Milk and Dish Soap Experiment

This was such a cool experiment! It was actually our second time doing it as we had done it earlier in the week at the BHLC. Even though I had planned the project I didn't take my camera for some reason... I guess part of it was I didn't realize how neat it would be. Anyhoo... we changed up the variables a bit and did it again at home so I could get it on film.

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Basically you pour milk on a plate and add some drops of food coloring. Then you use toothpicks (I've also read that q-tips work) to drip dish soap into the milk and watch what happens. It is literally a color explosion! When we did it the first time we had the kids try water, milk and half and half to see if there was a difference in how they color dispersed and discussed what and why there was a difference. Basically milk is made of water and fat molcules and the dish soap attaches to these molcules which forces them a part. It is literally a boiling effect of sorts. That's a super duper elementary explanation but I'm sure you get the picture and at this stage in the game we're just encouraging an interest in science as well as instilling that girls are every bit as good at experimenting as boys! :)