Today we did a really cool milk experiment. We video taped it so you could do it at home with your child. It is simple and so much fun! It is also an art project. I am posting the video and the pictures for your enjoyment. Let me know if you do this at home. This is a great project for one of the rainy days when you are stuck inside this spring.
After we finished showing the children how to do the experiment we let the children perform the experiment themselves. They each got their own pan and filled it half way full with milk. The practiced their fine motor skills by squeezing one or two drops of food coloring into the milk and just one drop of dish soap into the center of the food coloring. They then used their toothpicks to make swirls and lines through the food coloring. They also dropped more plain milk into the swirls of food coloring to see if anything would change. Below are the pictures of the process and the results. The children were so involved and the experiment lasted almost 45 minutes. Who ever said children had short attention spans? It just depends on how interesting and relevant the project is and how involved they are allowed to be in the process.
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| Carefully adding a drop of blue food coloring into the pan of milk. |
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| The food coloring immediately separates and flows to the sides of the pan when the dish soap comes into contact with the milk and food coloring. The concepts of chemical reactions and surface tension are introduced in this activity. |
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| Each child was able to do their own lab experiment. Children need early exposure to math and science and they need to experience science in a way that is hands-on, fun, magical and fascinating in order to create a life long interest in the math and science arts. This early exposure to lab experiences and science vocabulary is crucial to creating students who enjoy and not dread taking math and science classes in middle and high school. |
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| Ta DA! Magic. The star pattern appears as the soap hits the milk and food coloring. |
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| Now the children are adding additional drops of food coloring after the initial experiment had been completed. The new drops no longer scatter when the dish soap is added. Now the colors just merge and swirl. |
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| Milk art. Now our science experiment is becoming an art project. Many times art and science are interrelated. This is way it is critical that art programs remain in school programs. Children become much more involved in scientific concepts when presented in artistic presentations, such as mixing different colors, different textures, solids, structures, sounds. As we erase the arts we also erase math, language and science proficiency. |
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| The children used vocabulary words like swirly, layers, mixing, yucky, cool, crazy, combining, coming together, floating, spreading out, moving and many more as they watched the changes as they added, stirred and mixed the colors. |
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| The more we mixed, the more complex the patterns became. |
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| One child said this looked like a storm cloud. Making these types of comparisons shows the development of higher level thinking and shows that the child is assigning meaning to their art. |
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| The children spent a lot of time trying to find pictures in their milk art. Some saw rainbows, waves, flowers, hearts, butterflies, blood, chocolate milk, clouds, lines, and roads just to name a few. |
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| What do you see when you look at this picture? What can you do with a pan of milk, some food coloring, a few toothpicks and some dish soap? How long can you play with your child, have a conversation, laugh, expand their vocabulary, ask open-ended question, have fun, connect and just enjoy each other's company? I dare you to play in your milk! And don't worry if you spill some, we did! |
