Sunday, May 25, 2008


SMMART SCIENCE: MILK SWIRLS

This fun science activity intrigued my 3 year old AND my husband!

Pour 2% or whole milk onto a saucer to cover the bottom of the dish. Squeeze a drop of food coloring carefully into the milk. Now squeeze a drop of dish soap into the middle of the drop of food coloring. (It may be easier to dab a little dish soap onto the end of a cotton swab and place that into the center of the food coloring blob.) Observe how the food coloring moves and swirls when encouraged by the dish soap. Try this activity with skim milk and water. Observe how the water-based food coloring moves more freely.

The little blobs of food coloring are sitting, sort of trapped, in the denser milk surrounding them. When the soap is added, the fatty lipids in milk are surrounded by the soap and form little micelles, or spheres of fat surrounded by soap molecules. The soap breaks the surface tension of the milk and allows the food coloring to disperse and diffuse through the milk.(This is the same concept when you are washing your laundry-the soap molecules surround the dirt and the micelles are washed away.)


Schematic of a micelle.
Schematic of a micelle








one site you can view this idea and others:

10 comments:

K.B. said...

You did a great job on GTU! I'm a Utah mom too! Thanks for sharing your blog.

katie said...

This is such a great idea and I also saw you on GTU! Those ladies are so nice huh? I was there 2 wks ago when they had Stephanie Meyer...Thanks for sharing your great ideas for the summer....

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this idea! My kids are gonna love it. I also saw you on GTH. You are so cute. So how do we find your other activities. Do we need to wait for publication? I am a homeschool mom and LOVE scienc and math. They are more like play for me. My kids are 6, 4, 3 and 5 months. Good luck in all you do!

Rarely David usually Lisa said...

Great job on GTU. You were wonderful. I am so glad you have a blog on science. I want to teach my children more experiments. I will be back often. Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge. I even have a jr. high student who will benefit.

amy said...

You did great on GTU! Your blog will be great to add to our Silly Science Tuesday's this summer.

Anonymous said...

I am also a homeschool mom. My sons are 5 and 2 and they are going to love your ideas.
Great job today on GTU!
Thanks for this great blog.

Heather H said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Thank you for your comments. I am excited to post an activity in each area of the SMMART subjects. Science, Math, Music, Art, Reading and Time-out for Skills. I'll post a new activity each week, so check back weekly!

Doney Days said...

Saw you on GTU. Great idea for a blog. I'm excited to check back to get more cool ideas. Thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

These are amazing ideas! A mother of two boys who wants to give them the most knowlegde I can. They will love these. I hope you get a publisher, because I would buy your book in a second. I have you bookmarked and waiting for more great ideas! Thanks!

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