Fun Science! Color Changing Milk

I'm a fan of Steve Spangler. I love his science experiments. They are wacky, easy, and very educational. I will preface this post by saying we follow the Sonlight science curriculum and supplement with Magic School Bus books/videos, etc..., but this week I just felt like doing something random and fun - turns out those are usually the things the kids remember and learn the most from.

This color changing milk experiment only required a few things: milk, food coloring, cotton swabs, and dish soap. I had all of those things on hand already, so we were set. To prepare, I watched this video:

I gathered the supplies:

First we tried the experiment with whole milk and it worked really well!

Next, we changed one variable (the type of liquid) and used 2% milk. It worked, but not quite as well as with the whole milk.

Finally, we changed the same variable again and used water. It didn't work at all!

I didn't have the kids write anything while we did this... I just wanted them to have fun and experiment! I did, however, talk to them about some basic principles of conducting an experiment:

• making predictions
• changing just ONE variable (this was our liquid)
  
• drawing conclusions
  

Steve Spangler does a great job in the video explaining what was going on during the experiment. My children and I watched the video after we had finished. They went on to pick out more experiments on his site they would like to try.

Each day we educate at home I can see the spark in my children's eyes get brighter, and they are becoming more self-motivated. Activities like this one foster their love of learning and curiosity.
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Comments

[Amy]

thanks so much for sharing this! my son is a bit young to understand the meaning behind it all, but I know he'll love doing the experiment. I'm going to try it this week!

[Rebecca (me!)]

Ooooh....looks like fun. I wonder how it would work on WHOLE/RAW milk. We will have to try this...we have raw/whole milk....

[melanie]

That is a very cool experiment!! I'm making a list ... lots of fun things to try!

[Dorie]

Fabulous way to introduce changing one variable in a science experiment. I'll have to pick up some whole milk and try it out with my children.

[Jessica S.]

Thank you for posting! Looks like a great experiment to do and with just a few ingredients! ;) Thank you also for the wonderful video to accompy it! :) We just might have to do this one soon. ;)

[Jolanthe]

This looks like a fun experiment. Love the colors mixed in with the milk ~ we use raw milk, so we'll have to see how it works!

[Lora @ my blessed life]

Very interesting! I'll have to remember this one!

[Marla]

What a fun and easy activity for learning! Thank you for sharing!