Check out these super cool and easy experiments that you can do with just a few simple ingredients! These are great to spark your kids interest in science.
Homemade Lava Lamp SUPPLIES
- Empty plastic container with 1-2” of water at the bottom
- Vegetable oil
- Food coloring
- Alka Seltzer
INSTRUCTIONS
- Fill up the bottle almost all the way with the oil.
- Next, add a little food coloring. Because food coloring is denser than oil it will break through the oil and join the water.
- Now for the fun part: add the Alka Seltzer.
The bubbles are attached to green food coloring as they come up and then the bubble bursts and the food coloring goes back down. You can reactivate with more Alka Seltzer.
Non-Utonian Fluid (AKA Goop!)
SUPPLIES
- 1 ½ cup cornstarch
- ½ cup water
- Food coloring
INSTRUCTIONS
- Pour your cornstarch into a bowl.
- Add your food coloring into the water so it mixes more evenly. Then mix the water in with the cornstarch. Add more water if your solutions start to harden.
Once you’re done it should look like a liquid, but if you try poking it will feel like a solid. Next, try putting your finger in really slowly and it feels like a liquid. The cornstarch molecules are much bigger than the water molecules. When you move slowly they can slide around each other and your finger can get in. If you go really fast the water molecules move really fast and you’re basically hitting solid cornstarch. You can also take a spoon and scoop some out and make a ball. Then when it sits in your hand it starts to melt!
Milk & Soap Mixture
SUPPLIES
- Whole milk
- Dish soap
- Food coloring
- Q-tips
INSTRUCTIONS
- Add the milk to any baking dish. You want about 1” deep layer of milk.
- Add the food coloring. It looks really pretty to add a few different colors together.
- Take a q-tip and dip it in the dish soap and touch the colors anywhere you want.
You know when you’re doing the dishes and dish soap breaks up fat and grease. The same thing happens here. There’s fat in the milk so the dish soap breaks up and dissolves that fat so the food coloring just shows that happening.
The kids loved these science experiments! Hope you give them a try!