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.
Blogger Templates