If you want an experiment that will have your kids screaming, “MORE,” this is it!
Materials: Shallow dish, red & green food dye, milk, dish soap, cotton swabs
First, pour a thin layer of milk in your dish.
Next have the kids or yourself put in drops of food coloring.
Third, have your child dip the cotton swab into the dish soap. Finally, have them press it down in one spot and hold it for 15 seconds. An alternative action is to have them let it drip down into the milk/food dye and observe what happens.
My daughter had other questions and we talked about what she thought would happen if she did something in particular (hypothesis). She wanted to use a dropper and see what happened. She also wanted to pour the dish soap in to see what would happen. We did this 3 times emptying & refilling the dish. She would’ve done more if I let her (but we wouldn’t have any milk left)!
My daughter doesn’t understand exactly why things happened in this experiment, but that’s okay. Doing experiments at a young age breeds curiosity and helps them learn to observe.
The explanation is that milk has fat in it. When the dish soap enters the milk, it breaks apart the fat. The soap molecules try to attach to the fat molecules in the milk. You can see what’s happening because of the food dye. Here is more information from Steve Spangler.
Have fun!!
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