Have Fun with Firework Science!
Topics: Second Grade, Science, July 4th/Independence Day
For most kids, Fourth of July fireworks are a highlight of the holiday. Who doesn't love those magnificent and exciting explosions of color? This activity is a great way for your child to make her own fireworks, without the danger of course, and celebrate the holiday with a bang! Your child will have fun and she'll even learn some science too!
You Will Need:
- Large, tall clear glass jar filled with water—half a gallon or more works best!
- Blue, red and yellow liquid food coloring
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
- Small jar
- Spoon or stir stick for mixing
- Clear Pyrex measuring cup
What to Do:
- Fill a large clear glass jar—half a gallon or larger—with plain water. Place it on a table where your child can watch it from several angles.
- Invite your child to pour 2 tablespoons of oil into a clear Pyrex measuring cup. (Remember: measuring is a core science and math skill in elementary school, and there’s no such thing as too much practice.)
- Now help your child put in about 5 drops each of red, blue, and yellow food coloring into the oil. Stir each color into the oil.
- Have your child pour the oil onto the water in the jar all at once. At first, the oil will be spread around in globules, but keep watching: right before your eyes, the oil and food coloring will first float to the top, and then the globs will “find” one another and come together.
- Now it’s time for even more fun as the “fireworks” begin! The food coloring will begin to separate from the oil and move back into the water, in long streams of each of the three colors. The colors will separate from one another as if they never mixed in the first place, and stream through the water in the three original colors that you began with. For both adults and kids alike, the results can be mesmerizing.
What's Going On:
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Comments from readers
Thanks very much for the great idea. : )
3rd grader Eva says, "They looked kind of like fireworks. If you stir it all together again at the end, it turns blackish green! "
1st grader TJ says, "it was weird and sort of cool because at the first part it looked like squids and jelly fishes were going up - and also at the end of the jellyfish part they started to look like comets"
Also noticed that some colors disperse more quickly than others which lead to some creative guesses as to why.
What was fun at the end was their reaction when I showed them what adding a single drop of dish soap to the top would do to the oil. I had cheers for "Again! Again!"