How to Make a Milk Science Experiment for Preschoolers

Science experiments can awaken your preschooler's sense of creativity. Have a try at performing this milk science experiment. Your preschooler will be amazed at the swirls of colors that are created with items found at home. Take your time to explore why this science experiment turns out the way it does. This science experiment will help your preschooler to learn to question why the world works the way it does.

Things You'll Need

• Milk (room temperature)
• Cookie Sheet
• Dish Soap
• Food coloring
• Tooth pick

Instructions

1. Find a cookie sheet or other shallow dish and set it on the table. This experiment works best with a shallow dish.

2. Pour into the cookie sheet room temperature milk, enough that you cannot see the bottom. If you get the milk directly from the refrigerator then you can microwave the milk to room temperature. Make sure your preschooler can see the milk easily in the cookie sheet.

3. Squirt the food coloring around various spots of the milk. It's best to keep the colors close for this experiment.

4. Take a toothpick and dip it into the dish soap and touch it to the milk on the sections with the food coloring. Hold it there for a few seconds, approximately 5 to 10.

5. Remove the toothpick and notice the continuous swirls going on even without the toothpick.

6. Dip the toothpick in the dish soap again and then touch the milk to continue the swirls.

Tips & Warnings

• Try this experiment in water.

• Try this experiment in different types of milk: fat free, 1 percent, 2 percent and whole milk.

• Talk to your preschooler about color transformation. For example, blue and red make purple, yellow and blue make green, yellow and red make orange, and so on.

• A cotton swab can be used in the place of a toothpick.

• Dish soap contains two different characteristics, one is hydrophilic and the other is hydrophobic. These characteristics are polar opposites of each other. When they are placed in milk they weaken the milk's bond and attach to its fat molecules. This chemical reaction causes the milk to swirl.