Science: Moving Glitter

We talked about surface tension today and did a fun experiment Magic Moving Milk and then I found this experiment.

What you need:
water
shallow dish or plate
glitter (lots and lots of glitter)
dish soap

Put water on the plate.

I let each child add a few pinches of glitter to the water.  We talked about why the glitter floated and they each said surface tension. {BOOM, retaining knowledge}.

I see now that I chose the wrong plate. I needed to use a white plate. There are pinches of glitter there.

{I asked all the questions that the lady with this science experiment asked her students. Considering, I don't know anything about surface tension, really}

I asked them what they think would happen if I added soap to the water and broke the surface tension. They each were a little stumped because in the Magic Moving Milk experiment, the colors started moving and blending together..."this glitter won't do that momma, it will just sink"-Austin.

I added the soap and WHOOSH, the glitter moved to the sides of the plate. They were shocked and suddenly started asking a ton of questions.  I told them that since the surface tension broke it "grabbed the glitter and ran away with the glitter to the sides of the plate".  This is exactly what happened and they loved it.

We added a ton more glitter. We covered the surface of the plate. This time, however, when I added the soap, there was no where for the glitter and water molecules to go to so it just stayed in the same place. Essentially, we created a sort of glitter traffic jam. I forgot to take pictures of this traffic jam, because I too, was a little amazed.

I loved finding the Science for Kids Blog this morning and plan on doing a few more activities from her site.

Enjoy,
Crystin

Science: Magic Moving Milk

Today we did two experiments that were centered around surface tension.  The first was Magic Moving Milk!  The boys were pretty shocked at the end result. They had no idea what was going to happen.

What you need:
Milk (I used 2%, I have read to use whole, but we don't drink it)
food color
dish soap
shallow dish or plate

Put some milk on the plate or shallow dish. You don't need a lot, just enough to cover the bottom and about 1/2 and inch up the sides. Have the kiddos add  one drop at a time of food coloring to their plates.

In the middle of the plate add one to two drops of dish soap and watch it change!

 Then I just gave them a popsicle stick and let them move the colors around and swish them until they made their own colors.

Science behind this experiment: Milk is made up of molecules that basically "hold hands" or stick together.  These molecules form what is called surface tension.  Things will float on water until the surface tension is broken (dish soap).  Soap breaks the surface tension of the milk, thus the colors meld together and move around.

Enjoy,
Crystin

Science: Dancing Raisins

This was actually a really fun science experiment that we did today.  I bought some sprite so we could make some Gummy Bear Popsicles {considering it's hot as Hades out there around the South}. I have had the Dancing Raisins Experiment pinned on Pinterest for MONTHS, and just decided it was time to try it out.

What you need:
A clear glass
raisins ( we used 10)
Sprite

Fill the glass with room temperature Sprite about 3/4 of the way full and add the raisins one at a time.  The raisins will rise and fall back down for about 5 minutes. We didn't make it the full 5 minutes because my boys wanted to drink their Sprite.

There was no keeping our hands out of the sprite.

Dance, Dance little raisin

The Science behind this experiment: Soda is full of Carbon Dioxide. The Carbon Dioxide forms little bubbles around the raisins that make them rise. When the bubbles break at the surface, it allows the gas to escape and the raisin falls back to the bottom of the cup, only to have more Carbon Dioxide attach to it. Rinse and Repeat.

{Our word of the day is Carbon Dioxide....} I took a cute video of Lucas trying to say Carbon Dioxide, but can't figure out how to load it with sound.

Enjoy,
Crystin

Tea Bag Rocket

What you need:
a tea bag (the large Luzianne tea bags worked better for us, we tried multiple)
scissors
a plate
a lighter

Remove the staple, string and paper from the tea bag with the scissors and dump out the tea into another container or the garbage (you will not need it).
Unfold the tea bag and open it up to form an empty cylinder that you can see all the way through.
Stand the tea bag cylinder up right on a non-flammable surface. I used a plate.
Light the "rocket" and watch your kid's faces.

**we did ours inside. We tried to do it outside, but the slightest breeze will knock it over. You need no breeze whatsoever. Don't worry, the rocket extinguishes itself in the air**

We learned how warm dense air rises above the cooler air and that's why the rocket floats up.  There's a lot more information you can teach your kids about this experiment, but my boys were too darn excited to try it again and again.  You can find out more about this experiment here.

I took a video of this, but unfortunately I can't find it! I will upload it once I do.

Enjoy,
Crystin