Mar 26, 2007

Color Mixing Science Experiment

First, an important update - the cob wall is finished!!! (Well, almost ... we just have to nail on the shingles.) Perhaps now the children will stop asking me: "What happened to your hands?" "Did your cats scratch you?" "What is that cut?" The 3 year olds notice everything. And so much for the keeping my precious, presentation-giving hands nice and neat these past three weeks. They have been cut by pine needles and rocks and are so dry that no lotion can keep them from looking like a dry lake bed. However, it was all worth it. The wall is done, and no more horses can eat our little organic garden!

The first leaves have appeared on the young willow tree in our front yard. The colors were very crisp, even on my clunker of a camera.
And speaking of colors, why not post about a color experiment? This idea came to us by a wonderful woman and Mexican Montessori Matriarch, Olga Dantus.

Materials:
2 white trays, one smaller, one larger
a small glass pitcher
three glasses - here I used two tequila shot glasses and one normal glass.
3 half-ounce droppers with diluted food coloring in each - yellow, blue and red. On the outside of the dropper, indicate the color with coordinating electrical tape.
Print outs of the Color Experiment Word document available for download at the Yahoo Group (join by clicking the purple button to the right.)
colored pencils (children can use the metal inset pencils)
NOT SHOWN:
a small sponge
an underlay/mat to protect the table
SHOWN BUT NOT SUGGESTED FOR THE EXPERIMENT:
a fat, yet interested cat

Masking tape indicates the water level.

The droppers remain on the small tray on the shelf. Pick one of the three droppers and add twenty drops of coloring to the first glass. Return the dropper and pick a second color, adding 20 drops of to the second glass. Fill the small glass pitcher with water and fill these two glasses to the line.

Avoid the chubby, nosy cat. And no, the magnificent pink of these photos was not planned. It was brought to you by my "Clunker of a Camera and it's Magnificent Flash."
Fill in the first 2 glasses on the paper with the appropriate colors. When presenting this part, fill in with the same care we use for the metal insets.

Combine the colors by adding them both to the larger glass.
On the paper, fill in the larger glass with the appropriate color.

Send me some pics and a simple presentation write up if you have some good science experiment ideas up your sleeve.

1 comment:

Patrick McElwee said...

The masses demand more cat intrusions.