down. Usually the fat is on dishes from the food we eat, but fat is also in whole milk. When you drop the liquid soap onto the tray, it tries to break down the fat in the milk. While it was doing that, it causes the colours to scatter and mix creating a colour symphony!