Friday Fun Science Experiments

Science is a fun and exciting way to learn and explore about the world and the way that things work within the world. Every Friday at St Mary's, the frogs and turtles look forward to exciting science experiments with Mrs Rule. Mrs Rule job shares with Mrs Plowman, but Friday is her domain and she captivates and educates those young minds with pondering thoughts, investigating and the big

"I WONDER WHY???"

Its' a fun day of informal experimentation, generating hypotheses, working with other students cooperatively and of course enjoying what you are doing!

Rainbow Milk was done last term in the Frogs and Turtles Friday Fun Science day, Caleb it enjoyed it so much, that we have repeated the activity at home as well!

How to create Rainbow Milk

1. Add one drop of each food coloring (gently squeeze) into each corner of a bowl (or flat surfaced tray) that is filled with fat milk (skim milk does not work.))

2. Squeeze a drop of dish washing liquid at the edge of the bowl so it can slide into the milk.

3. Watch your swirling colored patterns. Be patient and don't add too much dish wash liquid because too much can actually slow down the swirling effect.

4. As the swirling patterns slow down, squeeze another big drop down the edge of the bowl. Try a different area.

The Science behind Rainbow Milk

This experiment does not work with low fat milk so that would indicate that the tiny fat droplet in the milk are important to creating the swirls of colours.

When the dish was liquid is added to the milk, the chemical bonds of the molecules within the milk are weakened and altered. So these molecules roll and twist in every direction.

By having the food colour in it, we can witness this motion in an array of beautiful colours.

Also, since milk is largely made up of water, it has a surface tension and dish washing liquid is very good at destroying surface tension or the bonds between the water molecules.

The colour show is quite amazing and does continue for some time swirling about!

Caleb ponders "I WONDER WHY???"

Rainbow Milk in action

More Rainbow Milk Examples

Enjoy, Mummy Bourke ~ Science Extraordinaire ...