Color Changing Milk Experiment

Frosty the snowman is back, and he loves science too! Winter science is a great opportunity to explore our Frosty’s magic milk science project with the kids for fun theme science this season. Try some simple winter science experiments regardless of the weather outside!

Set Up Easy Winter Science Experiments

Simple science can be explored all year round with fun themes to make it new and engaging each time! Even something as simple as adding a cookie cutter creates a sense of excitement for young kids.

Winter science experiments are perfect for easy indoor activities for those cold winter days!

Kids are curious creatures and sharing fun and simple science activities at home or in the classroom is just another way to spark the fun in learning. We prefer to keep our science playful too!

Add some blue food coloring to a bowl of milk, and then explore what happens when you add dish soap to the mix. This experiment is a demonstration of principles like surface tension, emulsification, and molecular movement, rather than a traditional chemical reaction.

TIP: Encourage your kids to pay attention to the changes happening in front of them and describe what they see. This is practicing an essential skill in scientific inquiry. Learn more about making observations.

What is Chemistry?

What is chemistry? Let’s keep it basic for our younger or junior scientists! Chemistry is all about the way different materials are put together and how they are made up, including atoms and molecules.

It’s also how these materials act under different conditions. Chemistry is often a base for physics, so you will see overlap!

What might you experiment with in chemistry? Classically, we think of a mad scientist and lots of bubbling beakers, and yes, there are reactions between bases and acids to enjoy! Also, chemistry involves matter, changes, solutions, and the list goes on and on.

We will be exploring simple chemistry you can do at home or in the classroom that isn’t too crazy but is still lots of fun for kids!

You can check out more chemistry activities here.

FREE Printable Winter STEM Activities Guide!

Color Changing Milk Winter Experiment

If you want to make this truly a science experiment, you need to change one variable. What variable could you change? The type of milk? Explore other milk varieties, including reduced-fat milk, heavy cream, and even alternative milk! Learn more about choosing variables.

Supplies:

• Full Fat Milk
• Blue Food Coloring
• Dawn Dish Soap
• Cotton Swabs
• Snowman Cookie Cutter (Snowflakes work too!)

Instructions:

STEP 1: Pour your milk into a baking dish or flat bottom surface. You don’t need a lot of milk to cover the bottom and then some. Then, place the snowman cookie cutter in the milk.

Your kids will probably want to try this fun experiment over and over again!

STEP 2: Next you want to fill the top of the milk with drops of color! Go ahead and mix them all up.

You could also throw some glitter in there too, but that’s optional.

STEP 3: Pour a bit of dish soap into a small bowl. Next, touch your cotton swab tip to the dish soap to coat it. Then bring it over to your milk dish and gently touch the swab to the surface of the milk! What happens?

Make sure to read the science below to learn more about this cool chemical reaction between the milk and the soap.

Remember, you can repeat this simple color changing milk experiment with different types of milk. What happens? Do you get the same effect or does it change?

ALSO CHECK OUT: Easy Science Fair Projects

The Science of Color Changing Milk

This magic milk science project gets it’s burst of color from chemistry…

Milk contains water, fats, proteins, and other substances. The fat molecules in the milk are key to the experiment.

The surface of the milk has a property called surface tension, which is like an invisible layer that holds the molecules together. It keeps the milk from overflowing when poured into a glass. Learn more about surface tension here.

When you touch the soapy cotton swab to the surface of the milk, the soap molecules start to interact with the fat molecules in the milk.

Soap molecules have a hydrophilic (water-attracting) end and a hydrophobic (water-repelling) end. The hydrophobic end of the soap molecule tries to push away from the water in the milk. This disrupts the surface tension of the milk.

As the soap molecules interact with the fat molecules, they surround the fat globules in the milk. The soap molecules pull the fat molecules away from the surface of the milk.

The soap molecules effectively create an emulsion by surrounding the fat globules. An emulsion is a mixture of two immiscible liquids, like oil and water. In this case, the fat in the milk is emulsified by the soap.

As the soap disrupts the surface tension, the fat molecules in the milk move around. This movement is visible as the swirling and mixing of colors.

The water-based food coloring moves along with the fat molecules. As a result, you see vibrant, dynamic patterns forming in the milk.

All the fat molecules have been found when there is no more movement. Are there any more hiding? Try another q-tip dipped in soap! 

More Fun Winter Science Activities

Click on each of the links below to find more fun ways to explore winter, even if it isn’t winter outside!

• Engineer your own snowball launcher for indoor snowball fights,
• Creating a winter snow storm in a jar.
• Exploring how polar bears stay warm.
• Fishing for ice cubes indoors!
• Creating a snowflake salt painting.
• Explore winter bubble science.
• Whipping up some snow slime.

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